The Skatalites : Live @ the Wild Buffalo

A couple of weeks ago the Skatalites came to Bellingham, WA and played down at the Wild Buffalo w/ Yogoman Burning Band.  When I first heard they were coming to town I couldn't believe it.  What ?? the legendary Skatalites are coming to this windy forgotten corner of Washington ??  Of course I went - with a couple of friends - and was pleased to hear the uptempo Yogoman Burning Band playing when I arrived.  They were a great energetic opening band for the Skatalites.  Plenty of people up on the dance floor for Yogoman's funky horn accented set.  It was the perfect match-up for the Skatalites, who came on and blasted out song after song from the extensive list of classics.  A couple hours of high-powered horns on a Monday night was almost a wake-up call for some of the folks in this town.  The Skatalites would rotate and trade-off massive solos that gave each track a great improv quality.  The "James Bond Theme" was a highlight for myself, just one of my favorites.  This was a one-of-a-kind opportunity to see musicians of this caliber playing in Bellingham, so Thank You !!  Of course the sound quality at the Wild Buffalo was outstanding.  Clinton Fearon will be coming in to town on Sat. May 12th, apparently for a CD release party also at the Wild Buffalo.  He's one of the original Gladiators and considered a local favorite.

Day to Day Living : Don Carlos

"Day to Day Living" was originally released on LP back in 1982.  This was kind of the second heavy wave of Don Carlos music to be produced.  The late seventies serves as the first wave with hit releases like : "Time is the Master" & "Prison Oval Clash".  The CD I've got was released from Greensleeves in 2001, during the massive reissuing movement of seventies roots reggae on to CD format. There are 10 tracks on the CD, just like the original release including a couple of nice tracks : #3 (Dice Cup), #8 (400 Years), and #9 (I'm Not Crazy).  The production was handled by a solid crew, with Junjo Lawes as producer, Scientist as the engineer, and the Roots Radics band pumping out the instrumental tracks.  Recorded and mixed at Channel One, this is another solid piece of Jamaican reggae.  Oddly enough, some of Don Carlos' best releases have been combination albums, like : "Firehouse Clash with Junior Reid" and "The Mighty Diamonds Meets Don Carlos & Gold - At The Channel One Studio".

Black Sounds of Freedom : Black Uhuru

This one of the great Black Uhuru albums released in the prime of the groups late seventies / early eighties domination of the roots vocal trio scene.  The original album was released in 1981 by Greensleeves, but I've got the Artists Only CD release featuring the cover art found at the left.  With 10 tracks on the original release, it serves as a great base for numerous dub/extended tracks found on other CD releases (Greensleeves 2006).  Built from the studios of Harry J's and King Tubby's in Kingston, JA : Prince Jammy serves as producer with Sylvan Morris as engineer and they do a great job of keeping the rhythms tight.  My favorite tracks on this one are : #1 (I Love King Selassie), #2 (Satan Army Band), and #9 (Willow Tree).  This album is truly a solid listen all the way through and when paired other Black Uhuru original such as "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" it makes for a nice double spin in your disc player.

The Keyboard Legend : Jackie Mittoo

Well, you can't get to much more Roots than this folks !!! Jackie Mittoo is a pioneer of the instrumental roots scene with his electric organ and keyboard skills unmatched by any in the spectrum of reggae.  This disc is a 20 track greatest hit type of set that features many classic rhythms with Mittoo taking over for what would be the vocalist.  Mostly instrumental with very little dub or vocals on the whole CD.  The production company is Sonic Sounds, witch I am not too familiar with, but it a low budget offering with no liner notes.  Just Jackie posing for a back alley jam session on a trash can - his facial expression is priceless.  It might be a little hard to find these days, but try your luck, it should be worth the effort if you find it.  My favorites on this disc are overshadowed by the fact its a solid listen from track #1 all the way through to track #20.  It's nice to let it roll if you've got folks over and the conversation at the pad is paramount, great tunes to relax to.  Also great tunes to drive to on a crisp and sunny winter day.  Unfortunately, I can't find the date this disc was pressed, but it seems that the material is mostly from the 1970's, like the bulk of his work.  Not exactly a lightweight dude !!

