By Adam Reeves.
In 2022, I started a YouTube channel, Roots to the Bone, with the purpose of interviewing some of the world's leading ska and reggae trombonists about how they have been influenced by the originators of ska. I did seven videos, before running out of steam as other activities took priority. I'm sharing the content of those interviews as a series of blog posts.
Here is a transcript of my discussion with Chainska Brassika's Lucas Petter. I'm excited to be working with Lucas in 2025 alongside the production of issue two of the Trombone Man comic book series. Together with producer Gripper Laybourne (Hempolics), Lucas is working on a four track EP to be included as a the soundtrack to this issue, with the intention of releasing it on vinyl, packaged with the comic book. We hope to keep releasing new music with each issue.
Lucas comes from a family of trombonists. His uncle is Chris Petter who went to the same school as me, although about four years older than myself. He stuck in my mind because as an older kid, Chris was always very friendly and didn't seem bothered by age difference. Many years after leaving school, to my amazement, I spotted Chris on stage playing trombone in UK reggae-techno band, Zion Train. Chris has played with, among others, Steel Pulse, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Conscious Sounds, and has his own reggae band, Love Grocer.
Adam: Tell me a bit about coming from a trombone-playing family.
Lucas: Yeah I was kind of surrounded because my Dad was a trombonist as well, Tim,
Chris' brother, so I remember just being a little kid and seeing these these instruments
sliding in and out and I remember thinking they sounded quite weird. I didn't really like them, to be honest, at first, but as I got older I kind of got a bit of interest. I had a go on my Dad's one and I guess a lot of work was done for me, because I'd heard a lot of trombone being played already, so uh, I guess I had no choice!
Adam: Chainska Brassika formed while you were at school in South East London. Was that Lewisham, New Cross, that part of the world?
Lucas: Yeah there's a school called Askes in New Cross and they had a really quite strong music department and I hooked up with a few guys who were about and we started playing kind of rock-funk but we had a horn section and I was in a ska band previously to that as well when I was a little bit younger and, I was like, 'why don't we try to play some ska because it's like, you know it's very horn orientated brass, orientated, so we started playing some covers like Message to You Rudy and all the classics and realized that the audiences could dance to it and it was really 'jump-up' music, you know, so it it kind of just clicked for the set-up that we had really.
Adam: And it just kind of took off didn't it? And you rode a wave, by the time you were in your early twenties you were supporting Madness on big tours, playing stadiums. Then you won the Best Reggae Band in the World competition, and the prize was a recording session at legendary Jamaican studio, Harry J's, which became your second album, Harry J Business.
Lucas: Well it was definitely a rocky road, with ups and downs, as these things are, but yeah it was definitely a kind of trajectory upwards. Like we kind of started, and did our first album, then we were doing the festival gig circuit. We went on tour with Madness, we won a competition in Poland which took us to Jamaica and we recorded an album in Harry J's Studios in Kingston which was completely unbelievable, to be honest.
We supported the Skatalites on quite a few dates and just kind of met a massive network of people and travelled to different places and as young adults, or young teenagers, that's just invaluable, that life experience, you know? And, yeah we're still together today, ten years later.
Adam: So, going right back to the beginning can you remember how you found ska? What was your entry point into ska and reggae?
Lucas: Through the family, they were all kind of playing various different genres of, like, world music really. From klezma to folk to whatever, but there was definitely reggae in there and I remember liking some of the the old reggae tunes my dad had, through my mum. And I guess that kind of got me into early Desmond Dekker and that kind of ska. and the kind of ska. I think it was probably reggae, rocksteady or me at the very start and then, yeah once I got a little piece, I was like (spins hands to indicate a rapidly rolling process) 'give me more!', yeah!
Adam: What is it about trombone that is so important to the sound of ska and reggae? What do you think it does to the music?
Lucas: It isn't like it with jazz. Jazz is pretty much trumpet and sax. But I guess the 'bone is like, one of its best qualities is it's like, so expressive. With the slide it's very moody and it's very much like the human voice with the slides and the groans and all of that kind of thing. Reggae is pure vibe music and at the end of the day, it's all about the energy and the sounds and the feeling of the music, so I think 'bone just maybe sat on that well and it can be quite slow and quite chilled out, it doesn't have to be super-fast like the trumpet or the sax. I'm not really sure how that happens but the trombone can be simultaneously, joyful and sad, it rides that line between melancholic and really uplifting and I guess, you know, Don Drummond and Rico they encapsulated that in their playing. There's a sort of intensity.
Adam: So, how would you suggest disciples of the trombone could strive to capture that
intensity, that high wire act of sadness and joy, which kind of comes from somewhere within doesn't it?
