A confident swagger of a musical giant- King Errisson

In the Bahamas today, the phrase "Bahamians have lost their culture" has rolled off many wagging lips, especially during times when foreign musicians like Beres Hammond are brought in on work permits, to entertain scores of young people at almost astronomical prices.

Sometimes one has to step back a bit into history, to realize the rich culture Bahamians have, but they tend to imitate, so many other cultures that true Bahaminisation is slowly slipping away... soon to be lost, if not embraced.

In an attempt to educate and enlighten young minds this roving reporter has searched out a world renowned musical entertainer and Bahamian living legend to feature for a true taste of culture.

King Errisson Pallman Johnson, is known by most of his fans and peers in the musical arena as 'King.'

On a recent trip to the Nassau Guardian, King, who is presently touring with Neil Diamond, sat down with this reporter and allowed a glimpse into his life from birth onto continuing stardom.

"I might not have been born around the time when King Errisson, 63, graced the big screen or played big gigs, but one thing is true today, he has never lost his confident strides."

His Life with the big gig

"As for my, name when I was born my grandmother, Petrona Johnson, named me. I became her King from birth. I've had that King name to live up to all my life," King explained.

On the road, in search of stardom, Mr. Errisson said he just abbreviated his name to King Errisson. He said, "it was just too much name; too long for people to remember."

King said his big break came with the shooting of the movie Thunderball which starred Sean Connery. "He use to come down to the Conch Shell Club every evening after he got through, when they were scouting places to shoot. The Conch Shell was the place where they (all the actors) hung out. I think Roy Bowe was a very good friend of a man named Kevin McClory, who was one of the first big movie producers to come from The Bahamas. He brought Thunderball here to shoot. Kevin and I were always pretty close," he said.

After his talents with the drums were heard the deal was sealed and King got his big gig with Connery. Initially he said "everybody thought it was favoritism, but I had to out play every drummer in the world to get the part," he said noting "they did not just throw it in my lap." The percussionist said he felt "wonderful" when he heard that he had received the role, even going as far as being careful about driving and other activities, "because I wanted to do that bad .... and I wanted to do it good. I became like a saint those few weeks doing it and while preparing to do it. And it worked out fine."

King said that his biggest regret with the movie was that "we did not have the proper union; people to look after young people in The Bahamas at that time to help guide us and secure a future for us."

In particular, Mr. Errisson said he was paid handsomely when he performed in the film, but no arrangements with respect to royalties have been paid, as opposed to other films which he has been a part of and is continually paid royalties for.

"That picture has been shown a million and ten times and I have not gotten a dime, because we did not know about contracts... we had nobody representing us," he said.

At the time when Thunderball was shot, King said that he was 23-years-old. "I was one of the key figures in the film, because James Bond was supposed to be dancing with this girl, after being chased by these guys who were trying to kill him. He went into this bar called the 'Kiss Kiss Club,' where I was playing. When he sees the girl who is the villain, he grabs her up and starts dancing with her and while he is dancing with her this guys points a gun out through the curtain; that comes next to me. When I saw the gun, the music was playing nice and soft and beautiful, but when I saw that gun pointing out of the curtain, I broke away from dance music into a drum solo," he said alerting Bond to the plot on his life. "As the crescendo got going it covers the sound of the gun, so when I reached to my climax he turned the girl and she got shot. That's when he sat her down at the table and says, would you mind if she sits here a moment, she is just dead," he says laughingly, stating that it was a beautiful line.

On the road entertaining

With the arrival of the King came calls from all over the world, he said. "Every time I got an offer I took it. My next big gig after that was a place called the Caravan Club on Queen Street in Toronto, Canada," he said. After being there for a year, Mr. Errisson said he jetted off to New York, where his career blossomed as a jazz musician.

"My agents put me together with some of the finest jazz musicians in the world to teach me jazz, because I was a calypsonian. And these guys would take my calypso and turn them into jazz," King said.

Moreover he said because of the musical combinations many of his shows were sold-out. "That's where I met my mentor in music. The one guy I give all the credit to for teaching me jazz and how to be a total star. He was a guy by the name of Canabol Adderley, who was born and raised in Long Island," dubbed by Errisson, as one of the greatest musicians that ever lived, but unknown by most Bahamians.

