Augustus Pablo and friends                 The Red Sea   When Herman Chin-Loy’s co-production of ‘Rain’ by Bruce Ruffin came within a whisker of topping the UK pop charts in 1971, selling in excess of 100,000 copies, the news sent shockwaves around the bustling Half Way Tree district of Kingston, Jamaica where Herman had been a flamboyant figure on the local music scene for a number of years as a crowd-pulling DJ for the Lotus and Spinning Wheel discotheques. In Half Way Tree he was known by day as the arbiter of good taste who served up an enticing selection of hot, new releases originally in KG’s and later in his own Aquarius record shop. He had also performed as a DJ with the popular Inner Circle and New Generation bands but his main ambition came to fruition when Herman started the Aquarius recording label with ’Shanghai’ followed by the heavy ‘African Zulu’. He soon became a cult figure among the cognoscenti with his weighty instrumentals which heralded the discovery of Augustus Pablo.   The legend began in 1971 when a youthful Horace Swaby was standing in Herman’s Aquarius record shop at 9 Constant Spring Road in Kingston, holding a melodica that had been lent to him by a young girl. The instrument was used in Jamaica in school music lessons but had never before been taken seriously by professional musicians. Herman, who had a much-deserved reputation for experimenting with new sounds, asked the slightly-built teenager if he could play it and was taken with the musical response that he booked recording time that same week at Randy’s Studio 17 on North Parade in the heart of downtown Kingston. Chin-Loy had been trying out some fairly wild ideas, frequently overlaying roots-based, organ instrumentals with manic chatter, percussion and even the odd blues or rock-style guitar lick. The first crucial session that followed this impromptu audition would not only break new ground in establishing this novel instrument, but also a major new artist with a style of playing that many would imitate for years to come close to his haunting trade mark sound.   Herman gave the youth his recording debut and more significantly, a new name – AUGUSTUS PABLO – which was not strictly new itself as for the past few months Aquarius record labels had sporadically appeared bearing the credit ‘Augustus Pablo’. Herman had coined the name to add a measure of mystique to the identity of players of the lead instruments. These records usually feature either Lloyd Charmers or the Upsetter’s organist Glen Adams. The seeds of what was to become the minor-key dominated ‘Far East’ sound of the future Pablo/Rockers team were sown in this humble session as the ‘youthman’ blew his unique melodies over a clutch bass-heavy, ‘rebel rock’ rhythms. Further recordings used rhythm tracks decorated with swirling almost extra-terrestrial organ to demonstrate the fullness of his repertoire, offbeat percussive phrases were bashed out on the Randy’s Studio piano. Herman had found the palpable sound he was searching for that was worthy of the exotic ‘Augustus Pablo’ tag – and the name has been retained ever since.   By the next year at age eighteen, Pablo had his first hit at Randy’s for Clive Chin’s Impact label with ‘Java’ which was voted the ‘Top Instrumental’ in 1972 and he soon established his legendary Rockers label named after his brother Garth’s fledgling sound-system. Following the release of ‘Skanking Easy’, the first of several sides adapted from Studio One instrumentals, he was soon a leading light in the upcoming band of ‘rebel’ artists and independent producers such as Lee Perry, Niney, Glen Brown and Big Youth who were to radically and irreversibly re-define the parameters of reggae music.   Meanwhile Herman had clearly caught the mood of the youth market in Jamaica with his individual production style. The Aquarius label was not only responsible for producing bizarre, offbeat instrumentals. Herman’s legacy also falls into the mainstream with classy productions such as Alton Ellis delightful ‘Alton’s Official Daughter’ not forgetting the young Dennis Brown’s contribution with the tender ’Song My Mother Used To Sing’ plus his soulful reading of ‘It’s Too Late’. Herman was responsible for releasing one of the first  – if not the first – dub LP’s when he issued the legendary ‘Aquarius Dub’ set. Copies of this classic record were being sold at auction recently in London for as much as 200 pound sterling each. Herman was later to open his 16-track Aquarius Studio allowing further diversification and experiments with fusions of reggae, soul and rock. These days, various members of the Chin-Loy dynasty continue to run the Aquarius record stores in both Half way Tree and Miami yet sadly only the occasional outing surfaces. It’s inconceivable that the unique talents of Augustus Pablo could ever have been suppressed for long but all credit must be due to Herman Chin-Loy for trusting his judgement by not only giving a young musician a much deserved break but delivering a real international star to the reggae world. PAUL COOTE.