The JARCAT Story by Stephen “Cat” Coore How do I start on the JARCAT journey? It’s been quite a trek, I must say. Firstly, when I met Donahue Jarrett in the very early nineties, I had no idea that within ten years I would consider him one of the most talented singer song writers I have ever met and this is coming from someone who has met quite a few great ones, not to mention let alone the fact that I have worked with Third World members through the years, all of whom had their own talents in the field of song writing and performing. This was a serious shock to me as Donahue and I were just partying friends having a ball all over Kingston or any other town that would accept our madness. Five years ago he started to tell me that I should listen to some of what he was doing and tell him my thoughts. I listened and was very impressed by his unknown talent. The lyrical component of the Donahue package was especially impressive and right away I sensed that I should start to really work with this man on his music. Shortly after this pleasant revelation, my good friend Mikie Bennett – who in all reality must take credit for a lot of this – said to me, “Cat, you should consider doing some instrumentals and putting together another solo album.” But I really was not interested that much in just doing a solo album because I felt that Third World is so important in my life, that to try to have a solo career as well was a little ambitious. I did however come up with this thought of doing a project where I could do some solo work, especially instrumental work for an album and have guests do some songs as well, and put together sort of a Cat Coore and Friends album. The more I thought about this, the more attractive it became to me and at the same time Donahue was playing really great ideas for me. I decided to make his songs and my instrumentals the basis for this exciting venture. Shortly after on one of my visits to Anguilla, where I perform with my good friend Bankie Banks every year for his most wonderful event, Moonsplash I met Davon Carty a gentleman who controlled the distribution of Carib Beer in that area. After some discussions about the music of the Caribbean and of this project that I was feeling, we both started toying with the idea of a Caribbean label that would do two things; one, to release the material that I would personally do, and two, to be a vehicle for new talent. That label is now called West Indies Records and will be close to JARCAT RECORDS in every way. Davon and friend Ira Bloom put up some seeder cash to get me flowing with the recording. By this time Mikie Bennett had already put up a substantial amount of studio time and we were desperate not to stall the recordings. The venture with Dave and Ira was called AMPP (Anguilla Music Producers). As time goes on we will all see the progress of AMPP and its connection with JARCAT RECORDS. Unfortunately, AMPP’s progress was stalled by the investing powers that be in the eastern Caribbean and Donahue and myself started to go it alone for the good of getting things done. This was a period of the greatest sacrifice and skillful planning to make things progress. Bills kept piling up and the road was quite rocky. Donahue had his obligations to his family business and I had mine to Third World and my wife and daughter in Tampa, Florida where we have made our home for the last six years. Without the funds being always available it was hard to record when we wanted and so on. Sometimes we could not afford musicians and I had to play everything myself which I never envisioned would work out so well in the long run, however, at the end of the day we can say that it did and I am quite pleased with my efforts. There were although in some cases, efforts that just needed the right person to play it and once we got some help financially we were able to locate and pay the right persons. Late in 2008 Donahue mentioned that an old friend of his who was his best friend from High school and doubles tennis partner had heard about our ambitions to form a web-based label and was very interested in being a part of what we were setting out to do. His name is Philip John Hill. Philip’s background was not strange to the music business being that his father is a singer of sorts and he had been associated with a record company for some years, a few years ago in Minnesota, where he resides. Our first meeting with him was a great success and right there JARCAT RECORDS had its first investor. Philip who is a brilliant financier and has a very bright mind for music, agreed to be the chief money man as it were, and was able to give our dream a real shot. This web-based label of course is not just for Donahue and myself but also for the possibilities of young talent that we see and feel have a good shot at the music industry. Philip’s input has been the first real injection of capital that the idea has had, although we are very grateful for the kindness of our dear friend Francesca Hapsburg, who along the way was gracious and helped us to pay some of the bills we incurred. All in all this has been a really good effort on our part and on the part of our friends. Without them we couldn’t have got to this point. I hope all of you who read this have fun with JARCAT and enjoy the great music…bless!