He reiterated that his career span has been good, highlighting that for the past 28 years he has performed with Neil Diamond. An experience that has allowed him to tour the world he said some 12 times.

He expressed pleasure with the job, as it allowed him to work for five or six months or a year straight. "After that, we take a year off and that is when I turn into King Errisson and do things for myself; make my own records or writing screen plays to sell," he said. For Mr. Diamond, he said that he plays all of the percussion instruments.

"Right now I am working on a new album and I don't have a title for it. I have been working on this album for four years, because I have been doing it in the middle of working with Neil," he said, adding that he was repackaging a lot of his old albums to compact disc. King Errisson said that he has 13 albums under his belt.

"When I was a youngster I was sitting on my aunt's porch in the Grove and I was practising my drums and a tourist passed by and heard me playing. He stopped his car in front of the porch, got out and he came up to me and said, 'who are you?' I said I'm the King. He said, 'Well I've been around the world and I have heard all sorts of drummers, but I have never heard anyone as good as you," he recalled. The man explained that he owned a club in Boston, Massachusetts and offered King a job. "So, I said no, I am not good enough yet. I said, when I am good enough, I will give you a call. Give me your card," he said.

A year later, a confident King called him up, told him "I am the best in the world now, you still got that job." At age 19, Mr. Errisson said he flew to Boston and played in the club for about six months, returned home and teamed up with 'Sweet Richard'.

"He was the greatest limbo dancer in the world... he was beautiful," describing him as a light skinned fella from Long Island, who was proud of his heritage. With a physique of a god, King said "he walked around bare foot and in a loin cloth... he was quite a character."

Sweet Richard was another person who educated King on the art of entertainment and how to do things, he said.

Moreover he said, Princess Kitty, Sweet Richard's wife, was another character, who he thought was the most beautiful woman ever.

"We did a film called 'World By Night' and he was fantastic in it, doing what he does. I knew if he didn't die, he was going to be a movie star," Errisson stated.

"I was one of those eager young kids. You could offer me a job I would have the job, but I'm leaving the job for the new one to check something else out.

He worked with Sweet Richard for a year in Florida at a place called the Play Spaghelli, before a better offer came along. That upset Richard who told King "crazy baby, crazy. I'm gonna miss you, but I know you've gotta do what you got to do."

This new job allowed him to work in Japan along with the second greatest limbo dancer, 'The Deacon (Percy Whylly).' "I stayed in Japan a whole year with The Deacon," where he did movies, commercials and learned how to speak Japanese.

On his return back home he said, about three months later he ended up playing in Thunderball, where he had worked at the Conch Shell with Lord Swain for about two months before he quit and King took over the band.

Career highlight

Mr. Errisson deemed his career highlight a time "when I co-wrote a piece with Sammy Davis Jr., for a television series called 'The Hollywood Palace'. I wrote this piece where me and all the drummers would have a battle. And Sammy Davis Jr. would do the tap dancing," which resulted in a fight between he and three other drummers on the drums. "We are fighting by the drums, and my most beautiful moment was when I finished up the last riff, and Sammy Davis Jr. looked at me and looked at everybody else and said 'we can't touch that'."

King Errisson on reflection said "those were good moments."

Motivation

"Nothing is going to fall in your lap," he said to other aspiring musicians and entertainers. "You have to get up and go get it. We have no help here at all in trying to make stars out of our youngsters. We have no encouragement, as a matter of fact we don't have any culture in The Bahamas at all. I don't know who we are. When I was growing up we had a culture. At least we had Sweet Richard, Richard Alamore, Paul Mayers, The Deacon and Pat Rolle," he said.

He encouraged entertainers and musicians to go back to their culture of playing cowbells, or playing Junkanoo drums like John Chipman and Peanuts Taylor.

Additionally, he said there was a need for more music and drama schools, for people to get creative. "We don't want Sidney Poitier going around thinking that he is going to be the only great Bahamian ever," he said.