Count Ossie
| Count Ossie | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Oswald Williams |
| Born | 1926 |
| Origin | St. Thomas, Jamaica |
| Died | 18 October 1976 (aged 50) |
| Genres | Reggae |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Akete |
| Years active | late 1950s-1976 |
Count Ossie, born Oswald Williams (1926 – 18 October 1976) was a Jamaican Rastafari drummer and band leader.
In the early 1950s he set up a Rasta community in Rockfort near Wareika Hill on the east side of Kingston, where many of Kingston's musicians learned about the Rastafari movement. In the late 1950s, he (with other percussionists) formed the Count Ossie Group. According to reggae historian Bruno Blum, the Rasta "nyabinghi" style of hand drumming, which derives from Jamaican kumina traditions, has its roots in Bantu traditions from Eastern Congo.
According to the book The First Rasta by Hélène Lee, because of their Rastafarian beliefs Count Ossie and his team were violently rejected from the then anti-Rasta music establishment and outlawed, as most Rastafarians were. It was not until around 1959, when successful dancer Marguerita Mahfood, a Jamaican rumba dancer of Honduran descent who enjoyed their new style and liked to dance to it, demanded that Count Ossie and his group be part of her major Ward Theater show. Vere John Jr. also resisted at first but at Mahfood's insistence had no other choice but to have them on his Opportunity Hour show at the Carib theater. Both shows were successful and opened new doors to Count Ossie and the Wareikas right away.
Their first sound recordings were made after meeting Prince Buster, who produced a Wareikas-backed song by the Folkes Brothers, "Oh Carolina", done at the Jamaican Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) Studios in 1959 (B-side: I Met a Man).
Although both songs were recorded in the then-current style of rhythm and blues widely recorded in the USA as well as Jamaica (not using the ska drum beat created in late 1961 [citation?] by Lloyd Knibb), it does include some early Rasta hand drumming not found on any previous R&B records and is regarded by some music historians as one of the first-ever ska record.
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