Mel Cooke, STAR Writer

Ibo Cooper. - File

As Ibo Cooper started the final phase of Sunday night's tribute to Johnny 'Dizzy' Moore, he told a suitably windy tale about the late Skatalites trumpeter.

He told those gathered at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, UWI, Mona, that he had the honour of playing on Moore's last album at the Leggo studio on Orange Street. Cooper said when he asked Moore why he had started making music again the hornsman replied: "Ibo, I notice sey de yute dem stop whistle."

The wind of melodies which Moore loved so much carried him home on the second night of a two-part musical tribute, the first was being held at the Ashanti Oasis Restaurant, Hope Gardens, the previous night. There were the saxophones of Lester Sterling and Cedric Brooks, individually and also as part of the Skatalites, the flute and saxophone of Pape, the melodica of Cooper, Nambo Robinson's trombone and Sting Ray's trumpet, among other hornsmen.

Of course the wind was not alone. Dale Brown on bass, Marjorie Whylie on keyboards and Desi Jones on drums supporting Sterling's Song for my Father and Brooks' Journey, which ended with Sattamassagana. Lloyd Knibb was on drums for the Skatalites, Ken Stewart handling the keys, while M'Bala stomped his way rhythmically off-stage with a jangling tambourine attached to a sandal after his musical partner Pape had exited in the other direction.

Students step up

There was little by way of vocals, a singer helping out Sterling on Bangarang but, coming up to the close, Cooper introduced two of his students from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. They honoured two Jamaican musical standouts whose wind was in their voices.

Serena stepped briskly on stage to do Phyllis Dillon's Don't Stay Away, Cooper and Brooks providing some wind, while Phoebe gave Silhouette, done over in reggae by Dennis Brown, the R&B and then the rockers treatment.

In the early going, the drummers from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church held a steady beat, Rivers of Babylon among the chants which went up and one man singing a song specially composed for Dizzy Moore.

And before Herbie Miller, who hosted the tribute, did the countdown to the Skatalites Freedom Sounds he asked, he mused, "but then, who are the Skatalites today?".

He named some members of the famed outfit who have passed on, saying, "Jackie Mittoo, Tommy McCook, Roland Alphanso, today Dizzy Johnny, we have sent them all home. They were called and they had to go."