Percy Zvomuya reviews the latest reggae releases that will have you skanking.
Sizzla, The Journey: The Very Best Of (ASP Records) 
There’s something unjust and perhaps too reductive about trying to compile on one CD the best songs of a musician who has put out more than 45 albums. The 21-track compilation tries, and I dare say succeeds, in encapsulating the phenomenon that is Sizzla Kalonji.
Sizzla was one of the DJs who, more than a decade ago, was present at the smithy when the DJ style (popularised by Buju Banton and Bounty Killa) and a soulful singing style met to form the “singjay” (singer-DJ) style that revolutionised the reggae genre.
The CD features songs like Just One of Those Days, the singalong track Praise Ye Jah and Thank You Mama. The repatriation dirge Africa Prepare, over a remake of a classic tune, Blackboard Jungle (made decades ago by maverick genius Lee Perry), acquires new meaning in the face of rumours that the musician has just acquired a piece of land in Zimbabwe. If you are a fan of the singjay, this CD is for you.
Yasus Afari, Jamaica’s Gift of Vision (House of Honour) 
Jamaican dub poet Yasus Afari’s beautiful CD features a host of collaborators and friends. It has the feel of a compilation CD, the result of work done over a long time. It offers the breadth and scope that you would expect of an album on which Beres Hammond, Garnett Silk, Luciano, Black Uhuru and Freddie McGregor are featured.
Outstanding tracks on the CD include Love Jah, a spiritual tune that floats over a soaring jazzy ambience. Afari merges the dub poet’s clear accents with a rather melodious singing style, stranded somewhere between the singjay (singer-DJ) and the dub poet.
Sin De a Come, featuring the soulful vibrato of Freddie McGregor, is balanced by the poet’s declamatory voice. On the symphonic We Love You Afari combines with Beres Hammond, the musician with probably the sweetest voice in all of reggae, on a song in which they declare their love for Africa. Accomplished CD.
Sanchez, Now and Forever (VP Records) 
Sanchez’s latest 14-track offering sees him return to his old theme: love. The album features three or four tracks that have already set Jamaican dancehalls alight. On the tune Longing to Come Home, for instance, Sanchez rides the “Serve and Protect” rhythm in heartfelt fashion.
The smooth-voiced singer throws away the caution he shows on the laid-back opening tracks Won’t Surrender and Who Am I Without You. It’s the same gusto he shows on I Am for Real, a love dirge, on which he passionately sings about his genuine love. When Sanchez sings about his girl or missing his lover, it has nothing of the faux leather feel that is characteristic of contemporary R&B. He has mastered that ability to sound genuine and profound while making use of secular material that in less accomplished hands would sound cheesy.This is due, to a large extent, to his work with master producer Donovan Germaine. Great album.
Raggatak Volume 1 (ASP Records) 
This is a compilation of dancehall tunes that Jah Seed and Admiral have made popular over the years at various Johannesburg venues at which they have played on Thursday nights. It contains all the predictable favourites including Busy Signal’s Unknown Number, Mavado’s On the Rock and Sizzla’s Praise Ye Jah.
For the hundreds of revellers who go to the Bassline every Thursday, it’s a welcome compilation of the tunes that have lit up the venue. For others, it’s a monotonous songlist of the tunes that have alienated me and a few of my friends who frequent the venue.
It’s not that they are bad — a few songs included on the CD are timeless tunes, including Cocoa Tea and Buju Banton’s Too Young, Sizzla’s Black Woman and Child, a hymnal tribute to the blacks’ resilience, and slick-voiced Garnett Silk’s anthemic Lord Watch Over Our Shoulders.
Jah Seed and Admiral no doubt know their reggae but my wish is that they challenge their audience and bring them up to their level, instead of dumbing down to the lowest denominator.