And so—
Hold on just a minute. [Cynthia Richards], [a] longtime singer—she’s very good—she used to sing for Clancy Eccles, too. (Singing) “I, I, I, Aily I.” And Charlie “Organaire” [Cameron] who played on so much ska tunes [for] Prince Buster [on] harmonica. And from there, Delroy [Wilson] had a tune with Organaire, (singing) “Spit in the Sky.” Yeah, [Organaire] played harmonica. He [worked with Prince Buster] and him sing the tune [“Little Village”] like (singing): “Sometimes I wonder why the postman passes by, da da dee, da da”—dem old tunes there, you know?

Right.
Because he was a singer, too.

Nice. Now Ansel I was shocked—I think I told you this maybe already, but I was shocked when I was doing research on you and I learned [something about you that is] very similar to another musician whom I only recently interviewed this year—also a keyboardist—famous keyboardist, too, [that] you know named Pablove Black. I reasoned with him earlier this year and I was shocked to find out that one of the chief ways—if not the chief way—that you learned how to play the piano, organ, and keyboard, was also just like Pablove—by going to the store—the famous store in Kingston named “Music Mart”—
Yeah!

And you bought a book—you bought a book to study it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah!

I find it so amazing that you learned from this book. And I read that you were practicing and practicing in some kind of an unused bathroom maybe?
Yeah, a bathroom—I played in the bathroom. I just put a keyboard in there and practiced.

That’s what I was gonna ask you next. I’m so happy you mentioned that because I was gonna ask you: What did you practice on? So you managed to come—
Yeah, man, one likkle keyboard. I can’t remember what its name [was] again—the keyboard. And it plugged in—you [could] plug it in. And [it was like an electric] piano.

Did you also get that keyboard from Music Mart?
No, it [was] Bobby Aitken’s keyboard.

Oh wow! Wow. [It was] Bobby Aitken [who] let you hold onto that and practice with it?
It was Bobby Aitken why I play the piano. [Because] Conroy Cooper was playing piano in The Carib Beats. And when Conroy leave, I [would be] there [in the] daytime, so Bobby Aitken say “Ansel, why don’t you learn to practice the keyboard?” So that’s why I go to Music Mart and [bought a music book that taught me how to play the chords on the piano].

Yes?
And that’s how it start[ed]. And everything is history [after that].

Yeah. Let me ask a little bit about this history because my understanding is, and you correct me if I’m wrong, but some of the very first tunes that you recorded on the piano for Bunny Lee included Slim Smith’s song, “Never Let Me Go.” Right?
Yeah! [And] “I Have Lost.” [Also] “Love & Devotion” [before Sly Dunbar did it over with Jimmy Riley]. A whole heap of tunes [including] Val Bennett’s “The Russians Are Coming.”

Yes! That’s the song—I know I maybe messaged you [before today’s interview], Ansel, to let you know “The Russians Are Coming”—I love that song—it’s one of my favorite instrumentals—whenever I hear that. And I was so shocked, I had no idea that that was one of your first recorded piano tunes!
Yeah man, dem songs was the first set of songs dem that I start[ed] [with].

That instrumental is so heavy. And then I also realized when I was listening to it that it’s the same background rhythm for Derrick Morgan’s song that I really like, too, “The Great Musical Battle.” That rhythm is the same [as] “The Russians Are Coming” rhythm. I just love that instrumental so much—
Yeah man, yeah man.

—and to be honest, like a number of other tunes that we’ll hopefully talk about, like I said, I had no idea that you played on that. Now, Ansel, another early recording of yours that I really dig and I have to ask about—and folks can find on YouTube—is a wicked likkle song by you and the Sir JJ All-Stars, a 7-inch single which is often paired with The Ethiopians’s song “My Girl.” The song called—
“Bigger Boss!”

Yeah, “Bigger Boss!”
Yeah Man

*Editorial Note: After the interview, Ansel pointed out that “Bigger Boss!” is a version of The Ethiopians’s “Everything Crash.”