Island time

>>Memories of Montreal sweeten
the mix for Jay Douglas of the
Jamaica to Toronto project

RAM-JAM REVISITED: Jay Douglas

By ERIN MACLEOD

Jay Douglas first arrived in Toronto from Jamaica in 1963. What he found was a city full of music that was relatively unnoticed until 2004, when he helped Seattle’s Light in the Attic records, alongside Vancouver’s Kevin Howes, start reissuing gems like the astonishing, self-titled Wayne McGhie & The Sounds of Joy. Douglas’s band the Cougars is featured on the equally astounding Jamaica to Toronto: Soul, Funk and Reggae 1967–1974 compilation. As the Cougars make their way to Montreal this weekend to showcase their resilient Toronto-based tunes, the Mirror spoke to Douglas about “the journey” he took to get here.

Mirror: How would you characterize the music scene in Toronto in the 1960s and 1970s?

Jay Douglas: There were many musicians who had played in bands in the islands, and they were restless. They still wanted to play. And it so happened, for instance, with the Cougars, the band I was the lead singer for, three of these cats were living in the same house, and they decided to form the band. We were getting a lot of soul and R&B from the States and then you had calypso and the rocksteady from the Caribbean. The big things in Toronto at that time were house parties. Wow. Some house parties would go for three days non-stop! But you know what? There was never a police that came by. It was just a groovy situation. It was happening.

M: What is the potential of this project?

JD: When Light in the Attic called me about Wayne McGhie, they had been trying for almost a year with no success. The first time they called me, they were shocked. They hadn’t yet received that kind of information. So we set to work. People are now starting to have an interest in what was lying here for a long time. There’s just so much.

M: So this is just scratching the surface.

JD: A lot of people think that it was Leroy Sibbles or Jackie Mittoo who came to Toronto and started the scene. We were here way before that! I remember when we used to go to Val d’Or, Rouyn-Noranda, all of Abitibi, selling rocksteady with the Cougars. The music was so new to these people in Quebec that in that region they didn’t even call it reggae—they called it “ram jam” music. We spent years selling that kind of music to the people of Quebec and the rest of Canada. That’s part of the journey. The people in Jamaica are starting to ask questions. They’re getting nosy about the history of ska, rocksteady and reggae in Canada. And we played a major role.

M: When was the first time you performed in Montreal?

JD: 1969. There were two clubs in Montreal at that time that you needed to know. Rocker’s Paradise in the Atwater area and the Esquire Showbar on Stanley. That was the place to be. At the Esquire, you could see Duke Ellington, James Brown, you name it. We got the call from Esquire to come and open up for Fats Domino, and that’s how we got introduced to Montreal. We drove in from Val d’Or and we stayed in Montreal for a long time. That’s where we got to fine-tune our craft of performing. It was the city to be in at that time, not Toronto. Now, when we have to go to Montreal, it’s like going back home.

At Club Soda on Saturday,
March 1, 8 p.m., $19.50, all ages