Hux Brown was full of life

THE EDITOR, Madam:

PORT ANTONIO’S ‘Hux’ Brown died in California. He was such a great musician and my childhood friend from primary and high school days in Portland. We used to congregate at the railway station where the Lubseys lived, and those parents were ever so hospitable. Some of us frequently fished and swam in the West Harbour. There was no marina then.

We listened to CMQ, Rrrradio Havana, Rrrradio Santiago, Radio Jamaica (& Rediffusion), and on Friday and Saturday nights, we gorged on the hits from WINZ-FM in Miami. Even from then, Hux unchained his guitar and made our times very sweet and innocent just as Fidel was making us covert but zealous little Communists. The music and the polemics against Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar came our way via ondas cortas (short waves) from static-punctuated tirades on Rrrradio Rrrrebelde, deep in Cuba’s Sierra Maestra.

We all knew the significance of the Moncada Barracks and of Fats Domino and of Dave Brubeck courtesy of Los Cubanos and

TELEFUNKEN.

Thank you Carl, Vin, Norma, and Margaret Lubsey for the roles you played in encouraging us. Thanks to Merrick Robinson, too. He introduced us to sound electronics on that magical veranda. How the vacuum tubes and “magic eyes’ glowed and the smell of soldering irons, molten shellac, and burnt capacitors became akin to incense, triggering very secular thrills and asthma – forget dat – as Hux would slowly unsling his guitar and transform at the touch of its strings amplified by Mr Rob and my other generous Godfather, Mr Pottinger! T Rob was but a thought then.

TADP came three, or so, years later with JBC medium wave radio.

Hux Brown, the experimenter, was a pied guitarist (he literally wore multicoloured T-shirts). He kept us alive and coming back for more. I mourn his loss and commiserate with his family, the fraternity, and his acquaintances.

I celebrate my precious friend, Rest In Peace.

DENNIS A. MINOTT A-QuEST, Port Antonio