Tony Maronie

Tony Maronie was born in Dominica and came to London as a young boy. His interest in percussion came as a teenager and he credits the charismatic Russell Henderson, one of the founders of the Notting Hill Carnival, as his musical mentor. 

Tony has performed, recorded, and toured with many of the musical giants of the past 35 years including luminaries as:

Billy Ocean, Wham, Claude François, Guy Chambers, Joss Stone, George Martin, Steve Winwood, Brian Eno, Billy Bragg, Barry White, Charles Aznavour, Roxy Music, Artie Shep, Bronski Beat, Nick Heyward, Boney M, The Real Thing, Jocelyn Brown, Osibisa and The Brotherhood of Breath.

Tony was one of the original members of the influential jazz-funk group The Breakfast Band and today continues to tour and be in much demand as a session musician. 

Exclusive Interview  

Q: Where are you originally from?  When did you arrive in London?

From the Caribbean. Eastern Carribean, Dominica. I came when I was probably 8 years old when my mum sent for me, she was up here from the 50’s you see. She came here because the Mother country needed help up here, you know, the Wind Rush stuff…. it was that. They started taking people from all different parts of the Caribbean, you know, after the war. So she was cleaning to make money. She was 16 or 17 when she had me so was still young and she left me in the Caribbean because all the family was still there, my uncle, my auntie, and my grandmother.  I didn’t really know her, I mean I saw her pictures but I didn’t know my mum (or my dad).  I didn’t want to come here, I hated it, and I missed my friends, the sun and sea. When I got here to Ladbroke Grove, I couldn’t believe it, it was freezing! I was sick every winter, as soon as they mentioned winter was coming I started shivering!

Q: When did you start playing and was percussion your first choice of instrument?

Always in the Caribbean we’re surrounded by music and we also have carnival in Dominica every year, the same time as Trinidad and Brazil. No one in my family plays aside from an uncle but I had it in me.

I went to school here at Isaac Newton School in Ladbroke Grove and left school when I was 17. The first thing I did was to pick up the bass. I saved up, yea. There was a rare bass guitar on Goldhawk Road in Shepherds Bush that I used to pass all the time but it was too expensive at like £16 or £17! But what you have to understand is the wages were like £6 or £7 per week! So I didn’t get that one but got another one and just tried to play it. Portobello Road where the market is, in the late 60’s was all hippies. Jimi Hendrix lived around here and Bob Marley used to come down and hang. They weren’t really known then but you see, in the West Indian community, we supported our own music because it wasn’t played on the radio at all, so we all hung out.

Anyway there was a music shop on Portobello Road where they had a white pair of bongos (small drums), and every time I walked up and down I’m watching these drums for years but I thought, I don’t know anyone who plays them. So anyway I got them and we used to go to parties and I’d bring them but I didn’t know the technique of it, I just liked how it felt and sounded.

I’ve always had what they call common sense to know that each musical instrument is an art to learn how to play. I’ve always known that as a kid from the Caribbean. Some people are lucky enough to just pick it up and play but I didn’t know f+#k all and figured you can’t go wrong really! Ha! Then percussionist Bobby Stignac who had been playing for years and was playing in a band called Gonzalez, showed me the basics, how to use my hands on the bongos and what I was doing wrong.

He said to me ‘listen, music is a funny thing, if you get the wrong technique and you do it yourself, when it come to learn it properly you just find it difficult.’ So I had to undo what I knew and practice a lot, rudiments, all of it. I used to bring those drums with me everywhere I’d go. I was practicing all the time, all the time. Every day. 8 hours a day. All different techniques. I was focused.

Q: What was your first gig?

We started a 5 or 6-piece band with a guy called Steve Alpert, who was already professional and could read. They were all into Chick Corea and that sort

of thing, just music that we liked. We used to rehearse in Queens Park in a basement of a pub by the roundabout there, which was one of the first places I did a gig but there was no money involved yet! I was gigging before being paid. That didn’t last too long! Ha!

