Count Ossie

Count Ossie, born Oswald Williams (26 March 1926 – 18 October 1976), was a Jamaican Rastafari drummer and band leader.

Biography

In the early 1950s, he set up a Rasta community in Rockfort near Wareika Hill on the east side of Kingston, where many of Kingston's musicians learned about the Rastafari movement. In the late 1950s, he (with other percussionists) formed the Count Ossie Group.

According to reggae historian Bruno Blum, the Rasta "nyabinghi" style of hand drumming, which derives from Jamaican Kumina traditions, has its roots in Bantu traditions from Eastern Congo.

According to the book The First Rasta by Hélène Lee, because of their Rastafarian beliefs Count Ossie and his team were violently rejected from the then anti-Rasta music establishment and outlawed, as most Rastafarians were. It was not until around 1959, when successful dancer Margarita Mahfood, a Jamaican rumba dancer of Lebanese descent who enjoyed their new style and liked to dance to it, demanded that Count Ossie and his group be part of her major Ward Theater show. Vere John Jr. also resisted at first but at Mahfood's insistence had no other choice but to have them on his Opportunity Hour show at the Carib...

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