Count Owen 90 and counting

On February 11, pioneering ska, mento and rocksteady singer, Count Owen joined the elite club of nonagenarians and he couldn’t be happier or more full of gratitude. The Count celebrated his 90th birthday surrounded by family, and, to top it off, he even took a trip to the beach.

“It feels really great ... and to know that you are specially blessed. And the good thing about it is that the health part of it up to scratch ... that makes it really glorious,” a jovial Count Owen, who is not yet ready to retire his mic told The Sunday Gleaner.

“It was a wonderful day ... lots of jokes, food ... lots of every little thing to make the day a great one. Everyone who was here got together to sing the birthday song,” he shared.

Count Owen has done a lot and has seen a lot more during his 70-plus years in the music industry, and his quick-witted response when asked how he got started in the music business was: “The music business started in me.”

Born in 1934 in Gayle, St Mary, Owen Franklin George Emanuel, started singing at a tender age, “but it climaxed in [his] teenage years”, and he recalled auditioning for the then popular RJR Colgate Palmolive Talent Parade. However, he failed the audition and he knew exactly why, so he did what had to be done.

“I wrote to them and told them that I was a bit nervous and so they called me back. And can you guess when I had to perform? Christmas night. I came out with the second prize and I was so proud. A guy by the name of Teddy Brown came first. The prize was Colgate Palmolive Toothpaste, soap, mouthwash ... a little of everything ... and we got money too,” Count Owen said.

Although he couldn’t remember exactly how much the prize money was, one thing he does remember is that “it took a long time to spend it off”.

His next big move was the Vere John Opportunity Hour, a showcase to unearth new talent, which was started by Johns, a journalist, impresario, radio personality, and actor - in the late 1940s. Count Owen had lots of praise for John’s ingenuity.

“That was a wonderful show. That’s where people like Alton Ellis, Hortense Ellis, Laurel Aitken, Jimmy Cliff and many others got their start. A man like Vere Johns should be more recognised. I won prizes at the Opportunity Hour and in those days I was proud to buy myself a brand new bicycle,” he boasted.

Count Owen, who would eventually make a big name for himself and release seven albums and several singles during his career, went on to join a band playing calypso music and it was then that he was baptised and came out of the musical water as a count.

“In those days, if you are doing calypso you had to be either a ‘Lord’ or a ‘Count’ and perhaps the first count was Count Lasher,” he explained of his name change. “Although we used to perform popular ballads and blues from singers like Frank Sinatra, Fats Domino, Nat King Cole, once you are going to record, it had to be calypso. So, I started writing my own calypso songs and started recording.”

He linked with Stanley Motta for the single, Love in Sweet Jamaica. Motta, an electronics store owner, started a record label and in 1951, opened the first privately owned recording studio in the island. From Motta, Count Owen later connected with Ken Khouri of Federal Records for more recordings.

Included among his albums are Come Let’s Go Ska-lipso, Rocksteady Calypso, Down Jamaica Way and Mento Time.

But life was also about performing at the craft market at Victoria Pier as Count Owen and the Crafters; doing the JBC Bandstand Countdown; and also being on the road, whether it was for the Festival Song Competition or doing tours after winning the All Island Mento Championship and being crowned Mento King. The competition was sponsored by Machado Tobacco Company, which was marketing Albany cigarettes and Count Owen recalled that bands from all across the island entered the contest which required them to write a song about Albany.

“I came into this thing writing, so it was easy for me to write that song. After we won we had to be on the road for three weeks going from parish to parish. Then we had to do it for another three weeks,” Count Owen shared, admitting with a laugh that although a line of his winning song said that he had been smoking for years and tried all the other brands and decided that Albany was the best, he has never smoked.

The father of six children, three of his daughters are the famous Emanuel Sisters and singing sensation, Judi Emanuel. Count Owen is filled with pride at this legacy and recalled entering one of his daughters in the amateur Festival Song Contest when she was nine years old.

“She won bronze!” he said, still excited for her so many years later.

With enough memories to write several volumes, Count Owen shared that one of his favourite shows was a performance in Saudi Arabia, when he and his wife went to visit one of his daughters who was living there and they decided to put on a concert.

“And I tell you ... it was well attended,” he said.

For now, he is “slowing down” but is not ruling out doing one-off events

“I performed at a function at Terra Nova recently ... It was a nice performance there with my band. I haven’t lost it,” the pioneer declared.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com