Deeper Roots, The Best of ... : The Meditations

The Meditations have been around since the late seventies and this album is a proper compilation of their work on the roots scene.  From deep in Jamaica - The Meditations are one of the classic vocal trios, but seem to have been overlooked at times.  They only released 5 album spanning from 1978 to 1983.  If you don't have any of the meditations original albums, you can jump the gun with "Deeper Roots" and get the most Meditations for your money.  This CD is a Heartbeat release from 1994 with 20 tracks - most of them solid roots.  Top tracks include #4 (Having Fun), #10 (No Peace), #12 (Something Looking Good), and #13 (Groovy Situation aka Being A Dread Is No Crime).  Like most Heartbeat compilations, this has a great booklet with an extensive history and story of the Meditations, along with track breakdowns, and top performances.  The Meditations might not have gotten the credit they deserved early on, but since the early 1990's they have managed to stay on the top of the pile thanks in part to this CD compilation.  This is the only Meditations disc I own, but it gets quite of bit of playing time in the rotation.

Bubble Up (Showcase Vol.1) : Wayne Jarrett

Another great Wackies production (also known as Showcase Vol. 1)with heavy roots beats and the soft spoken voice of Wayne Jarrett.  The original track list from  this 1982 release shows only six songs, but each one is either an extended mix or an instrumental.  A great overall album, but still with it's stand out tracks: #1 (Brimstone & Fire), #2 (Every Tounge Shall Tell), and #6 (Holy Mount Zion).  Keep in mind this is one of the original Lloyd "Bullwackie" Barnes productions out of his Wackies label in New York City.  A great talent for the time and place and an important step in the North American extension of the roots reggae movement of the seventies and in to the eighties.  These rythms are tight, the Wackies label could almost will things to come together in top notch style for each vocalist and different situation, with excellent results.  Everything dialed in straight.  Wayne Jarrett is a great roots vocalist, look for his works to be spread out over several Wackies, Greensleeves, and King Tubby compilations.

Lambs Bread International : Sylford Walker & Welton Irie

This is a great original 1970's roots album to the bone.  Although this is a Blood & Fire CD release from 2000, the music was recorded in the '77-'78 season of the pleasin' for the rootsman tradition.  Sylford Walker has a timid voice with an aggressive delivery in his chanting/singing/rapping style.  This album was produced by Glen Brown and mixed by King Tubby, during the prime of both careers.  Welton Irie adds a hard deejay version to six of the tracks, complementing the vocal track to make a couple nice extended track versions.  There are 14 tracks total.  Track #2 "Rolling Stone" in a great version of the title track, witch is one of hardest herb anthems - although many have never heard its message.  These are two relatively unknowns to people outside the reggae, but the triumphant sounds they'll allow to blast out your speakers should be listed in at least your top twenty albums of your collection.  Search around for Sylford Walker's '75 -'76 track "Burn Babylon" produced by Joe Gibbs.  An earlier sample of Sylford's style.

Silver & Gold : Prince Far-I

One more time around for Prince Far-I.  This is one of my favorite roots & culture artists off all time.  He was sadly taken from us in 1983 when a group of gunmen broke in to his yard at night with unknown intentions, not much is known about incident specifics.  His gruff, honest voice and righteous messages will continually live on through all of his followers and aficionados.  Silver & Gold serves as a type of greatest hits compilation for the seventies ('73-'79) with 19 tracks total, three of witch are Errol Holt tunes, whom he was producing at the time.  It's a Blood & Fire release with a nice booklet and the story of Prince Far-I.  The first track "Johnny Get Worse" is a great version of The Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad" and the highlight of an outstanding album.  Other classic Far-I selections include : "Dub to Africa" &  "Cry Freedom Dub".  Prince Far-I's catalog of music is sadly a short, but potent list.  Listen to Far-I when you feal you need freedom and seek wisdom.

