Rico's Take on the Wareika experience

Rico ROdriguez - whose birthday comes up this Friday (Oct 17) was 'tutored' by Drumkmond during the Alpha days and had this to say 10 years ago about the Wareika commune

"Y'know, once Don Cherry told me..."

He was giving me a story. If you don't know who Don Cherry is, he is one of the greatest trumpet players in history of Jazz and the father of Neneh Cherry. I hear from Rico that Don said, "How can you play like that... To play like you do, I had to go to Africa to learn." Don was mentioning that Rico's playing has got heavy African vibe.

"Mi learned dis from rasta commune, y'know, Wareika. People start drumming... When dem feel like playing, dem just play. "

It was true improvisation. There was no leader of a band as such. They just bang drums and when the air is right, one picks up an instrument and play. Perhaps one of its documents is the classic master-piece called "Grounation-- The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari" and I suppose Rico learned that thrilling playing through his experience of living there.