Alpha Boys School - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Alpha Cottage School is a school on South Camp Road in Kingston

Kingston, Jamaica

Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...

, Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

, run by Roman Catholic nuns. Established in 1880 as a "school for wayward boys", it became renowned for both the discipline it instilled in its pupils and the outstanding musical tuition they received.

School band

The school has had its own band since 1892, originally a drum

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

and fife

Fife

Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...

corps, and later a brass band

Brass band

A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...

, following the gift of brass instruments from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Jamaica. The school has been credited with influencing the development of ska

Ska

Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...

and reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

. Notable music instructors included Lennie Hibbert

Lennie Hibbert

Lennie Hibbert OD was a Jamaican musician who was bandmaster at the Alpha Cottage School, and also a vibraphone virtuoso, recording two albums for Studio One.-Biography:...

, Eric Deans and Sister Mary Ignatius Davis

Sister Mary Ignatius Davis

Sister Mary Ignatius Davis was a Jamaican nun and inspirational musician.Born in Innswood, Saint Catherine Parish, Jamaica, Davis was baptised at the St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Spanish Town, and went to the St. Catherine Elementary School. After her family moved to Kingston, she...

Notable alumni

Notable alumni, all musicians, include: Desmond Dekker

Desmond Dekker

Desmond Dekker was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. Together with his backing group, The Aces , he had one of the first international Jamaican hits with "Israelites". Other hits include "007 " and "It Miek"...

, four founding members of the Skatalites (Tommy McCook

Tommy McCook

Tommy McCook was a Jamaican saxophonist. A founding member of The Skatalites, he also directed The Supersonics for Duke Reid, and backed many sessions for Bunny Lee or with The Revolutionaries at Channel One Studios in the 1970s.-Biography:McCook was born in Havana, Cuba, and moved to Jamaica in...

, Johnny "Dizzy" Moore

Johnny Moore (trumpeter)

John Arlington "Dizzy" Moore OD was a Jamaican trumpet player and founding member of pioneering Jamaican ska and reggae act, The Skatalites.-Biography:...

, Lester Sterling

Lester Sterling

Lester Sterling is a Jamaican trumpet and saxophone player.-Biography:Like many Jamaican musicians of his generation, Sterling attended the Alpha Boys School....

and Don Drummond

Don Drummond

Don Drummond was a Jamaican ska trombonist and composer. He was one of the original members of The Skatalites, and composed many of their tunes....

), Cedric Brooks

Cedric Brooks

Cedric "Im" Brooks, is a Jamaican saxophonist and flautist known for his solo recordings and as a member of The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, The Light of Saba, and The Skatalites.-Biography:...

, Theophilus Beckford

Theophilus Beckford

Theophilus Beckford , also known by the nickname "Snappin'", was a Jamaican pianist who was one of the pioneers of indigenous Jamaican music.-Biography:...

, Rico Rodriguez

Rico Rodriguez

Rico Rodriguez MBE , also known as Reco or El Reco, is a ska and reggae trombonist. He has recorded with many producers, including Karl Pitterson, Prince Buster, and Lloyd 'Matador' Daley...

, Yellowman

Yellowman

Yellowman is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall deejay, widely known as King Yellowman...

, Vin Gordon

Vin Gordon

Vin Gordon is a Jamaican trombone player.-Biography:Gordon grew up in Jones Town, Kingston, Jamaica as one of eight children. He went to Kingston's catholic Alpha Boys School where he learned to play trombone and string bass. One of his tutors was Lennie Hibbert...

. Harold McNair

Harold McNair

Harold McNair was a renowned saxophonist and flautist.-Background:...

, Joe Harriott

Joe Harriott

Joseph Arthurlin 'Joe' Harriott was a Jamaican jazz musician and composer, whose principal instrument was the alto saxophone....

, "Deadly" Headley Bennett

Headley Bennett

Felix Headley Bennett OD , more often known simply as Headley Bennett or Deadly Headley, is a Jamaican saxophonist who has performed on hundreds of recordings since the 1950s.-Biography:...

, Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, the Israel Vibration

Israel Vibration

Israel Vibration is a reggae harmony trio, originating from Kingston, Jamaica. Lascelle "Wiss" Bulgin, Albert "Apple Gabriel" Craig, and Cecil "Skelly" Spence all overcame childhood polio, and went on to be one of the most successful roots groups to form in Jamaica in the late 1970s...

vocal trio (Lascelle "Wiss" Bulgin, Albert "Apple Gabriel" Craig, and Cecil "Skeleton" Spence) and Leroy Smart

Leroy Smart

-Biography:Smart was born in 1952 and orphaned aged 2. He was raised at Maxfield Park Children's Home and educated at Alpha Boys School, where he studied singing, drums and dancing....

External links

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