'Jah D' in tune with the piano

Rastafarian tunes, repairs and plays the instrument

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Dennis 'Jah D' Fearon laughs when he recalls the point at which he concluded, "I have a hope in music." After playing the mouth organ from he was about five or six years old, Fearon lost the instrument in the Hope River.

Fearon used to jam with the Skatalites and saw persons such as Jackie Mittoo playing the piano, so when he lost his mouth organ he told his mother he wanted to learn the 'finger organ'. "Not knowing is the piano them time, me call it the finger organ," Fearon said, laughing again.

So "them carry me down Orange Street at 14 years old to learn to play in a piano shop. The gentleman say him can't teach me, but if me learn to fix it me can learn to play."

That stint at the Cosmopolitan shop was the start of Fearon's lifelong relationship with the piano, which continued with a number of persons who repaired the instruments, Fearon saying that he learnt most from a Mr Kennedy at Bancroft Hylton. Fearon defining himself as "a piano technician, arranger and composer of music" and he not only repair pianos, but also tunes them.

Unique skill

"It is a very unique skill. You have the upright piano, the grand piano. They have different action and you have to be very skilful. It take a lifetime to learn," he said. "It takes you 20 years to learn to be a good piano technician. Them always says this is a trade a man can't steal, you have to learn it."

It is also a skill that requires extended intense concentration, Fearon saying "You get 500 shocks per second when you tune a piano. You have to be in a good mood. Sometimes somebody call me (to tune a piano) I have to make sure my mood isn't low, the night before I make sure sleep so I can function. It is three, four hours getting this thing good. No up and down and coming back. It is steady concentration."

Special tools

Fearon uses special tools, including a tuning hammer, flange and wedge. And, if he has the required components, he says he can make a piano.

However, he points out that "There is so much discrimination in who should be tuning a piano. And me is the first Rastaman too. I remember Mortimer Planno shake my hand on King Street and say yes, Rastafari have a piano tuner."

There was a time when he did tuning for top studios such as Channel One, Tuff Gong, Dynamic Sounds and Harry J's, "but since the electronic instrument taking over the process of music making they don't too highlight the piano." However, there is another steady market, as Fearon says "A lot of homes have them. They say you can't learn on the electronic piano. The piano is the instrument that bring that strength in the finger. It have that weight in the keys."

"I used to tune Robbie (of Sly and Robbie) bass, and Flabba Holt before them get electronic tuner," he said.

Fearon's studio involvement goes beyond piano tuning, as he played on numerous sessions.

"I used to get one pound 10 at Coxson for a session. I do a lot of recordings for GG, I used to do 10 songs a day at Joe Gibbs," Fearon said, reeling off some of the persons he played with - Culture, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs.

He did a European and 20-state tour of the United States with Culture, but Fearon says it was a lot of risk and hardship. "You nuh mus' get nothing. You reach some place so cold sometime all you finger burs' up. You a play and blood come out on your instrument," he said.

Fearon has a CD, Jamaica Diamond, with his son, producer Dia, as well as the instrumental albums The Garrison Touch and Therapy. "I can play instrumental for you from now 'til tomorrow. Sometime I can't take other people music, so I make my own," Fearon said.

"If the world hear it and like it is so."