Don Drummond was admitted a number of times to Bellevue Mental Hospital–sometimes at his own doing, other times at Her Majesty’s Pleasure, namely the last time. The song, “This Man is Back,” was composed by Drummond after one of his stints in the hospital. It was released in 1961 for Coxsone Dodd’s All Stars label.
I recently came across this article in the Star Newspaper from May 13, 1962. It is titled, “The return of Don Drummond,” and it reads, “Ossie’s Lucas Inn, 15 Mountain View Avenue, seems the ideal spot for all jazz fans this afternoon with the presentation of a terrific afternoon of live jazz, featuring the return of Drummond on trombone. Drummond, whose skill on the trombone is well known, will be playing with the Carlos Malcolm Conbo,Carlos also producing sounds on the T-Bone. In fact, the session,which starts at 4:00 p.m.,will mark the return of another Jamaican jazz wizard, Tommy McCook (tenor sax) who returned last week from engagements in Nassau. Other musicians in the session are Baba Motta, piano, Taddy Mowatt,bass, and Carl McLeod, drums.”
A Star Newspaper article on Friday, May 18, 1962 previewed a subsequent McCook show with the title, “Tommy McCook for Lucas Inn.” It read, “Tommy McCook, Jamaican tenor saxophonist who has been creating quite a sensation since his recent return from Nassau,will be playing tonight and tomorrow night at Lucas Inn, Mountain View Avenue. In recent weeks, Lucas Inn has been a spot for “the most” jazz fans and Sunday last Tommy brought the house down when he appeared on the session, which included names as Don Drummond, trombone, Rolan Alphanso [sic. Roland Alphonso], tenor saxophone, Baba Motta, piano, and Billy Cooke, trumpet, among others. Tommy has been busy preparing some new sounds for his engagements. He sounds off tonight at 9:00.”
Heather Augustyn 