Jow Jesse Green became Jesse Green as a musician and growing up as a child under his grandmother’s guidance.
I was raised mainly by my grandmother who very strict and hard working, she spent her days on her familie’s plantation, where she often took me and showed me how to plant vegetables, this included yams; a yam is a vegetable quite starchy, it has sprouts , and these sprouts have to be pointed upwards as I can remember, so that they can grow and produce other yams; there was the negro yam, the yellow yam, the Saint vincent yam and the afoo yam. Fruit was plentiful I often had sliced half green mangoes in between meals, these mangoes use to drop off the trees when they became ripe, this made food for the birds and the ants. it was great fun cooking outside as most of days were spent out door except when it rained, and then the temperature was always 79/80 degrees.
At the close of each day spent on the plantation, g mother would load up a donkey with a hamper on each side, this she would fill with different raw foods; this was for our eating purpose and also for trading. Iwas only nine years old, and trading meant nothing at that age, iwas there for the food and the ride, and of course there r was no other choice but to be under her wings. She nourished me and prepared me for school, and I was eager to go to school. After elementary training I was sent to Cornwall College in Montego Bay, this was a boys school situated on the hilly part of Mo bay as it was known and still known; this is why i travelled 30 miles by bus in the mornings, and the same on some evenings, as I would sleep at my friend’s house sometimes.
Music in Jamaica filled the airwaves, as there was boogie woogie from USA’s W I N Zee radio station, RJR jamaica’s own station, and JBC, Jamaica broadcasting co-oporation. My mother was quite busy attending to her career and lifestyle, she was in touch with the more well to do persons, hence she gave me the names of some of these people that she became friendly with; names such as locksley and Rooklyn. Locksley I understand was Locksley Moody the owner of a few Yatchs on the Mo Bay seafront, and Rooklyn was a Judge.
I was given a toy for christmas, this was a snare drum made of tin with a chord to hang around the neck, and two sticks for the noises when collided. This became my favourite toy amongs the others which were bouncing battery cars and cork guns which explodes when fired in the air.
We visited kingston the capital of Jamaica; the journey was made by train from Montego Bay 124 miles, these trains were driven by steam, and I was fascinated by them.
THIS STORY IS TO BE CONTINUED please watch the space for more of me in Kingston and music/Jukeboxes and dancehalls-soundsystems
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