>
>============================================================================
>
>
>*Popular reggae musician Prendergast remembered*
>Shelah Moody, Chronicle Staff Writer
>Friday, June 3, 2005
>
>
>On April 1, the Bay Area lost one of its most prolific musicians. Fazal
Prendergast,
>a well-loved Jamaican-born guitarist who toured and recorded with many reggae
legends
>and led his own band in the Bay Area, drowned after his car veered off Highway
101 and
>plunged into the Eel River.
>
>Prendergast, 46, was a lanky man with cola-colored skin who was easily
recognized by his
>untamed locks and beaming smile that revealed a chipped front tooth. His band,
the
>Yellow Wall Dub Squad, formed by English bassist Amlak Tafari in 1999, was
touring and
>backing artists such as the Abyssinians, Sister Carol, Junior Jazz, the Mighty
Diamonds
>and Yami Bolo at festivals and clubs from the Bay Area to Europe.
>
>According to his close friend and manager, Robert Oyugi, on the day he died,
Prendergast
>was driving alone on his way to a gig in Arcata with reggae singer Don Carlos.
The
>previous night, Prendergast had played at a reggae bash at SoMa Arts in San
Francisco
>with Carlos and dance-hall singer Sister I-Live. Those who attended the event
remember
>Prendergast in good spirits.
>
>The accident occurred at about 1:30 p.m. in Piercy at the Humboldt County line.
It is
>unclear what caused his 1991 Mercedes Benz to swerve off the road before a
bridge and
>fall 150 feet into the river. The car immediately sank. Prendergast managed to
surface
>with his prized Fender Stratocaster and struggled to swim to shore. Bystanders
rushed
>to the banks of the river -- one person even went into the icy water in a
rescue attempt.
>But the current swept Prendergast downstream, eventually pulling him and his
guitar under.
>
>Prendergast's guitar surfaced. His body was found two hours later a quarter-
mile downstream.
>
>Oyugi, who lives in Boulder, Colo., and had been managing the Yellow Wall Dub
Squad for four
>years, was one of the first to hear the news.
>
>"He did not go back into the river to get his guitar," Oyugi said, trying to
dispel rumors
>that Prendergast died trying to save his guitar. "Most likely, the guitar was
used as a
>floating device, because it was in a soft case, which was buoyant. No one will
really every
>know."
>
>"He laid a foundation, so that we could continue, carry on," said Stevie Love,
who played
>rhythm guitar in Yellow Wall Dub Squad. "No one can take Fazal's place."
>
>Love recalled Prendergast's knowledge of the music business and his kindness.
>
>"He was a people person who was never really thinking about himself; he was
always thinking
>about other people," said Love, who had known Prendergast since they were
children in Kingston,
>Jamaica.
>
>Prendergast's career began in 1974 when he worked as a session musician with
composer Augustus
>Pablo and his Rockers International record label in Kingston. Rockers
International helped
>usher in the "dub" era (surreal, instrumental reggae with occasional vocals). A
popular
>session musician, Prendergast also recorded for Jamaica's prestigious Studio
One, Channel One
>and Bob Marley's Tuff Gong label. In 1983, Prendergast joined Earl "Chinna"
Smith's High Times
>Label and toured with Jamaican poet Mutabaruka and the High Times Players.
Prendergast played
>rhythm guitar on Mutabaruka's albums "Dub Poets Dub" and "Out Cry."
>
>During a recent book signing in the Bay Area, Mutabaruka recalled Prendergast's
wilder days
>on tour in Europe during the 1980s. Once, while traveling to a show in Genoa,
Italy, Mutabaruka
>told the band to get rid of their marijuana before they reached the border and
warned that they
>would be turned back if officials found anything.
>
>"When we reached the border, the officials came onto the bus and let the dogs
on," Mutabaruka
>said. "They found no herb in the bus, but the dogs smelled the ganja. Every
time, it was Fazal
>they went to. It was Fazal who argued with the men and cussed and went on bad.
(The officials)
>turned the bus upside down, and we ended up missing the show. It was the first
show that I
>missed in my life.
>
>"Fazal was one of my wonderful brethren," Mutabaruka said.
>
>In 1991, Prendergast settled in the Bay Area and formed his production company,
Venus One, with
>Colette McGeough, his longtime partner and mother of the couple's 9-year-old
daughter, Deardhra.
