King Jammy presents Barry Brown

This is a great album with a nice compact track list. It's only 9 songs long. The first five tracks are all extended dub mixes and the other four songs alternate between vocal and dub tracks. My favorites on this one are #1 (Best Things in Life) , #3 (School Days), and #8 & #9 (Don't Let No One Fool You & DUB) but really the entire disc is solid. This is some Heavy-Heavy roots and the extended dub mixes are long, enduring, rolling rhythms that offer outstanding horn and keyboard. King Jammy does the mixing and production on this one with his usual tight and clean sound. It's off of the Black Arrow label, originally released in 1980. Black Arrow also has some great Hugh Mundell material released in 19890 called Jah Fire. Barry Brown has a good amount of work out there but this is a good place to start. Other popular discs are : Far East, Midnight Rock at Channel One, and Step it Up Youthman.

Don Carlos @ The Malibu Inn

I finally got to see Don Carlos again. The show was at The Malibu Inn, a salty older tavern style venue in Malibu, CA. The show had a seven pm starting time but Don Carlos didn't come on until about eleven pm. The Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad played a great set and left me wondering why I'd never heard of them before. They're from Rochester, NY and seem to be touring all the time. I hope I get a chance to see them again some time. Another group surprised me called The Blaze Mob. They played a quick set that really got the attention of the crowd. By this point in the night everyone was ready to get down and definitely ready for Don Carlos. Reggae great Wadi Gad was there on drums and blasted out a couple songs of his own before Don Carlos took the stage. Oh, did I forget to mention that The Scientist was at the controls the whole night !!! I love seeing Don Carlos, he's got such a great stage presence with his great big smile. He listens and talks to the crowd and keeps the positive vibe wafting through the bar. My overall experience for the night was outstanding. A good venue, a couple of new bands to experience, and of course the one and only Don Carlos.