Portrait of the artist as a happy man: Tony Uter in the garden.
Today I went to the birthday parties of two musicians I’ve got to know via going to gigs in London over the last few decades. The more well known of these musicians is Charlie Harper, who celebrated turning 80 today with a raucous concert fronting the UK Subs – the punk band he’s helmed since 1977 – at Shepherds Bush Empire.
Earlier in the evening I attended a private party for Tony ‘Groco’ Uter – Tony turned 95 today and his birthday was celebrated in the back garden of a house in Stockwell. Musician friends played although Tony, who is a master percussionist, unfortunately wasn’t feeling his best so did not join in.
That Charlie Harper is 80 and still leading a rockin’ punk band is remarkable. While Tony Uter loves banging on a bongo at 95 is, simply, wonderful. Have Tony and Charlie ever played together? Doubtful. But its possible: Tony arrived in Britain from Jamaica in 1959 and has constantly played music since then, while Charlie, who was born in Hackney and has made music since he was in his early teens – pre-punk he played in all manner of bands – thus they could perhaps have ended up sharing the bandstand one night.
Tony’s played with all manner of musicians while Charlie, pre-punk, was eclectic in his musical enthusiasms. This noted, I doubt Tony’s shared the stage with the UK Subs – in 1977 there was a bit of a punky-reggae party (as Bob Marley sang) but the Subs were never part of it. Instead, they’ve long commanded a raucous audience who liked to mosh and spray beer and – from a few knuckleheads - spit. None of which would have held any appeal for Tony.
Beyond their shared love of making music, both Tony and Charlie are lovely men – amongst the most engaging musicians I’ve ever had the good fortune to spend time chatting with. While they have many differences – age, race, upbringing and musical enthusiasms for a start - I think its fair to suggest both share similar values of hard work and a real joy in making music. I’ll celebrate Charlie becoming an octogenarian soon in a separate post. This evening I’m focusing on Tony.
Look sharp: Tony remains a smart dresser.
Imagine it, reaching 95 and not just enjoying making music but being able to play music at a very high level – this is a remarkable achievement. Tony was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1929 when the Caribbean island existed primarily to produce mineral and agricultural wealth for its colonial master (so was purposely kept underdeveloped).
Tony learnt to drum in Kingston’s Salvation Army band before playing with Count Ossie, the drummer and early Rastafari proselytizer who pioneered nyabhingi hand drum percussion. Uter played with local outfits – often performing calypso music for both Jamaicans and tourists. “Calypso was the popular sound in Jamaica in the 1950s,” Tony recalls. “We play it in hotels and on the street and this is how I begin to make a living making music. It get things started for many of us.”
Playing music was then – as now – a hand-to-mouth experience and Uter spent several months in Florida cutting sugarcane in 1958 (many Jamaicans then did such – likely alongside Cubans and Haitians). He recalls his cane cutting experience as “brutal” but, with typical good humour, notes how, by being a proud British citizen, he refused to let the American racists who oversaw the workers treat him and his Jamaican co-workers with the disdain they did African Americans.
Tony then worked his way to Britain playing congas in a passenger ship’s calypso band in 1959 – recalling this, he notes how his younger brother and a friend came on board the ship supposedly to say “goodbye” then announced they were stowing away. When the ship reached Southampton the duo were subsequently imprisoned for a fortnight – upon release they were reunited with Tony in London.
Here’s Tony & Diz – they’re the Butch & Sundance of New Orleans flavoured piano percussion music. Long may they continue to thrive!
Tony’s mastery of the conga drum saw him immediately winning employment with Edmundo Ross’ big band – Ross was a Trinidadian musician who had arrived in the UK in 1937 and went on to achieve great success as a band leader with his easy listening take on Latin and big band jazz - he released dozens of albums and was a favourite of Princess Elizabeth. Uter recalls Ross fondly, although he recounts that they fell out when Ross wouldn’t take Uter on a tour of Scandinavia, somewhere Tony wanted to visit. From then on Tony was always in work – jazz musicians loved his mastery of Caribbean rhythms, thus he played with Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes, Keith Tippetts and Dizzy Gillespie (amongst others).
The burgeoning Windrush-era musical community also appreciated Uter: his connection with Jamaican trombonist Rico Rodriquez – who arrived in the UK in 1961 and soon became a touchstone for London’s West Indian musicians - saw him playing with leading Jamaican vocalists. “Through Rico I play with Prince Buster and plenty other, including Bob Marley. We tour with Bob in 1977 and he a really down to earth man. We tight!”
Toots Hibbert was another JA great Tony played with while he appears on many of Rico’s recordings, including his magnificent 1976 album Man From Wareika. Uter was, alongside Rico and saxophonist Bami Rose, one of the founding members of the Jazz Jamaica Allstars, a Brixton-based jazz band who – after splitting with bassist Gary Crosby – renamed themselves Jamaican Jazz.
The ensemble still holds down a Thursday night residency at Brixton’s Effra Tavern, although Uter now only sits in when he feels like it (while Rodriquez has died and trumpeter Leslie “Tantan” Thompson has suffered a debilitating stroke). Alongside Rico, he regularly played with The Specials – both in the 1980s and the reformed version – he’s on Protest Songs, their underwhelming final effort.
Uter has also worked closely with Linton Kwesi Johnson and today plays, on occasion, with Errol Linton’s blues band. His most regular gig is as longtime sidekick to veteran boogie woogie pianist Diz Watson – Watson’s fine forthcoming album Diz Connected (Last Music) features Uter and the two men are close friends. It was going to concerts by Watson, Linton and Jamaican Jazz that I got to encounter Tony’s remarkable conga playing – these concerts largely take place in South London pubs and tend to be community affairs where people come to dance and to have a good time, friends and family often being in the audience.
Tony rocking it with Errol Linton’s brilliant blues band.
Today there are fewer and fewer of these small, live music venues available while stadium-filling superstar musicians reap vast fortunes from performing – this reflects on the corporatisation of most everything in our societies: when music making on an organic, community level is under threat as venues that have allowed music to be made for generations close, this reflects how neoliberal policies are decimating society. Just as the climate crisis is wreaking havoc due to the worship of profit, the simple pleasures we have long enjoyed and taken for granted are also crumbling. Which is a bleak note to make in a profile of a very happy musician.
Indeed, Tony’s obvious joy in making music colours his life and surely is one reason for his longevity. While good genes and the regular workout playing conga involves has helped keep Tony healthy, he says he has no particular exercise or diet regime. He did quit drinking alcohol more than a decade ago yet still enjoys smoking ganja: he had his first puff aged 14 and, eighty one years on, continues to enjoy a spliff.
“Cocaine hurt musicians – look at Tubby Hayes! - but not ganja,” Uter says, adding “me smoke with everyone” then he lists many legendary musicians who he shared herb with. A memory that tickles him is how Sammy Davis Jr would, when performing at Talk Of The Town, rush up to Ronnie’s during his break, accost Uter and the two musicians would go for a smoke up on the club’s roof. “Nice man, Sammy,” he says with a smile.
Percussionists are rarely acknowledged for their contributions to music – at least in rock/pop: in African and Latin music they enjoy a more exalted status – so I’m happy to be paying tribute to Tony, the gentle sideman with the hard hands. Is he, I ask, the oldest working musician in the UK? “Me not sure, but one thing for sure,” says Uter with another wide smile, “I love to make music. My son ask, ‘when you retire?’ and I reply ‘never’. Music’s been good to me and it good for me.”
Brothers in arms: Diz & Tony!