Jacob Miller & The Inner Circle Band & Augustus Pablo : Culture Press

This disc should be considered a compilation of the seventies Jacob Miller with The Inner Circle Band.  It was a CD release from Culture Press in 1992 and again in 1998.  With fifteen tracks total, most of them are selections featuring the talents of Augustus Pablo as musician and/or producer.  Tommy Cowan is labeled with producer credits as well.  Pablo's contributions along with the brilliance of Inner Circle front man Jacob Miller make this a nice compilation disc to feature in your collection.  The liner notes are simple ; only listing the musicians, tracks names, and durations.  There's a nice combination of Miller vocal tracks and Pablo melodica versions as alternate tracks on some of the classics like : track #3 & #4 (Ala-ala-bama / Eli's Move) and tracks #7 & #8 (Curly Locks / Curly Locks Dub).  The track I enjoy the most on this one is track #1 (Curfew), a great version of the Marley sung tune.  All together this disc serves as a pretty good seventies roots compilation, although some of the tracks might cross over on other discs you have by these artists.

King Tubby meets Rockers Uptown : Augustus Pablo

This is for sure a classic roots set that shows you what reggae is all about.  This is a 1994 Abraham label CD release - originally released in 1977 on vinyl by Clocktower.  The material was recorded from '72-'75 with Chinna, Familyman, Dirty Harry, and others.  Clocktower is a reggae label that was formed in New York, but now works out of Ontario, Canada.  Abraham is another label name coming out of Clocktower and you can see similarities in disc production.  Pablo and Tubby blend bass and melodica  in and out of these tunes mixed down at King Tubby's with Errol Thompson.  There is also a 2004 Shanachie (US) label release with bonus tracks to the original 12.  All the tracks in this one are outstanding and you might recognize some of them as dubbed-out Pablo versions of popular Jacob Miller tunes.  This set of musical works is considered a prime example of seventies dub roots at it's finest - a cornerstone at the base of the Jamaican dub movement.

Rockers International 2 : Augustus Pablo

This CD is a Greensleeves 1992 release with 15 tracks total. This roots, dub, and vocal material was recorded at various places all over Kingston : King Tubby's, Randy's, Channel One, and Dynamic Sounds and includes tracks by Hugh Mundell, Augustus Pablo, the Pablo All Stars, Jacob Miller, Earl "Sixteen" Daley, and a few more. These tracks are a really a good set of Pablo versions you might not have heard before especially the one's from Hugh Mundell (Selassie I Veranda) the other standout track to me on this album is Junior Delgado (Away with your Fussing and Fighting). The engineering credit goes to King Tubby, Prince Jammy, and Philip Smart on this mid-seventies compilation. I think this is a pretty good album, but these are a little more obscure tracks that should be paired with earlier Pablo discs such as Original Rockers : Augustus Pablo, This is Augustus Pablo - Rebel, Rock, Reggae : Augustus Pablo, and Who Say Jah No Dread : Jacob Miller. This is a harder CD to find these days and all your usual reggae vendors might not have it - your best bet is to get a hold of a used copy. I'd say overall this is a pretty good CD, I definitely like some tracks a lot more than others.

Who Say Jah No Dread : Jacob Miller

This disc shows us some great tracks from Jacob Miller alternating with the instrumental/dub track featuring Augustus Pablo and King Tubby. This is a great disc to have in your catalog because it serves a dual purpose. Not only do you get 6 Jacob Miller classics, but you get the complementary dub sides to these gems. This is a Jamaican production through and through. All material came from Dynamic, Randy's, and King Tubby's. Many of the usual suspects are present in the line-up: Bobby Ellis, Sly & Robbie, Chinna, and others. These classic mid-seventies sounds were compiled and released by Greensleeves in 1992, the sound quality is excellent and the set list is solid. My favorites on this one are: #3 (False Rasta), #4 (Hungry Town Scank), #7 (Who Say Jah No Dread), and #8 (Jah Dread). Even is you have some of this material on other discs - these tracks are set up nicely and it's a pleasure when listened to straight through.

Too Much Iron in the Fire : Blackbeard & Friends

This 2 disc set is a compilation that represents the work of Roy "Blackbeard" Sinclair. Each disc has 20 tracks, but most of what you will hear are 3 maybe 4 versions in a row of the same rhythm. It seems Blackbeard borrowed many of these familiar beats we're used to, but that seems to be a more common practice with the increasing number of dj's, engineers, and producers on the reggae scene. There are a ton of artists that have contributed to this release including : Barry Brown, Johnny Clarke, Horace Andy, Trinity, Jacob Miller, Wayne Jarrett, and Ronnie Davis. So, when listening to this set straight through, you'll hear a couple of versions by some of the masters listed above - and then maybe a dub version by the Blackbeard All-Stars. My favorites on disc 1 are: #2 (Pass up the Chalice - Barry Brown), #7 (False Rasta - Jacob Miller), and #14 (Cayamanas Park Dub). This last one is a Blackbeard dub track of Black Uhuru/Ranking Joe's "Rent Man". My favorites on disc 2 are: #8 (Eyes on Africa - the Mighty Diamonds) and #11 (Mount Zion - Wayne Jarrett). This is a Trojan release from 2004 and the material was originally recorded 1974-1984.

Rockers Soundtrack : Various Artists

If you've never seen the movie Rockers you're missing the best Reggae film ever made. It's a Jamaican Robin Hood with every scene packed full of short performances by all of our favorite Reggae stars of the seventies. It's a brief look inside the daily life of Jamaican musicians, thick with Jamaican patois and messages of unity and brotherhood. But enough about the film, I would like to give a brief review of the soundtrack. This soundtrack is one of the better compilations you can buy for seventies reggae. This is a great selection of roots from such legends as: Bunny Wailer, Burning Spear, Gregory Isaacs, the Heptones, Jacob Miller, the Maytones, and more. This disc has 14 tracks total and my favorites on this one are : #2 (Money Worries), #7 (Fade Away), and #8 (Rockers). The movie was released in 1979, but the material on the soundtrack could be from about'76-'79. Chris Blackwell was the main man behind this project and you can find this soundtrack released by both the Island and Mango labels. Just a quick note ; the DVD copy of this movie has extra soundtrack songs and versions in the bonus materials/extras section of the menu. If you haven't experienced Rockers yet, I would urge you to watch the movie first and then check down the CD soundtrack as a supplement to the vibe of this fun and energetic movie.