>
>"He was like a bright star that burned fast and quick," McGeough said. "In the
short period
>that I've known Fazal, it's like we condensed more into those 12 years than a
lot of people
>could live in many lifetimes."
>
>On a cold April night at McGeough's home in Middletown (Lake County),
Prendergast's friends and
>family gathered to share memories as Deardhra and Prendergast's Tibetan
terrier, Bright Eyes,
>raced through the house.
>
>McGeough's living room was warmed by a fireplace and filled with flowers from
well-wishers.
>The mantles were adorned with photos of Prendergast and his guitar.
>
>"It's been really tough for Deardhra because Fazal just adored her, and she
adored him,"
>McGeough said. "He was the favorite, and I was the disciplinarian. She's very
tough,
>and she's taking it bit by bit."
>
>McGeough, from Castleblayney, Ireland, and Prendergast met as roommates in San
Diego.
>Prendergast was a flirt, McGeough said, a romantic and a dreamer. They shared
an
>interest in the supernatural.
>
>"He had real psychic powers," McGeough said. "In Ireland, we have superstitions
>about everything and beliefs about everything that are not quite on this plane.
>Fazal was the first person I met who had even more extreme views in that way.
>He always encouraged me. Everybody else was always telling me, 'You need to
base
>yourself in reality.'
>
>"Fazal was very prophetic. He could tell me what would happen in the future.
>He told me that he would die before me. He told me where to put his guitar
>and which pictures to enlarge. All the time I was with him, he'd have me
>record him. He had so many things on video. He really had a sense of what
>was going to happen.
>
>"I didn't have that sense. I thought he was going to live until he was 92.
>His great-grandmother was over 100, and she just died."
>
>Life with Prendergast was an adventure, McGeough said. On the weekends,
>the couple, who moved from Guerneville to Middletown in 2004, would walk
>barefoot on the beach. Although the two were estranged at the time of his
>death, McGeough expressed love and admiration for her partner of 12 years.
>
>"Apart from being a musician, he could cook. He'd cook salt fish, akee
>and sorrel -- all the Jamaican dishes," McGeough said. "He was teaching
>Deardhra to sew; he was teaching her how to make doll clothes. He could
>draw and tell stories. There was a whole different dimension to him.
>Music was one aspect of his creativity."
>
>Prendergast grew up in Kingston's close-knit Mountain View district. His
>stepfather recognized his music potential when he was about 15 and sent
>him to the teacher who instructed Bob Marley. Michael Prendergast, who
>last saw his brother in 1987, recalled when, after school, they would
>watch Marley and his friends play soccer at Marley's home, Island House,
>in Kingston. Fazal adored Marley, Michael Prendergast said.
>
>Prendergast had started making techno music and had recorded two albums
>in his Guerneville studio. He was also developing a new style of music
>called "razz," a hybrid of reggae and jazz
>
>"Every day when I would come home from work, he'd have a different track,"
>McGeough said. "Some of it was reggae and some was not reggae. He also
>had an album that we co-produced that had been in the works since 1995.
>It's called 'Shadows in the Storm.' It's his most beautiful work.
>
>"Fazal was a perfectionist with his music. He was a professional. He tried
>to maintain that standard within reggae music. So many times, musicians don't
>get paid. He wanted to form a union. Fazal wouldn't take a show, even if he
>wanted it, if it didn't pay his musicians well."
>
>McGeough said she plans to finish his albums. The support of friends and
family,
>as well as her belief that Prendergast is now free, she said, are helping her
>move forward.
>
>"He will be missed," McGeough said. "Fazal is on a liberated plane, with all
>of his colleagues that went before him. He's probably organizing something
>up there right now. I'm not afraid of death anymore, because the person I
>loved the most went ahead of me."
>
>
>*Benefit and tribute*
>Fazal Prendergast Memorial Benefit with Yellow Wall Dub Squad backing special
>guests, including Don Carlos, Sister Carol and Rankin Scroo is 9:30 p. m.,
>June 11 at the Broadway Niteclub, 19 Broadway Ave. in Fairfax. (415) 459-1091,
>www.19broadway.com. Proceeds will go to the Deardhra McGeough Prendergast
>college fund.
>
>E-mail Shelah Moody at smoody@....
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>
>

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