Before Robbie Shakespeare became a world-famous musician, he developed what would become his legendary bass sound playing in bands from his native east Kingston. One of his musical colleagues was singer Audley Rollen.
Now an ordained minister of religion, Rollen leads the congregation at Pastors of Wisdom Sabbath Ministry in Plantation, Florida. He still records reggae songs, and never tires of reflecting on his days in the late 1960s/early 1970s with Robbie in The Hippy Boys and Youth Professionals Band.
Rollen was also a member of The Emotions, a harmony group that included Robbie’s older brother Lloyd. Robbie Shakespeare died December 8 in Florida at age 68.
Like most of his colleagues, Rollen migrated to North America during the early and mid-1970s. Shakespeare stayed in Jamaica and became an in-demand session musician for producers Bunny Lee and JoJo Hoo Kim; he was also a member of Peter Tosh’s Word, Sound And Power Band.
“Robert making it big was not a surprise to me, because he was a special talent, whose attitude, discipline, and work ethic demanded greatness, not just from him but from those who played with him. If you could not do the work, you would not be playing with him,” said Rollen.
He recalled his entry in the Youth Professionals Band which included future Inner Circle keyboardist Bernard “Touter” Harvey and session drummer Anthony “Benbow” Creary.
“After he got into Youth Professionals, he looked at me and said, ‘Rollens, weh yuh a do later’ and I told him, ‘Mi naah do nuttin’ and Robert said to me, ‘Come, Rollens, yuh a guh sing!’ And that’s how I became the lead singer for Youth Professionals Band,” he related.
Rollen noted that Shakespeare was an under-rated singer who had “a great falsetto” that featured on songs by Tosh and Dennis Brown.
“Another remarkable thing about Robert is that he had an eye for talent, and he somehow knew how to assemble and utilise talent to its full potential. He was a visionary and that was amazing,” he said.
As Florida residents, he and Shakespeare ran into each other regularly, but as the musician’s health declined, Rollen rarely saw him. He was philosophical about his friend’s death.
“Choices are always before us; we can never face a day without choices, and so, today we have a choice to make, the choice is, where we are going to spend eternity? Some of us have made that choice. Others don’t want to think about it. One day that choice will be final. And as we gather in honour of our friend, we are faced with an important question, ‘where will we spend eternity when we leave Earth?’ And it’s against that backdrop, I ask you to give your heart to the Lord today, because tomorrow is promised to no one,” he said.
You must log in to post a comment.