Count Ossie

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Count Ossie (born March 1926 in Saint Thomas Parish , Jamaica , † October 18, 1976 ; born Oswald Williams ) was a Jamaican percussionist and band leader. He was also a member of the Rastafarian movement.

biography

Oswald Williams grew up in a Rastafarian community and learned to sing and percussion with hand drums. In the late 1950s he formed the Count Ossie Group with other percussionists. He made his first recordings after meeting Prince Buster , including the song Oh Carolina , which is considered to be groundbreaking for the development of reggae . During this time, Count Ossie also recorded for Harry Mudie .

Count Ossie later formed a group called Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari and recorded two albums with them. His most important work is the 3-LP set Grounation (Ashanti 1973), which in addition to Oh Carolina also contains So Long and Grounation with a playing time of over 30 minutes. In 1975 he brought out Tales Of Mozambique (Dynamic 1975).

In 1976 he died in a traffic accident. The album Man from higher heights was released posthumously in 1983 . It is unclear, however, whether Count Ossie can be heard on these recordings. His band Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari released other albums after his death.

Discography

Albums

year Published as title
1973 Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari Grounation
1975 Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari Tales Of Mozambique
1983 Count Ossie and The Rasta Family Man from higher heights

Compilations

  • 1996 Remembering Count Ossie: A Rasta Reggae Legend (Compilation of songs recorded by Harry Mudie.)

Appears at

  • Edge : 2001 Zweilicht (song no. 4 “best of both worlds” contains poem spoken by Count Ossie)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ https://www.reggaeholland.com/artists/count-ossie/
  3. ↑ Jason Toynbee, Bob Marley , Polity Press, 2007, pp. 121-22.
  4. ↑ Count Ossie and the Rasta Family: Man From Higher Heights at popmatters.com, accessed January 23, 2018
  5. ↑ Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari at Discogs.
personal data
SURNAME Count Ossie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Williams, Oswald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jamaican reggae musician
DATE OF BIRTH March 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Thomas Parish , Jamaica
DATE OF DEATH October 18, 1976