Lloyd Parkes sings lead on new album

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

In a career dating back to the late 1960s, Lloyd Parkes has established himself as one of Jamaica's outstanding journeyman musicians. His prowess as a vocalist, however, has been understated.

Parkes, who started out as a vocalist at Studio One with The Termites, is resurrecting his vocal career with a new album scheduled to be released in December.

Already, the set's lead single Lover Man is getting reasonable play on local radio.

"It was difficult to balance things with the band and sing at the same time," Parkes told The Gleaner last week. "The voice is still there and I think it is the right time to have another go."

Now in his early '60s, Parkes still plays bass in the We The People band which he formed in the mid-1970s while he was a member of The Professionals, house band at producer Joe Gibbs' studio.

Interestingly, Lover Man is driven by the beat of Slaving, Parkes' first hit song as a vocalist which was recorded almost 40 years ago. He said the original track was spruced up by synthesizers for a contemporary feel.

"It (Slaving) is a great song that has held up, so we decided to add a few touches and do the vocals," Parkes explained.

Parkes had made a name for himself as a vocalist and musician prior to Slaving. After leaving The Termites, he had a stint with The Techniques then played guitar and Dave Barker and Ansell Collins' funky Double Barrell, which was a hit in Britain in 1969.

Shortly after Slaving hit, Parkes scored another hit with the self-produced Officially. In the mid-1970s, he returned to the local charts with a reggae version of singer Carl Douglas' disco smash, Kung Fu Fighting.

Parkes' last major efforts as a vocalist were an updated version of Officially for Gibbs in the late 1970s, then with the smooth Reservations For Two, which was done in the 1980s.

While he enjoyed relative success as a singer, it was for his bass playing that Parkes was best known, especially during the 1970s. He was a founding member of the bands Skin, Flesh and Bones and The Revolutionaries, which also included drummer Sly Dunbar and guitarist Ranchie McLean.

The latter was house band at the hot Channel One studio in the early 1970s. Parkes later moved to Gibbs' studio to head The Professionals, which played on several hits by Dennis Brown, Culture and George Nooks.

His vocal ambitions were curtailed further when the We The People Band became Brown's official backing band, an assignment that lasted more than 20 years.

Parkes attempted a vocal comeback in the 1990s as a member of the revamped Techniques, alongside Pat Kelly and Johnny Johnson. The trio did well in the rocksteady renaissance of that period, but folded at the start of the new decade.

The new Parkes album, which will be his fifth, is to be released by VP Records.