Osi Brathwaite, drummer, friend to many
Osi Brathwaite is a very fortunate man. Although he is dealing with a daunting medical condition, Brathwaite has friends like Willie J. Laws who are helping him through his ordeal. Laws didn’t want to take all the credit so he swiftly pointed out that his partner Joan Debow and music scene promoters John Hall and Don Cirone have been part of the team organizing this benefit.
For a $20 donation friends and fans of Osi Brathwaite as well as fellow musicians who haven’t even met the drummer yet will be treated to an evening of good blues music. At The Elks Home in Norwood, Massachusetts, Sunday, November 11, from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Featured artists will be Willie J Laws Jr, Toni Lynn Washington, Diane Blue, Sam Gentile, the band Soul Box will there for a set, and many more to be included, like Anthony Geraci and Mudcat Ward with Steve Todesco, Alana Qualiteri, John Moriconi, and Cheryl Arena. The Natural Element Band will put in an appearance as well.
Brathwaite, dealing with the disease Sarcoidosis, needs some help getting medical supplies and transportation. That’s where the funds will be directed.
“It’s mostly for medications, getting him some better transportation,” Laws said. “He still gigs with me, but his car’s not in the best of shape. We’re not sure right now about Mass Health. He has a little bit of insurance, but it’s like the lowest you can get, the bare minimum. It’s really just to make his life a little easier.”
Laws said that helping a fellow musician is part of the musician’s life style. “Independent artists, we are like our best health. We can always depend on each other. It’s just amazing how people come together here in New England to do that. It really amazes me. I’m so glad to be part of this community that comes together to help each other out in times of need. That’s a really, really wonderful thing.”
Laws mentioned that some of the musicians don’t even know Brathwaite personally. It’s about the cause. “Some are friends and some are not. Some know him, some are coming because it’s a fellow musician. It’s what it is.”
Brathwaite, Laws pointed out, does maintain a lot of friends and contacts in the greater-Boston/New England music scene. Brathwaite has taken his drum skills into the blues scene, the Caribbean scene, the funk scene, and the rhythm and blues scene.
“A lot of people know him. He’s a wonderful cat, man, always smiling, showing up on time,” Laws said. “This Sarcoidosis has really knocked him for a loop and the steroid medication is not really an option for anybody.”
Brathwaite’s struggle with the disease will last a long time, as it’s impossible to defeat and can only be maintained. “There is no cure,” Laws said. “Not that anybody knows of yet.”
Brathwaite has been a church musician for many years, making it to his Sunday morning gigs during his long career as a drummer in multiple genres. He can still play his drums but, as Laws explained, with some adjustments.
“We made adjustments for him having this disease,” the blues guitarist said. “We make adjustments musically too. They’re not difficult adjustments. There’s little things that make things a little bit better, more subtle in our changes.”
The disease has not had a debilitating impact on the Willie J. Laws Band. “He wants to continue to play as much as he can, do as much as he can. As long as he feels that way he’s always going to be playing with me.”
Laws has known Braithwaite since 2011, having met him through Roomful Of Blues boy wonders Ephraim Lowell and Travis Colby. It was at a Sunday Night Blues Party hosted by Parker Wheeler at The Grog in Newburyport, Massachusetts. KD Bell was also in attendance during the fateful night Laws showed up in 2004. Brathwaite also plays his drums with the Boston reggae band Jah Spirit and started out in music as a youth playing steel drums in steel bands.
“Ever since he was about nine or 10, he started playing the drums for the jubilee festivals and the steel pan competitions that they used to have in New York,” Laws said. “That’s where a lot of his Caribbean, Afro-Cuban influence comes from. He was born in 1980, and growing up in the 80s and the 90s of course the Hip Hop and that culture too. He didn’t really start learning about blues and the different parts until he got with me.”
Because Brathwaite had other influences when he met up with Laws, the two, along with bassist Malcolm Stuckey, were able to come up with the unique sound of Willie J. Laws Band. “We started to create a really good sound,” Laws said. “We started making our own signature sound. Now, Ksenia Vasileva plays with us. She’s from Russia. She’s our bass player now and since she’s been playing with me and Osi, we haven’t missed a beat.”
Laws has also been working on a personal video announcement for the Osi Brathwaite benefit event to be included on a Go Fund Me Page. The Go Fund Me page is for folks who’d like to help out but cannot make it to the event. “I’ve been working on a little script that I’m going to do a Facebook Live thing then I’m going to post that video into the Go Fund Me thing. I’m trying to generate as much as I can. That’s what I was just working on,” Laws said.
https://www.facebook.com/events/2170023886586298/
https://www.gofundme.com/benefit-for-osi-brathwaite
