Rico Rodriguez - The Legacy(2006) (24mins)
Directors,Writers+Editors: Jep Jorba, Miquel Angel Arnaiz, Ester Casals
Produced By: Jep Jorba
"The phonograph starts to spin. The stylus falls softly over the vinyl record and life starts to play again that notes full of memories, difficulties, faith, travels and experiences.
The life of Rico Rodriguez and the life of Jamaican music are two faces of the same coin. They are like two parallel lines that passed through the time and place.
In the documentary "Rico Rodriguez - The Legacy" the time is 2006 and the place is Barcelona. The old carribean melodies of the 60's are performed by young musicians of the millenium, that take with pride the musical and spiritual legacy of this great trombonist. These beautiful melodies become the perfect soundtrack to review the biography of one of the most humble and compromised legends of Jamaican music."
The film begins with Rico being interviewed, he talks of country life in Jamaica and about moving to Kingston and how rough and violent life can be there. His first trombone came from friend Willy D. as he later says "I didn't pick the Trombone, The Trombone pick me". He recalls his first record with Derrick Herriot and the Jiving Juniors called Over The River, then his 2nd with Laurel Aitken, What you Gonna Do in Judgement Day. his 3rd record had more success, a song called Easy Snappin which most reggae fans are familiar with. He worked on songs which where played by sound systems owned by Duke Reid and Coxsone Dodd, Rico explains how in them days the type of music he was making just didn't get played on radio stations so the only way the reggae artists got famous back then was by the sound systems playing the music, this is how he became known. up until 1976 Rico was a session musician but in 1976 he made his own album, it was after this that he became recognised. Rico claims he was more of an outsider and did his own thing after this.
He talks of his work with the Specials and recalls how 2 of the band members came knocking his door one day to ask him to join them, he was very weary of joining a band as he saw how most bands didn't seem to last long but he was eventually convinced to work with them. Also talked about is his time at the Alpha Boys School which is where he was taught by Don Drummond, this is where he developed his interest on reggae music and Rastafari, after school he used to go with Don Drummond up to Wareika hills, he loved the time he spent up there and used to go there most nights after school there he would watch the likes of Ernest Ranglin, Roland Alphonso, Tommy McCook and more play, this is where he discovered Rastafari and where he was taught alot of things about the world. Here they would read the king James bible or the Maccabbee Bible which was at the time a banned book in Jamaica.
He talks of how hard life was in Kingston and on occasions he broke the law to survive, "Suffering has been my constant companion" Rico says.
Rico is very happy to see how much reggae is loved in Europe and how people enjoy his music here, he takes so much pleasure from performing live and watching the fans enjoy his performances. He mentions how back in Jamaica his music is not as popular as it once was.
The film gives a great insight into Rico Rodriguez life, and does a wonderful job of this. It's great to see what Rico is up to these days and to see he is still going as strong as ever and keeping the reggae fire burning, lets make sure this fire never goes out by supporting artists like Rico Rodriguez and buying there music.
This film isn't scheduled for a dvd release in the near future but hopefully you will be able to see this on TV at some point, i'll post up more details as i get them.
Big thanks to all involved in making this film..........