Africa Must Be Free By 1983 + Dub : Hugh Mundell

This was Hugh Mundell's breakout album, originally released in 1978 by Message, along with the dub tracks on the same album later on CD by Ras and Greensleeves.  There are 17 tracks total on this one, the first half is original vocals and the second half is all of the dub tracks.  This is also one of the most well known Augustus Pablo produced albums.  Pablo brought in great reggae talents to do the engineering : Errol Thompson, Sylvan Morris, & Phillip Smart.  Tracks #1 (Let's All Unite) & #6 (Run Revolution A Come) are the highlights.  Hugh Mundell was a hot commodity on the international reggae market from the get go.  Mundell released two more outstanding albums in his short and sweet career.  My favorite of the two is Jah Fire and a great compilation disc opportunity is The Blessed Youth from 2003.  The "Africa Must Be Free" album was wildly popular at the time of its release and interest from the reggae public has never really slowed down.  This is known as a reggae standard and benchmark milestone in the roots tradition history.

RAS Portraits : Live & Learn Presents ....

This disc is a nice roots compilation supposedly from the 1981-85 time period and featuring such roots greats as : Barrington Levy, Ras Michael, Wailing Souls, Mighty Diamonds, and more.  With 16 tracks on this one, you get a nice 2-4 track sample of each artist and the selections for this "variety pack" are solid representations of the artists' sounds and styles.  My favorite tracks are #5 (Chanting - Jr. Reid) and #9 (Them A Fret- Wailing Souls).  There is a great Jr. Reid combo album with Don Carlos that also features "Chanting" called Firehouse Clash giving you more from these two artists' early eighties collection.  The RAS Portrait series is a standard these days for finding an inexpensive compilation for most of your reggae favorites.  The prices are affordable and sometimes downright cheap, but the music is usually top notch.  Beware, selections on these compilations will sometimes sound familiar because they appear on several other albums ( ex. this disc and Firehouse Clash ) so make sure to find the ones you really want.  This is a great starting point to find more classic reggae that might fit with your style.

Reggae Bloodlines : Stephen Davis and Peter Simon

This is a nice magazine sized 8x11 softback book by Stephen Davis and Peter Simon originally from 1977.  My copy is a De Capo Press reissue from 1992 with the updated cover art you see to your left.  This "story" starts out as a typical American journalist goes in search of insight to the reggae music scene witch is beginning it's stretch across the popular music landscape.  Our journalist author and his photographer friend quickly get more than they bargained for but nothing they are ready to handle.  Meeting one local after another, they seem to be passed of on to all sorts of genuine Jamaican characters who show them every view of the current life situation on the island.  Politics, economics, colonial slavery and history,the ganja trade, and tourism are just some of the areas of interest that are touched upon.  Our authors fearlessly delve in to the different neighborhoods and hill side pit stops to retrieve endlessly entertaining interviews with local legends and shanty town historians.  This book can be a nice quick read with only about 224 pages and many black and white photos to guide you along the journey in to seventies Jamaica.  Peter Simon has written about ten books on popular music including : Hammer of the Gods (The Led Zeppelin Saga) and Reggae International (Bob Marley).  I haven't read any of his other publications, but look forward to checking out Hammer of the Gods.

Prison Oval Rock : Barrington Levy

This is a 10 track Barrington album originally released by Volcano in 1984, a couple years after his massive breakout in the years of '79 through '80 wich gave us such great albums as Shaolin Temple, Englishman, Robin Hood, and Bounty Hunter.  Junjo Lawes took the production leed on this album, bringing the Roots Radics in to back Levy during the sessions at Channel One and Harry J's in Kingston.  Sylvan Morris and Scientist sat at the boards and earned the mixing engineer credits on this one.  It's a pretty solid album - my cd copy was released by VP in about 1992 and  the sound quality is excellent.  It leads off with the title track, followed by the dub version.  Out of the remaining eight tracks I really enjoyed #4 (Good Loving) and the very catchy #3 (You Say You Love Me).  Along with the classic Barrington Levy style and voice inflections, you might hear familiar Junjo rythms (a good example is #8 Hammer - wich shares beats with Daweh Congo's Human Rights & Justice). This is a nice albums with it's sweet spots, but no real need to add it to your top notch group of discs unless you are a true Barrington Levy aficianado.