BIGGS MANIFEST

Manifest's Bio - As long as I can remember I've always loved music, when I was eight I told everyone who would listen that I wanted to make music when I grew up. My godfather bought me a guitar but with no teacher it turned into a cricket bat. My father self taught himself to play the accordion and began teaching a few of his church friends. 

At times I thought it was my wanting to be like him that pulled me towards music. I took music at school and drumming/saxophone lessons and was average at best but both teachers said I have good ears...whatever that meant ,I got a U for unclassified in my music exams. I kinda knew it would go that way. At that age I was building speaker boxes and buying records instead of practicing sight reading...thus began my sound system phase or what I think of as a lesson in music appreciation. I spent much time and money buying music at my favorite record shop SOPRANO B'S Granville arcade where I met George (if you know,you know) the Wikipedia of black music....man would travel across London to pick his brain or buy his hot tips for the next big tune. At that time Brixton had 5 record shops but George had all the pull....so when he moved 5 doors away to General record shack,so did I, remember he was going on holiday and asked me to check out his new sound Nasty Rocker and give them a hand wherever needed. I knew most of the guys from the record shop so said kool....I recall the first dance I went to with them was at St Mathew's crypt. This dance was a first for Nasty Rocker as this was their 1st time playing in a hall,all their previous gigs  were house or blues dances where both reggae and soul was played....No soul would be played that night and that was how I became a part of Nasty Rocker. It was the house party side of that sound that taught me music appreciation and the need and ability to go back in time to find the original versions of the songs that were being done as modern cover versions, we became famous for our early morning breakfast show play rare groove and revival from 4am till the milk man came.

By the mid eighties the mc's took over and the singers disappeared and I stopped buying reggae and started buy Soul and jazz,it wasn't long after that I started writing  with a couple of friends and lyrics needed music so we bought a cheap atari St computer a casino keyboard and a 4trk porta studio......then came a mixer and a drum machine and without memory we were renting a small large room in a studio complex in Stockwell. The room only had a mixer and a huge pair of tannoy speakers and with our few bits we could continue to work and learn the craft. We were fortunate to have a fully equipped studio next door called World Fair studios. I think I spent more time there than in my place, soaking up as much as I could. After a while we got a chance to do some actual recording in that studio but had to find someone to engineer the sessions. To cut a long story short the engineer had no interest in our music and that was lesson number 1 to get a good song. It starts with good source material and an engineer/producer who knows what he's doing and most importantly cares about the project. 

I had to make a decision. Is this what I wanted to do full time, or was this a hobby? It was about this time I met Dub Judah who was looking for a new home for his studio. He didn't have a lot of gear but he did have the missing link, a 16 track tape machine, so I had a couple tenants for about a year. I also left my job and studied Music Tech for 2 years. Doing small sessions, putting what I learned at college into action and spending time with Judah. Watching him work was a real learning experience on its own and a large part of being an engineer is confidence and that only comes from doing. I look back at those days as my apprenticeship and progress comes at you in the weirdest ways. 

I had to move on from my studio and had some gear in storage but I lent a few bits to Ronnie Lion at Lion studios and he gave me a day a week and anytime it wasn't booked i suppose he liked my work and offered me the choice to work as a head session engineer, I was at Lion for eight years and worked with many of the artists that I listened to as sound man and record collector and learned even more about vibe of creativity. I would do a session with Fred locks or little Roy and after would work on my own projects which moved into production much more,I had a lot of music recorded but the singer I was working with had to drop out and buy chance a friend said he new a saxophone player who love to play something different my groove was a fusion of reggae, UK soul, a little bit of funk and jazz....I'm a big fan of Grover Washington Jnr so the chance to focus on my ting with a sax player was an easy decision. 

Introducing John Sanderson, Young jazz musician of the year, twice. and to me a saxophone player of excellence who I believe was just born in the wrong country. I truly believe had he been born in America he would have been a star. The first session we had he brought 4 saxes, a clarinet, a flute, a piccolo and a collection of pipes from around the world and using his words he said, just in case....you never know what might be needed. Despite his talent he spent most of his time as part of a horn section in some band and in the studio his performances were sampled and cut into little bits and phrases that no-one would really notice. It was no surprise that given the chance to freely play what he felt was fully embraced, John showed me that musical rules were just a guideline, music is fluid like liquid....yes it flows freely downwards but will follow the path that you set, changing direction with your guidance. I listen differently because of him. We recorded 14 songs over 2 years but Lion studios closed before I could mix all the songs, something I will do soon.

I set up at home and after that my preference was to work on my own music and be more selective about the outside work I did... I had to like any projects I worked on, something I wasn't always able to do. 

I met Marley-j-wills around 2003 and we clicked our different backgrounds made, created a fusion that felt different but very UK, something we call, DAGROOVE 

Take a listen and you'll hear what I'm saying.

CLIENT LIST......recorded 

The Amharic, Twinkle brothers, Little Roy, Fred Locks, Max Romeo, Altona Ellis, Micheal Prophet, Willie Williams, Aston(family man)Barrett, Jah Thomas, Antony Johnson, Dean Frazer, Tam Tam, Dub Judah, Tez fa sion, Roy Shirley, Andrea Terrano

LIVE PERFORMANCE 

Mighty Diamonds, Twinkle Brothers, The Amharic, The Skatalites, Dennis Brown, Dub Judah, Tez fa sion, Finney Quay