So anyway through Bobby, I was listening to all these Latin albums and I’m listening to the bongos but didn’t realize, the congas were there as well and said, what’s that Bob!? And he says to me it’s a set for a particular type of music, Latin music, which wasn’t that old, about 60 years and showed me Mongo Santa Maria and all these guys and I thought this is more serious than I thought! So I got the whole lot! The timbales, the bongos and a conga.

A guy called Allan Sharp used to make Natal drums, they were all over the place and good drums and he used to play with Gonzalez as well. I used to tell him I can’t afford these drums so he gave me one conga because he liked me, I was only about 17 or 18 at the time. He started showing me things but then you get to a certain level where nobody else can teach you anything, it’s up to you. I was confident and never shy but I got a shock when one time the bandleader stopped the whole band to see what I was playing. But I did it and at this stage I thought I would take it seriously.

Q: Who was the first percussionist that wowed you?

Armando Peraza - Santana’s percussion player. He’s Cuban. I knew of him before I met him. You see Bobby’s favourite record he used to play for me was a song called Afro Blue from Mongo Santa Maria (who’s one of my favorite drummers, also Cuban) and then you realised this guy is specialised in this. It’s got nothing to do with the drum kit; it’s just a whole different vibe. Like what is that all about!? And then I had to listen to the clave, the 2 and the 4, all the different claves and I’m going. ‘Where’s the f*¢king back beat?’ All of a sudden it wasn’t there, with no lead or guide and I’m going, ‘how did Armando keep it in time?’ Anyway I met him at Trader Vic’s at the London Hilton and met him afterwards at a friend’s house and I’m thinking ‘f*#kin hell, this guy’s just finished playing for 20,000 people and here’s Armando Peraza playing in front of me!’

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve received that’s stuck with you?

From Armando Peraza, who said to me ‘Listen Tony Marone, what you have to do is, you have to look after your hands”. And what he does is he cuts his calluses, and I do the same thing. I’ve got surgical blades and it’s just like scraping hard skin off, like shaving it down. It makes you play better with more control of the skin. But you have to do it very early because all these calluses start coming out and you’ll be playing on the calluses. So to this day I’ve kept that advice and I still do it. That means the drums don’t even have to be tuned and somehow I find a way to get the sound.

He also said, everybody has different genetics. Some people can’t play the congas as good as they want because all their fingers would split. Mongo Santa Maria was like that and he used to tape his arms up. Some people it won’t affect, some people will do one show and their hands will blister. It’s just genetics.

 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armando_Peraza)

Q: Which artists influenced you and why?

I was checking artists at Ronnie’s and all of the giants of jazz. I saw Miles and Dizzy and Ella and Nina Simone. The most memorable was Dizzy, he came on stage with a dressing gown; he was eccentric. Ronnie’s at this time, people were eating and somebody said something to Dizzy from the audience and he said back ‘I will deal with you later’. Everybody went quiet. Serious. Just like that. They don’t ask you to like their music, you see.

By this stage I had caught up on these artists and by that time at about 17, 18 and 19 years of age you’re just full up of music.  Dizzy stood out though because I knew that it was him that started bebop. And when he played his f*#ckin cheeks came out! I couldn’t believe it; honestly, it was like a puffer fish!

Q: What’s your percussion set up?

My set up is very basic. Two congas, timbales, bongos. That’s it. And a few little extras. I always like to play LP’s (Latin Percussion) because they know about those things. When they make the drums they know exactly what they do. They’re from New York and all the Latin guys play them.

 Q: What other styles of music do you love?

I just love music. All kinds. Jazz. Whatever jazz is. I’ve always liked country style like Bob Dylan. I don’t like the blue grass stuff too much but the nice country stuff you know. Some of the songs of Willie Nelson are serious. He’s kind of funky you know but in country.

 Q: What other artists have you played with? And have you a highlight?

