KIRK Jones is a multi-talented musician who has warmed hearts with his musical talent ever since he was a lad. At a very young age, this artist took his love for music to another level and began making his own musical instruments; a talent which adds to his existing career as an artist/sculptor and painter.

“I think I was born to be an artist, because as far back as I could remember, I was always

using my hands to create different things and even getting five-pound butter saucepans and milk powder cans, and trying to tune them.”
Born in Silvertown, Linden, Jones, at an early age, moved with his family to Laing Avenue Georgetown, but as he grew up his godparents, the ‘John Ally’ family’ from Linden, would send for him to spend holidays with them.

Jones recalls that while in Linden, around the age of nine or 10 years old, he was at his godparents living in a block called `John Alley’ where there was a steel band nearby, called ‘Action Play Boy’.

“And at a tender age, I would go and listen to this band. Then I observed how the pans dented in and thing. So I figured that if I could get a butter saucepan or so I could do the same thing. And so, when I returned to town I tried it out, using a butter saucepan, an old hammer and six-inch nails and it worked out. I was able to get different sounds,” he said. It was a moment of great excitement for the lad who figured that he could be on his way towards constructing a band with his colleagues on Laing Avenue.

He couldn’t wait to get into gear. “The first thing I made was a tenor pan with one butter saucepan; then I made a double pan holding chords with two butter saucepans, then I put five together and that was the base. Band in action!” he declared.
Jones recalled that in those days (about 40 years ago) there weren’t things like television and so on, to entertain people locally, and so the people welcomed the little entertainment they received. He recalled that residents would come out in their numbers on the front corridor and be choicely entertained by his band, and each time they played it generated keen interest and enthusiasm.

Later, they got scooter wheels and pallets; fitted them onto the band and took to the road, tramping going down and offering “loud entertainment fuh free” as Jones described it.
“In those days, just next door, St. Pius Church had the boy scouts, cubs and brigades. And, while Guyana’s army was the GDF, I decided to form my own little army and called it the WDF (Western Defence Force) – army without weapons. We used to drill, camp, teach members to keep fit – do PT (physical training) and thing. I myself was a member of the brigade and so we tied knots; dealt with different discipline programmes just like the scouts, but were not fighting soldiers,” he said.

“Our mission was to entertain ourselves and provide entertainment for others, doing it in a disciplined fashion,” he boasted. By then Jones was just 12 years old. Asked what inspired him to start up his own little ‘force’, Jones said he gleaned inspiration from the GDF which, during its `Passing-Out Parades’ would have contingents march all the way past the local well ( in the vicinity of West Ruimveldt Back Road) and around Laing Avenue. He admired the smart and tidy-looking soldiers as they marched with pomp and ceremony, while creating a fine spectacle for residents at home and in the streets.

It was coming out of those nostalgic moments that Jones said he gained the inspiration to set up a mini army for the ‘boys of the hood’, who would do similar things and be respected like the soldiers in the army. And so they bought T-Shirts and painted on them “WDF”, they sought out calabash which they cut in half and wore on their heads as army helmets, and for guns Jones and his boys found that the Pitch Pine pallets were ideal to fashion their make-believe weapons. But for them, the biggest excitement was playing the band.

THEIR TRASH WAS OUR TREASURE
And, with a knack for ‘trying his hands’ at novel inventions, Jones said his next move was to try his hand at making instruments he’d seen in the Militia Band such as the xylophone. While he made out somehow, there was a stumbling block in that he did not know how to tune the instruments. Jones said he sought assistance from `Samco’, a company which then was specialised in tin operations and located behind West Ruimveldt. And so, the creative-thinking Jones started collecting a good many pieces of tin which he used to try his hand at fashioning the xylophone which produced a strange but nice sound.

He recalls making a string band, using various innovative means, such as discarded telephone wire to extract strings for the lead and rhythm guitars and using curtain rods with its springy effect for bass guitars. Thereafter, he and his band took Laing Avenue and West Ruimveldt by storm, and hence forth, there was never a dull moment.
“On Laing Avenue, I was like the entertainer and always attracted a multitude of children who wanted to learn positive things around me,” he said.

In time, and as he gravitated towards attracting the attention of the (then) Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, the group began taking a professional approach to music and zeroed in on their expertise. He even assisted in forming a band for the Diamond/Grove Police in the mid-1970s and prepared them for a road march, tramping from Station Street Grove to Diamond and linking up with the Merrytones Band.

“I was very satisfied and if I had to live my life over again, I would do the same things. I had a packed childhood life and I was always a leader. I always feel that the sky is the limit, and I try to give this advice to the youth because if you grow incompetent and don’t have earning power, you won’t be able to acquire the things you need for a comfortable life. And regardless of how academically strong you are, you’ll be better off learning a skill, learning a trade,” Jones advised,

More recently, Jones, having moved away from his childhood creations, has perfected himself in the musical trade and has been producing more original musical instruments for which he uses the brand name `One God’. And so his orchestra is comprised of: One God Belt Piano; One God wood Piano, One God Xylophone and the One God Musical Mesh Pan, which are altogether original and not replicated anywhere.

Jones says he has created these instruments to provide choice musical entertainment at cocktail functions. Quite recently he played at cocktail functions at the Pegasus and at Castellani House.