Phillip Kakaza CD of the week
In the past four years the Blood and Fire label has established itself as the cutting edge label in reggae reissues. It introduced a whole generation of producers and DJs who took advantage of the new musical venture. Jamaican vocal singles were released with instrumentals – sometimes just rhythm with the DJs overlapping rap in a dubbing style.
The era of the Seventies is brilliantly documented by the Blood and Fire label in Manchester. Its founders include a contingent from the Simply Red band. Mick Hucknall is a partner along with veteran Jamaican muso, historian and producer Steve Barrow. The label’s distribution in South Africa is handled by an independent black music distributor Revolver.
Its aim being to preserve the magnificent heritage of Jamaican music by resurrecting long-forgotten classics, often by artists relatively unknown beyond hardcore reggae fans and bringing them to a wider audience made up of old and new listeners.
It is this label that has brought forth new music and has in fact hit the reggae music scene in a big way. The 18 titles on the label including among the best, U-Brown, Horace Andy, King Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry. The superb production comes with a booklet with symbolic artwork and informative short quotes from the musos. This helps you pick up information that you might not have known.
U-Brown: Train To Zion U-Brown’s name comes from the legendary U-Roy, “God father” of all Jamaican DJs and founder of the genre’s central stylistic tradition. In the mid- Seventies, U-Brown was an accomplished and in-demand sound system DJ. Although influenced by U-Roy, U- Brown’s rap sounds great over the heavy dubs mixed by King Tubby. The title track, Train To Zion, also features vocalist Linval Thompson and was produced by U-Brown and PNP activist Tony Welch. Four of the selections are complete with extended dub mixes.
Morwell Unlimited: Meet King Tubby Dub Me The team of Maurice “Blacka” Wellington and Eric “Bingy Bunny” Lamont, better known as Morwells, got together to make music in 1973. The pair had been friends from their youth growing up in the Trenchtown area. They were influenced by King Tubby (who was shot dead in 1989) who began by removing vocal tracks from hit tunes, leaving only the instrumentation. This became an exercise until only the drum and bass remained. It is the same on this album: old vocals are rearranged and made to float in and out. Guitar riffs and strange noises are dropped in at random. Though the sound has the same taste as that of King Tubby, the Morwells have kept their versions different and distinctive.
Horace Andy: Good Vibes The good vibes compilation is drawn from 1975 to 1979, a transitional period in Horace’s career, during which he moved from being a freelance singer through co-production with the New York-based Jamaican producer Everton DaSilva to a stage where he had control over his own label, Rhythm. During these years Horace was still singing with Bunny Lee. Together they’ve been digging deep and doing the second version of Money Money, the herb anthem Better Collie and Serious Thing, a song written by John Holt about a political war that was beginning to explode in the Kingston ghettos in 1976.
Yabby You: Jesus Dread Vivian Jackson, better known as (aka Yabby You) was beginning to enjoy his musical career when he suddenly died after suffering from arthritis. His music dominated the Jamaican reggae scene by the end of the Sixties – the time when new voices were beginning to assert themselves in Jamaican music. Although bands like the Ethiopians and even The Wailers had been singing cultural material for some time, a rising generation of roots artists was just starting to make itself heard. This album is the best of Yabby You’s musical career from 1972 to1977.
In their ranks were such groups as Abyssinians and the Gladiators, Winston Rodney and Little Roy and aka Yabby You was amongst them. However his state of health did not allow him to live long to produce more music.