Alpha Boys’ School
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In this Feb. 17, 2014 photo, 14-year-old Brad Hylton helps classmate Omar Bird play a drum beat with the band at Alpha Boys’ School, a residential vocational school in Kingston, Jamaica. The school has been a cornerstone of Jamaica’s prolific musical culture for over a century, producing numerous musicians who have taken the homegrown musical genres of ska, rocksteady and reggae to the world. (AP Photo/David McFadden)
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In this Feb. 17, 2014 photo, a cardboard cutout is shown displayed on the bass drum of the band’s kit at the Alpha Boys’ School, a residential vocational school in Kingstom, Jamaica. The school has been a cornerstone of Jamaica’s prolific musical culture for over a century, producing numerous musicians who have taken the homegrown musical genres of ska, rocksteady and reggae to the world. At the school, students between 8 and 18 are taught to read music and understand harmony and composition, if they don’t focus on the school’s more traditional trades like woodworking and tailoring. (AP Photo/David McFadden)
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In this Feb. 17, 2014 photo, 11-year-old Tyrone Muirhead, right, is plays the trumpet with the band at the Alpha Boys’ School, a residential vocational school in Kingston, Jamaica. The school has been a cornerstone of Jamaica’s prolific musical culture for over a century, producing numerous musicians who have taken the homegrown musical genres of ska, rocksteady and reggae to the world. But despite its outsized role in developing Jamaica’s world-famous music, the school is increasingly squeezed between rising costs and shrinking state support, barely scraping by on the $60 weekly the government provides per student. (AP Photo/David McFadden)