I was asked to do a gig for a group called The Real Thing. That was 1973. We supported the Jackson 5. At a theatre in Finsbury Park called the Rainbow. We did 4 shows and rehearsed for a whole week. That was my first professional pop gig. It was a good one, that one. Met all the Jacksons, Michael Jackson, all of them and they invited us to come up to where they were staying at The Hilton Continental in Park Lane and the father was there who was quite a weird geezer actually.  Michael - you could smell his cologne from here to over there!

I’ve also played with Billy Ocean amongst others and currently play with Bony M.

Q: How did you meet your London musical family?

Originally through the Gonzalez band. It’s quite hard to remember actually because we’re talking about 30 or so years ago. We must have done every pub in London! All of them!

Q: How do you find the London music scene compares to back then?

Totally different. Every corner you had a guitar player, you had young musicians. You see after the First and Second World War, everything was big band, artists with a band, with a lot of sax players and horn sections. Then when Hendrix came along all the kids gave up their saxophones and all wanted to play the guitar! So all the big horn sections weren’t the trend anymore. You had Frank Sinatra with a big band, Dean Martin with an orchestra and then the Beatles came along with musicians playing their own stuff, writing their own stuff and singing their own stuff.  So what I’m saying is, back then it was fresh.

There’s still beautiful music around all over the world. I mean when I saw Stanley Jordan I couldn’t believe it. This is why jazz is so essential for young musicians because it is for you and your instrument to get close. It’s starts to become one. It’s not a fighting thing.

And I love live music. I think it’s the most exciting thing. I just think playing live is the ultimate really. Whether that is an old jazz thing because they’ll play till they drop really! 

Q: What was your best time playing?

The most enjoyable gigs were with the Breakfast Band. It was an original band with a combination of white, black, and mulata musicians. We’d push everything into the van and just f*ck off to Europe! That was the best time playing music, better than all the pop stuff! Everybody was an expert of their own stuff and everybody knew their instruments to a certain extent.  We were playing our own stuff with people we liked. It lasted for more than ten years and we financed everything ourselves, so we’d go out to make money just to make it work. We did get signed in the end with a deal at Nippon Columbia Japan and got like a 140 grand deal. So we did an album.

Q: Any memorable moments within that particular period?

Well whilst making this album, Marvin Gaye walked into the studio.

You see (John) Lennon had a house, a mansion in Ascot, then he went to America and he sold it Ringo (Starr), who turned it into a studio* so we recorded it there. You know that record Imagine, with that room, it was there. And when Lennon got shot, we were there, in that room. It was unbelievable.

So when our album was finished, Marvin Gaye heard our album and said  ‘ I want to sing over that man.’ But it was already mixed with the label waiting for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tittenhurst_Park#Ringo_Starr;_Startling_Studios

Q: Who would you have loved to have previously played with?

Jaco Pastorius. He was my favourite bass player. The way he played, the melodies and his approach to it.

Q: Currently who do you admire and aspire to play with?

I’ve always loved Stevie (Wonder). I’d like to play with Stevie. I never met him AND Never been to any of his shows. Out of all the singers and music, he’d be the one.

Q: Have you ever been star struck?

Never. We all breathe the same air.

Q: Have you a funny memory that you’d like to share with us?

Yea one of my first gigs I went to see was Gonzalez at Dingwall’s. All I could remember was Mick trying to blow the sax and when he got on stage nothing was coming out because…. he had an ounce of herbs shoved in there and had forgotten to take it out!

Q: What does the Rumband mean to you?

It’s my family. My friends. People I’ve known for 40 years, 30 years, 20 years. It’s just lovely to come out and play. I see us playing original music and festivals. I can see all that. Because when you go out there and do all this travelling, people are crying out for good music, live music. There is an audience there for it. You see the young guys do not have the sort of experience that we have, and what we can do with the music and swing it in whatever way we want it to go. They don’t have that. And we should be making money!