Count Lasher

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Count Lasher was the stage name of Terence Parkins, a Jamaican singer and songwriter who was born around 1921 and died in 1977. He came from the mountainous district of Saint Thomas. His music was mainly mento, first in a rural and later in an urban style. Mento is the folk music of Jamaica that preceded the sound of ska and reggae. In later years he also recorded a few ska and reggae singles. His age and the spelling of his real name are still disputed.

Music and breakthrough

Lasher began his career shortly after leaving school. He taught himself to play piano and guitar and travelled to Kingston, where he entertained tourists on boats in the harbour. He performed in hotels, at beach parties, at charity events and sometimes in cinemas before the film began. His debut was produced by Stanley Motta. He played with changing backing bands, such as Count Lasher's Seven, the Royal Calypsonians and Calypso Quartet. Many Jamaican artists then used names with calypso in them, because tourists knew that term better.

Influence

In his songs Lasher is a storyteller and a social commentator. He uses a great deal of colourful dialect and subjects that the island's inhabitants recognised at once, as in Mango Time. He made more than fifty songs, but never an album. The musicologist Michael Garnice calls him perhaps the most neglected artist in Jamaican recording history.

Listening