Contents - Beth Lesser

the most crowds. Sassa figured that was because he had the whole Twelve
Tribes behind him. Sassa decided to make a gimmick for himself, so he started
deejaying about horses. He even borrowed his name from an American
race horse. The gimmick worked. “I become the ‘horseman’. So, I have all the
racehorse people in Jamaica following me”.
In fact, the theme fit the whole Scorpio operation perfectly. Jack Scorpio
was another horseman at heart who ended up owning race horses, and the
sound often played out at the race track. Sassafras would entertain the jockeys
with his Horseman Connection lyrics, over the ‘Diseases’ rhythm, listing all
the great champions
Sinbad connected to Nobad
Nobad connected to Royal Dad
Royal Dad connected to Bagdad
Bagdad connected to Superstar
Superstar connected to My Lad
What a whole heap of Dad and Lad
Ina the horseman connection……
When Sassafrass eventually moved to Canada in the ‘80s, he left his protégé,
General Trees, to carry the show, pretty much on his own, for years as
the ‘younger horseman’.
General TreeS
Jack had always seen something special in his second star performer. “Seeing
Trees work on a stage, he’s different from the rest of the artists. [Even if]
he don’t have to have a [hit] song to really perform to an audience, he will
make you happy and laugh. He’s wonderful.”
General Trees was no ‘loafter’. While his records were climbing the charts
in the ‘80s, he continued to practice his trade of shoemaking. In a little wooden
shack close to his home, he and his fellow tradesmen created women’s
sandals and men’s slippers out of dyed leather. His father had been a cobbler
and taught him the trade. In the beginning, Trees had never had any interest
in music and no dreams of performing.
“The first thing I tried to do, I was trying to turn a Jockey. I run away from
home. I go to Caymanas Park. But the life was too rough. I couldn’t manage
it. The mosquitoes would kill me, man!”
So, he followed his father into shoemaking. But, music was never far away
in the ghetto. Right by the shop, a sound used to play – just a small local hifi
– and Trees would listen as he worked. “Whenever time I’m working, and he
come and sting up the sound, I don’t do anymore work, I just want to go over
on the sound.”
Still, it had never occurred to him to try to get a turn at the mic. Until, one
day, deejay Lord Sassafrass came to get his shoes repaired and he heard Trees
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