INTERVIEW
Interview & pictures : Stéphane Delphin
on Sunday, February 13th 2005 - 11 250 views
After playing Admiral T's mother in the film "Neg Mawon", Jocelyne Beroard (Kassav) looks back for us on a little-known chapter of her career: six months spent in Jamaica as a backing singer for Lee "Scratch" Perry in 1980. A chance to discover for the first time the friendships of the Zouk icon with reggae stars and to share her thoughts on the differences between Jamaica and "her" Martinique: "sisters but not twins...
Reggaefrance /  How did you form such strong friendships with artists like Peter Tosh?
Jocelyne Beroard / Even before going to Jamaica, I knew a lot of reggae artists. With my sister we often went to concerts and we got to know pretty much the whole scene. So I was lucky enough to cross paths with Marley. Other groups like the Cimarons, Inner Circle, Third World and Steel Pulse became friends. Peter Tosh too, who used to come and eat at our house, whether in Martinique or in Paris. Tosh was the star in all his splendour. One day I was supposed to meet him in a big Parisian hotel and he arrived in the lobby on his unicycle! It was quite comical to see the faces of the other guests.
How did you end up working for Lee Perry in Jamaica?
One of their managers said to me one day ’‘ If you fancy going to Jamaica, Lee Perry is looking for foreign musicians and backing singers ‘‘. Because at that time he no longer wanted to work with Jamaicans! It was in early 1980. There were English people, Germans, completely different people. Working with Perry was special and rare… He always found something else to do rather than go to the studio. He had an obsession: In the beginning was the Word”. Everything that went through his head, he wrote on the walls. Having run out of room on his walls, he went for the ceiling. There were drawings of gorillas everywhere (the ‘‘Return of the Super Ape’‘ LP period). He called on the painter you see in ‘‘Rockers’‘ for all the sketches. Lee Perry also had a vegetable garden in front of his house with banana trees, and between the banana trees, marijuana grew beautifully... The police would walk calmly past all these plants, because they came to stock up on rolling papers at his place. Perry received them by the crate from his (Dutch) producers of the time, and in 1980 rolling papers were scarce in Jamaica. They used the pipe or banana leaves....
A unique experience on the human level but not very prolific artistically?
We only recorded one tune (editor's note: Bed Jammin, from the LP “History Mistery Prophecy “, 1981. A magnificent tune, but good luck finding the LP!), a very sexual tune, in fact, a horrible thing (editor's note: actually, a decent and funny slack tune of the kind Yellowman and General Echo knew how to make at that time). It went ‘‘Sweet sweet cockie galore gimme gimme pussy some more …Open your foot, likkle daata, I wanna tek a good look ! ’‘ That's the only tune I recorded in six months. In short, six months of holiday paid for by a Dutch production... Since I already had friends in Jamaica, I spent my time discovering the island. I didn't go to Negril (a seaside resort in the west of the island, editor's note). I went downtown, but always accompanied, because it was too hot. I met great people! On the music side, I also recorded a 45 with my friends from Third World. It's a reggae version of the theme from the film ‘‘Roots’‘ that Quincy Jones had done, with all the dubs that go with it. It was called Many Rains Ago, and Letta Mbulu (great South African singer, editor's note) had originally sung it. I loved that song and with Third World we did it all in one night. The producers in Holland never released it. I have a cassette copy somewhere at home, but not a clean one!
 Was Perry interested in the fact that you were from Martinique?
No. Perry was in his own trip. At that time he no longer wanted to deal with people who wore locks… When he found out that I had some, he said: ‘‘ Oh really? It doesn't matter…’‘ I was the only black person in the group and he liked me.
Were dreadlocks frowned upon in Martinique at that time?
Above all they were very rare. This was around 79. So as not to shock my father, I always left the house with my head covered with a hat or a scarf. My locks were beautiful, I looked after them, perfumed them.... I kept them for about two years. I cut them off on a whim in August 80, in Spain, I was too hot... But I may well take up that hairstyle again one day because I'm not a fan of hairdressing salons.
In your view, what are the big differences between Jamaica and Martinique?
The size, and the mentality too. Jamaica is much bigger, richer than Martinique… They have bauxite, let's not forget. When I went there, I wanted to see what an island bigger than mine looked like. Whether it was the waterfalls or the beaches, everything was bigger! And then there's the history of colonisation… I believe English and French colonisation have nothing in common… Even today you can see it… Martinique is a département while Jamaica is independent, and that changes everything. Over there the way people behave is totally different. The mentality is ‘‘ sort it out yourself! ‘‘ People can decide and choose; at home, you have to go somewhere else, and you wait for or hope for help. The fact that they speak English also gives them an easier opening onto the world for music. But the foundation, the original history, is the same. People's manners too: I remember one day in a car, windows up because we were in a ‘‘hot’‘ neighbourhood, I watched two women talking outside, I couldn't hear precisely what they were saying but they had exactly the same intonations, the same expressions that other women might have in Martinique.
As for traditions, weren't you surprised by how little percussion there is in Jamaica?
That's true. But there is some all the same... They have their own rhythms, which are theirs alone... I had the chance to discover some by spending a memorable evening with Third World in Jamaica... On a Monday night, under a full moon... Invited by a priestess (a wise woman, as the guys put it) to her house in the middle of the Jamaican countryside. She said she had too much energy and had to redistribute that energy to those who were there. For a few minutes I freaked out a little and wondered what I was doing there. In the end, thinking more positively, I concluded that if there was positive energy to be had, well, why not? She started dancing to the drums (played by Third World) and sending out her energy. I was in a corner of the house surrounded by people who were praying, in a bit of a trance. At the end, she handed us drawings with writing on them, which was, she said, the first language of humankind, now forgotten. When she learned that I wasn't from Jamaica, she gave me a drawing different from the others. It was quite a disturbing evening.... I still can't read what's written on my piece of paper, but I've kept it...
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