‘Sugar Bum Bum’ ...Remembering ‘Dr Soca’ Ed Watson

‘Sugar Bum Bum’ ...Remembering ‘Dr Soca’ Ed Watson
Michael Mondezie, Trinidad Expres, July 6th, 2024
https://trinidadexpress.com/features/local/sugar-bum-bum/article_56734d64-3c02-11ef-a880-1766fdb854e7.html

“I gave Kitch ‘Sugar Bum Bum’. I tell him, this go be the best song on the album. He say: ‘joke’. He did not know what I was planning for the arrangement.”

That account from Herbert Ed Watson, on the origin story of Lord Kitchner’s (Aldwyn Roberts) iconic 1977 hit “Sugar Bum Bum”, was reported by the late Express entertainment journalist Terry Joseph in this paper on February 6, 2000, five days before the Grandmaster’s passing. Joseph, who passed away in the United States on January 02, 2008, quoted Watson further:

“Kitch came over one morning and started dancing around the living room, to get vibes. This is how he used to do a lot of his work. I say Kitch I have a nice beat here and melody line, sing something with it and see what happening nah… We went to my son Roger’s room to the keyboard. I started with the bass on the left hand and strumming the right hand then I picked out the melody and we start doing it and I say What boy, I better tape this!” The memory of that day came rushing back to Roger Watson, following the passing of his father last week Sunday. Watson, who now resides in the United States, woke up to the news the man dubbed “Dr Soca” and “The King of Soca”, had passed away at his Abbe Poujade Street, Carenage home. He was 93. “They came into my room and Kitch saw my little sister (Arlene) dancing to the beat. He say, ‘That’s a hit! When this song becomes a hit I will buy you A chopper bicycle’. So said, so done. Six months later she had a brand-new chopper bicycle,” Roger recalled in an interview with Kitcharee earlier this week. A world-class father

Ed Watson made a name for himself and calypso/soca music around the world with his self-titled Brass Circle. Born in Clifton Hill, a five-year-old Ed was sent to stay with relatives in Teteron after nearly being struck by a car. He eventually settled in Carenage where he picked up his first instrument, the steel pan. He later bought his first piano for $80, Roger shared. Ed is best known for his big band interpretations of popular ballads and pop music during the late 60s and into the 70s. The charismatic music pioneer would go on to apply that big brass sound to soca music arrangements, which became a template for bands in the late 80s and 90s.

Although Ed was consumed in laying the groundwork for the mother music of these islands, however, he was never too busy for his children, Roger said. “The man behind the music was a great father and people will hear at the celebration of his life just how many people he impacted behind the scenes. Even myself find out today about some of the things he did. A real community man, a real family man,” an audibly touched Roger recounted. Roger said he and sisters Kathy Ann, Desiree and Arlene painfully witnessed their father’s mental decline from dementia in recent years. Ed has two other sons Christopher Thomas and Shadwell Griffith. “It’s hard, but we saw he was on the decline with the dementia, and we were aware at some point that he would move on. He spared no ends to take care of us. So we were privileged to take care of dad as he was ailing into his final years,” Roger said. Despite his own health challenges Ed remained the doting dad, checking in regularly on the well being of his children, their spouses and grandchildren, Roger said.

“I had lost my first wife and I told him I’d come and take care of him and stay with him and he told me ‘Absolutely not! Continue your path; live your life and I’d be alright.’ He would come up when he could to the States and in spite of his own challenges he was always concerned about us our spouses and kids,” Roger said. Securing a rich legacy

Roger acknowledged there is little to no information on the legendary work of his father online. He is aiming to change that and has already started the Ed Watson and the Brass Circle Facebook and YouTube accounts where he is uploading audio and video of the band to better tell their story to new audiences. “One of the things I asked him to do when I was leaving the country was to get a good young manager to get his items together and preserve it. Unfortunately, he did not,” Roger lamented.

Proper documenting of the work of the nation’s culture icons will take the establishment of “a strong historical base recording system, a government with a genuine stake in the arts and the willingness of the subject themselves to share”, he mused. “Is enough being done? The answer is in the question itself. The answer is an obvious no. But it’s more layered than that,” Roger said.

Above all, the younger Watson said he would remember his father’s genuine love for music and cherish the time they spent on the road together.

“I would miss his wit. He was not someone who was running fame and fortune he just loved music. I remember days and nights he would be up late and up early writing songs on the piano. He always had some good stories of when he was travelling, working for Sparrow or Kitchener, and the original Brigade tent in SWWTU building on Wrightson road,” Roger said. Stories like the one Ed shared, in that account to Terry Joseph.

“When we hit Coral studios and we start to play, even the manager left his office and came to the studio. Kitch self say ‘Oh God!’ when he heard the final arrangement. We had a hit!”