(They) need to Stop, and Think and Realize, Music is (his) Life – Beres Hammond

For Don Drummond Music was his tortured life.

As a writer,  it is not  often that I get to do a book review with which I have a personal and intimate connection.  American journalist/Professor Heather Augustyn has written extensively on Ska music’s roots and her biography, “Don Drummond the Genius and Tragedy of The World’s Greatest Trombonist

” affords me the opportunity to relive my post-colonial musical growth in Jamaica.  Some of the stories in Augustyn’s thoroughly researched to me on Don Drummond are stories my dad, Winston Smith, lived through and told me when I migrated to live with him in the United States in 1974. Don Drummond and my father were good friends.  Imagine my delight when Augustyn contacted me, after she read on Jamaicans.com my dad ’personal account of the night Drummond, in an insane schizophrenia-induced rage, murdered his other true love, talented dancer, Anita “Margarita” Mahfood, who seems to provide the support and love missing from Drummond’s life.

This book is a powerful and fascinating read for the scope and breath of Drummond’s life it covers.