Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari

Count Ossie (Oswald Williams, c. 1926–1976) was the Rastafari master drummer who brought the sound of the Nyabinghi drums out of the camps of Kingston and into Jamaican popular music. His camp in the Wareika Hills was a meeting place for Rastafari and jazz musicians in the 1950s; his drummers played on "Oh Carolina", one of the first Jamaican records to reach a mass audience, around 1960; and his ensemble, the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, recorded the landmark triple album Grounation in 1973.

The broader history of Rastafari in Jamaican music, from ska to Bob Marley and beyond, is told in reggae and Rastafari culture.

Oswald Williams and the Rastafari Drummers of Kingston§

Oswald Williams was born around 1926 and grew up in rural Jamaica before moving to Kingston, part of the great migration from countryside to city that reshaped the island in the middle of the twentieth century. Details of his early life come mostly from interviews given by his associates, and dates vary between accounts. In the late 1940s, as a young man, he came into contact with the Rastafari of the city's eastern and western districts, and with the Burru drummers who were then joining the movement.

From these drummers he learned the three-drum ensemble of bass, funde and repeater, whose origins are traced in Burru and Kumina. He became a Rastafari and devoted himself to the repeater, the lead drum, whose improvisations carry the music above the steady heartbeat of the bass and funde. By the early 1950s he was recognised as one of the finest drummers in the movement, and he was known by the name under which he became famous, Count Ossie.

The Wareika Hills: Where Rasta Drums Met Jazz§

Count Ossie established a Rastafari community, or camp, in the Wareika Hills, on the eastern edge of Kingston. There Rastafari brethren gathered for drumming, chanting and reasoning, as described in Nyabinghi and reasoning, and the camp became known well beyond the movement.

Among its visitors were young musicians trained in the brass bands and dance orchestras of the city, many of them former pupils of the Alpha Boys' School, a Catholic institution famous for its music teaching. They played American jazz and rhythm and blues in hotels and clubs for tourists and the middle class, but at Wareika they found something different: a living African drum tradition and a religious movement that spoke of Africa, Ethiopia and dignity. The trombonist Don Drummond, the trombonist Rico Rodriguez and the saxophonist Tommy McCook were among those who spent time there, and the meeting of their jazz with Count Ossie's drums was one of the sources of a new Jamaican sound.

For Count Ossie the drumming was worship, not entertainment. Musicians and visitors who came to Wareika joined a religious gathering, and the camp helped make Rastafari, then despised by respectable society, a source of musical authority and cultural pride.

"Oh Carolina" and the Drums on Record§

The decisive step came around 1960, when the producer and sound-system operator Prince Buster brought Count Ossie and his drummers into the studio to accompany the Folkes Brothers on a song called "Oh Carolina". The record, released at the very beginning of the Jamaican recording industry, placed the Rastafari drums at the heart of a popular song. It was a great success on the island, and decades later, in 1993, a version by Shaggy became an international hit.

In the early 1960s Count Ossie recorded further sides with his drummers and with jazz soloists for local producers, among them Harry Mudie. These records were among the first recordings of Rastafari music, and they gave the faith a voice on the radio and on sound systems at a time when Rastafari were still harassed by police and feared by much of the population.

Count Ossie, Ska and the Music of Independence§

Ska, the music of Jamaican independence in 1962, grew from rhythm and blues, mento and jazz, and the Wareika connection gave it a Rastafari accent. Don Drummond, the outstanding composer of the Skatalites, wrote tunes with titles evoking Africa, Ethiopia and Rastafari themes, and other ska musicians did the same. Scholars and musicians have debated how far the characteristic ska and reggae rhythm owes to Rastafari drumming, but there is wide agreement that Count Ossie's circle helped bring African rhythmic ideas and Rastafari consciousness into the heart of Jamaican popular music.

Count Ossie himself remained mainly a drummer of the Rastafari tradition rather than a pop musician. He performed at cultural events and concerts in Jamaica during the 1960s, and his drummers became known as a symbol of the island's African heritage at a time when the new state was beginning, cautiously, to celebrate that heritage. Later Nyabinghi ensembles, such as that of Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus, followed the path he opened.

The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari and Grounation§

Around 1970 Count Ossie joined forces with the saxophonist and composer Cedric "Im" Brooks, who had his own group, the Mystics. Together they formed the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, a large ensemble that combined Nyabinghi drums, horns, chant and spoken word.

In 1973 the group released Grounation, a three-record set that is widely regarded as one of the most important recordings of Rastafari music. Its title recalls the Rastafari word for a great Nyabinghi gathering and the holy day remembering Haile Selassie's visit to Jamaica on 21 April 1966. The album moves between long drum and horn improvisations, chants of praise, jazz-influenced themes for the horns, and spoken passages on Rastafari history and belief. A second album, Tales of Mozambique, followed in 1975.

Grounation sold modestly at first but has since been reissued and studied as a pioneering work of African-Caribbean spiritual jazz. It shows clearly how Rastafari understood its music: not as a style but as a form of praise, and as a bridge between the Bible, the drums of Africa and the modern world.

Death and Legacy§

Count Ossie died in October 1976, reportedly as a result of a road accident, at about fifty years old. The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari continued to perform in later decades with other members.

His legacy runs through the whole history of Jamaican music. The Nyabinghi drum, heard on records by Bob Marley, Burning Spear and many others, entered reggae through the path Count Ossie opened. Within Rastafari he is remembered as an elder who kept the drum sacred while sharing it with the world, and whose camp at Wareika showed that the despised Rasta could be a teacher of culture. Historians of the movement, such as Barry Chevannes, and of Jamaican music, such as Lloyd Bradley and David Katz, give him a central place in the story of how a small religious movement came to shape a global music. The language of praise in his chants, too, reflects the Rastafari speech described in Iyaric.

Frequently asked questions§

Who was Count Ossie?§

Count Ossie, born Oswald Williams around 1926, was a Jamaican Rastafari drummer and bandleader. He mastered the Nyabinghi drums, hosted a famous Rastafari camp in the Wareika Hills and led the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari until his death in 1976.

What did Count Ossie play on Oh Carolina?§

Count Ossie and his Rastafari drummers provided the drumming on the Folkes Brothers' "Oh Carolina", produced by Prince Buster around 1960. It was one of the first Jamaican popular records to feature Rastafari drums.

What is Grounation by Count Ossie?§

Grounation is a triple album released in 1973 by Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari. It combines Nyabinghi drumming, jazz horns, chant and spoken word and is regarded as a landmark of Rastafari music.

Sources and further reading§

• Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King — Lloyd Bradley, 2000
• Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae — David Katz, 2003
• Wake the Town and Tell the People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica — Norman C. Stolzoff, 2000
• Ska: An Oral History — Heather Augustyn, 2010
• Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music — Kevin O'Brien Chang and Wayne Chen, 1998
• Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae — Peter Manuel, Kenneth Bilby and Michael Largey, 1995
• Rastafari: Roots and Ideology — Barry Chevannes, 1994