The musical great who decided to be bad

One of my favorite stories about trumpeter JOHNNY "DIZZY" MOORE -- who passed away at age 70 this past weekend -- concerns his entrance into the fabled ALPHA BOYS SCHOOL, a Jamaican reform school that served as a launching pad for the nation's greatest generation of musicians.
"I grew up in a home with music," Moore was quoted in the ROUGH GUIDE TO REGGAE, "but my family refused to impart it to me. At that stage, musicians were looked down upon."
When one of Moore's musical mates returned from his Alpha Boys School holidays, the future trumpeter asked the friend how he learned the tunes.
"And he said: 'At Alpha.' And I said: 'I've got to go there.' But he said: 'You have to be bad.' And I say: 'That's easy, man.'"
After that conversation, Moore went out of his way to be bad, and his family eventually sent him to the reform school. He learned his musical craft at Alpha. Moore later played in Jamaica's military band before co-founding THE SKATALITES, the legendary band that fueled the ska revolution and effectively put Jamaica on the pop music map.
In the photo above, Moore is on the far right. He is joined from left by Lloyd Brevett, producer Clement "Coxsone" Dodd and sax genius Roland Alphonso.
This great musical combination would have never come about if Moore hadn't decided to become bad.