Lucas: You know, life is a funny thing! You can aim for something, but more often than not, you end up with a little bit of what you've aimed for but also something else and that something else is probably your inherent style as a musician. So, you know, everyone has their own kind of trademark. Like Rico Rodriguez, he's got that kind of classic stoned, stuttering, melodic brilliance. He's jolting, but it's just beautiful. Don Drummond is just fast and agile but makes it sound so light and easy and he's just super high and also kind of melodically sad to the point of, it's like he's kind of weeping. In some of the minor, minor solos, you know, it's very very sad. And then, Vin Gordon, he's very much a disciple of Don, but also just super-concentrated on his flexibility and his technique. He's just really, technically, a brilliant trombone player. So I guess everyone's got their style but maybe to find out your style, just try and copy some of your influences and try and see where you where you end up.
Adam: You supported the Skatalites... How important are they to you in terms of their legacy in reggae and Jamaican music in general. What do they mean to you?
Lucas: Yeah, I was thinking about this earlier, actually. It's amazing when you you think, in musical history, how many bands have actually coined a whole genre? And the Skatalites, to be honest, they kind of are ska music, really. Obviously, it was a whole movement back then and there were lots of different people involved, but they are the summit, they're the epicentre of the whole genre. So I think, to be honest, their importance is incomprehensible. You know, they all started off as studio musicians, so they weren't just the band the Skatalites, they were playing on all the hits of that time, all the great singers that we've heard of, to come out of Jamaica in the '60s, the Skatalites were the people playing the music in the back, for the most part, so their input and their legacy, I don't think will ever truly be correctly praised or understood.
Adam: I asked Lucas for two favourite tunes with trombone on them to add to the Roots to the Bone playlist, featuring suggestions from all the trombonists I interviewed.
Lucas: There's a tune called Carry Go Bring Home by Justin Hines and the Dominoes
and that tune always just gave me like a, it was like a kind of party, high energy and it opens with a big trombone line and it was always just like 'yes', it's time to go, it's just energy, energy. With a nice solo in the middle. Another one to check out, is like a kind of a classic, Man in the Street by Don Drummond and the Skatalites, its like a classic theme song which like a lot of those Skatalites tunes, they were covers of films and and famous themes, but that tune has just got something about the recording and the energy of the solos and it really kind of encapsulates that whole time for me, and yeah, if you're a trombonist and you want to have a go at learning the solo, it's a wicked solo as well! It's funny because it's such an intense tune and it's like it's just pumping, pumping, pumping and then there's the trumpet solo and just when you think it's going to go into the head and done (the 'head' is jazz-speak for the melody), Don just comes in and goes, 'Boom! Step out the way!' He takes the tune over and it ends. You've got to remember, like they were recording these tunes in one take, this wasn't like the modern day studio where you can you can ask for three or four goes a solo, they were doing one take so it's testament to their musicianship how slick they were and obviously, you know, there's a beauty of ska which is that some of the recordings sound old and you can hear some tuning issues and mistakes and stuff but, yeah, that's the beauty of the music really.
You can hear Lucas' choices on the Roots to the Bone playlist:
More about Lucas Gabriel Petter:
Born into a family of trombonists, Lucas is a founding member of Chainska Brassika and has collaborated with iconic artists such as Horace Andy and the Skatalites. With over 17 years of experience across the UK and European music scenes, Lucas is a versatile multi-instrumentalist specializing in trombone, guitar, and piano. His music is a seamless blend of classical and jazz theory infused with the vibrant rhythms of ska, reggae, and jazz.
Lucas’s lifelong passion for ska began at age 12 when he saw the Skatalites perform live—a moment that shaped his musical journey. This passion deepened in2016 during a transformative visit to Jamaica, where he recorded an album at the legendary Harry J Studios and visited the renowned Alpha Boys School, connecting him to the rich legacy of trombonist Don Drummond.
Drummond’s ground breaking style has been a constant source of inspiration for Lucas, leading to his involvement in the Trombone Man comic series. Teaming up with Grippa Laybourne of The Hempolics, Lucas is composing a soundtrack EP for issue 2 in the series, paying homage to the iconic sound and spirit of Don Drummond. The main track was initially recorded in 2022 as a soundtrack to a two minute time lapse film of a piece of street art being sprayed on a wall in Brighton to announce the arrival of the Trombone Man comic. We thought at the time that it was good enough to work up into a single, and numerous people have since asked what the track is and if its available. So we're glad to be be finally following through on that. Here's the street art video:
A few clips of the recent studio session, 24th January 2025, building upon the track in the video above:
Comments