Sweet peppers & sweet sax notes from Alpha boys

Rosemarie Chung Voordouw, Contributor

What do sweet peppers, cabbage, tomatoes and saxophone music have in common?

Not much on the face of it. But to Damon Riley, saxophonist and Alpha Boys' alumnus, it all makes perfect sense. The young, soft-spoken musician spent two years at Alpha Boys' School. Those years changed his life forever and the farm, one of the projects used to sustain the school's work, was an integral part of the experience.

"We used to run to be first in line to get the best tool", he recalls, laughing, "at 5:30 in the morning we would be chopping or ploughing ... and then after school we would go back to work again." For an urban teenager, this was not always fun and Riley admits that he didn't appreciate the value of those early morning chores until adulthood.

"Now I look back, it was the best thing," he admits. "It helped make me aware and able to help myself around the house. Being an 'Alpharian' is like being a soldier, well-rounded with knowledge." He entered Alpha Boys' at age 12 and, as an only child, the sudden acquisition of what he calls 'distant relatives' was a bit of a shock. But as the other boys became like brothers and the Sisters of Mercy like 'spiritual mothers', he soon realised he had joined a large, loving family. While there, he did "relatively well" in his academic studies, but it was the music that would ignite his passion and set him on the road to success and fulfilment. Under the tutelage of consummate teacher and bandmaster Sparrow Martin, he learnt the clarinet and, at age 14, played his first engagement with the Alpha Boys' Band.

"We were the opening act for Byron Lee and the Dragonnaires at the Pegasus and the sweet sound of that applause was like food to my soul. It gave me the impetus to continue playing." And continue he did, but he had not yet found his favourite instrument. It was after leaving Alpha that, on the advice of Martin, he joined a project at the Laws Street Trade Training Centre which allowed him to learn the saxophone.

"Sparrow Martin explained that the clarinet is more of a band instrument and I would be more versatile if I learned the saxophone as well," he explained. Listening to that advice paid off big time as Martin, eager to follow in the footsteps of the alumni in the stories Martin told the boys, diligently practised every day on the sax he was allowed to take home. He went on to win silver medals in the annual Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's competition, second place on CVM's Star Search programme and the Sonny Bradshaw Award for Best Instrumentalist in the Tastee Talent Competition. Ten years later, now a freelance musician, he is in great demand for private and corporate functions, where the smooth notes of his tenor sax never fail to thrill. He has backed Damian and Stephen Marley and currently plays with Jimmy Cliff and the saxophone choir at the Edna Manley School for the Performing Arts. But he still has dreams to fulfil.

"I'm here for a purpose, to share my musical talent. I want to establish myself as a solo artist on albums and international tours - take the music to the highest level," he said passionately. And somehow, listening to this Alpha Boys' 'soldier', one knows that the best is indeed yet to come.

Riley will be one of several alumni playing on Saturday, May 21, when Beenie Man and Friends headline a concert dubbed "Let's do it for the Alpha Boys" at the National Indoor Sports Centre. The event aims to raise $15 million for the school and is a collaborative effort of the Rotary Club of Kingston and MD Entertainment LLC. Funds will go towards refurbishing the home, improving the sporting facilities, upgrading the farm and establishing an endowment fund.