Pinkney ventures on new project

BY HOWARD CAMPBELL Observer senior Writer

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

GUITARIST Dwight Pinkney has covered different artistes and sounds since the release of his first instrumental album 13 years ago. He stays the course on his latest project, Dwight Pinkney & D P Band.

Pinkney, 66, put his spin on classic Jamaican pop songs on Jamaican Memories By The Score and More Memories. He paid tribute to a legend on his previous set, Pinkney Picks Marley Melodies.

This time around, the veteran musician revisits the work of The Ventures, a rock band that enjoyed great success in the 1960s with instrumental versions of The Champs’ Tequila and House Of The Rising Sun which was originally done by British group, The Animals.

The Ventures, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, have many admirers including Pinkney who made a name for himself in bands like the Sharks, Zap Pow and Roots Radics.

“I was always impressed by their guitar sound,” he told the Observer.

“What I did was put a Jamaican ingredient to the songs while not moving away from the original melodies.”

In addition to the aforementioned songs, Pinkney covers two famous instrumentals The Ventures recorded: theme songs for the James Bond movies and Hawaii Five O television series.

Ten of the 12 songs on ‘D P Band’ were recorded by The Ventures, but Pinkney also cut the original Twilight Zone and covered I Feel Good, a big hit in 2011 for singer Beres Hammond, his former Zap Pow bandmate.

The album is accompanied by a DVD of Pinkney performing five songs from the album in a club setting.

Born in Manchester, Pinkney has crafted a succession of well-received instrumental albums, starting with Jamaican Memories By The Score in 1999.

It came after years playing in three successful bands, first of which were the Sharks which backed groups like the Wailers.

In the early 1970s, he was a member of Zap Pow, a progressive reggae band that also included bass player Michael Williams, trumpeter David Madden and saxophonist Glen DaCosta.

Zap Pow had a massive hit in 1971 with This Is Reggae Music.

Pinkney had even greater success with the Roots Radics, arguably the hottest band in the 1980s when they worked with producer Henry ‘Junjo’ Lawes on numerous hit songs.

The ‘Radics’ also recorded and toured with Bunny Wailer, Gregory Isaacs and Israel Vibration.

Pinkney and distributor Tads Records plan to officially launch Dwight Pinkney and D P Band in March.