Winston Jarrett & The Righteous Flames

Winston Jarrett was born in 1944 in Lime Tree Gardens in the parish of Saint Ann and moved at age five to the notorious Jonestown section of Kingston’s notorious western slum, Trenchtown. By the early sixties, Winston was living on Fourth Street in a yard shared by Alton Ellis, who with Eddie Perkins had recorded many sides for Sir Coxsone during the earliest years of the Jamaican music business. When Eddie left for America circa 1965, Alton recruited Winston Jarrett and Eggar Gordon (Baby Gee) to form a new harmony group, Alton & The Flames. After several months of intense practice, they auditioned at Duke Reid’s studio and won the enthusiastic endorsement of Leroy ‘Cuttings’ Cole, Reid’s number one selector.

They were soon recording a series of classic rock steady anthems, and went on to score an extraordinary number of chart hits with songs like ‘Cry Tough,’ ‘Dance Crasher,’ ‘The Preacher’ (a Jarrett composition), and ‘I Have Got A Date.’ After recording nearly forty tunes for Duke Reid, the group was lured away by Sir Coxsone who produced ‘I’m Still In Love’ and other hits. In 1969, Alton toured England and decided to move there.

With Alton’s departure, Winston reformed the group as The Righteous Flames with harmony from Baby Gee. They recorded six songs including ‘Gimme Some Sign’ for Prince Buster, before moving back to Coxsone’s Studio One where they cut classics like ‘Ease Up,’ ‘You Don’t Know,’ and ‘Born To Be Loved.’ The Studio One sides were issued in Jamaica as the Righteous Flames, but were released in England under the name Righteous Holmes. Winston continued to work for Coxsone throughout the seventies recording nearly fifty titles. In addition to dozens of solo recordings, Winston backed up vocalists like Ken Boothe, Marcia Griffiths and Winston Francis. He also worked with Enid Cumberland and Larry Marshall as the Freedom Singers (‘Real Gone Loser’).

Winston did not confine his talents to Studio One, but recorded well over a hundred titles during the early seventies under his own name, as well as a number of pseudonyms. Confusion began with the UK releases as Righteous Holmes and continued throughout the decade. After serving a jail term for ganja possession circa 1971, Winston sang ‘Ease Me Up Officer’ for Duke Reid who released the disc as by ‘Soul Ofrous.’ That same year he cut sessions for Joe Gibbs, producing ‘Hurry Come Up’ and others released as by the Crashers or the Intruders. He also worked for Lee Perry who released the music as the Righteous Flames (‘Mini Dress’), the Hurricanes (‘One Heart’), or the Flames (‘Zion’).

Sonia Pottinger leased a title from Perry (‘Run To The Rock’) and issued it as the Righteous Flames on her High Note label. On ‘Zion’ and other Perry productions, Danny Clarke, currently with the Meditations, joins Winston. To make things even more confusing, Sidney Bucknor released Winston’s classic ‘True Born African’ under the name of T-Man and the T-Bones, and then Family Man released Winston’s ‘Solid As The Rock’ as Adam And Eve. In addition, Winston cut properly credited sides for Jah Lloyd (‘I Was Born To Love’), the Buzza Record Shack (‘Writing On The Wall’), and Pete Weston (‘Revolution For The Chinaman’). Winston also produced a string of fine releases on his own Attra, Human Rights and Humble labels. In The late 70’s he cut fine albums for Brent Clarke (‘Kingston Rock’), Roy Cousins (‘Wise Man’), and two co-productions with Tony Shabazz (‘Man Of The Ghetto’ and ‘Ranking Ghetto Style’).

Until the late 1980’s, Winston had never had an album released in America and remained unknown even among hardcore reggae devotees. Nighthawk Records changed that situation with the release of the carefully crafted album ‘Jonestown,’ released in 1989. Winston came to the production with a fat songbook of great tunes and supported by some of the finest musicians in Kingston. ‘Jonestown’ established a foothold for Winston as one of reggae’s great, unrecognized artists. "Jonestown’ has been widely hailed as a "Sufferer’s tour de force," with it’s compelling title track, and great cuts like "Spanish Town Road,’ ‘Bad Boy,’ and ‘Babylon Broke Down Me House,’ or the beautiful, ‘Unity.’

Since the release of the ‘Jonestown‘ album, Winston produced an album for Alvin Ranglin’s GG’s Records that was released by Heartbeat. Subsequently and most recently he has had two albums for RAS as well as a number of releases both new and old overseas. The relationship between Nighthawk Records and Winston goes back to the early 80’s when we first met during the recording of the ‘Travel With Love’ album by Justin Hinds. It was Justin who first drew the label’s attention to Winston, calling us aside, he said, "See that lickle man deh? ‘Im is one of the original Alton and the Flames. ‘Im is a very great singer." Since that day we have maintained a warm and valued friendship both professionally and personally.

In 1997, Winston made his first visit to America, where he m