Reggae gurus

Black Uhuru was a socially responsive outfit that proved to be a winner in more ways than one.

REGGAE’S relationship with the rest of the music world is a strange one. It seems like everybody knows Bob Marley and a few sanitised (read: “white”) hits in reggae fashion. This can mean anything from Eric Clapton (with a cover of Marley’s I Shot the Sheriff), 10cc (I must admit I think Dreadlock Holiday is awesome), The Police and Men at Work (It’s a Mistake) right down to Jason Mraz and his current hit I’m Yours. Yet so many big names in the scene seemed to have slipped off the radar of mainstream popular music (take a look in your local record store if you don’t believe me).

From record shop to reggae empire

Reggae producer Clive Chin tells Davina Morris about the musical legacy of his father, VP Records producer, Vincent Chin.

On Friday, Brixton Town Hall, England, hosted a launch party to mark the release of the two CD/DVD collection, Reggae Anthology: Randy’s 50th Anniversary.

Matisyahu strays too far from genre on new EP

It’s not that Matisyahu or his cast of bandmates are inherently bad musicians. In fact, that’s pretty far from the case. Matisyahu’s sometimes hard-to-find first album, Shake of the Dust…Arise, is notable for some truly novel moments and at representing a time in the Hasidic-Jewish reggae artist’s career when his lyrics and unique image didn’t feel tired or gimmicky.

But it’s been a solid live album, a mainstream LP that embraced syrupy production and finally a questionable remix-EP since then, and Shattered doesn’t suggest Matisyahu is going to return to that more hypnotic reggae sound. Instead, he just keeps pumping out the pop and not the well thought-out kind. These four new tracks, namely the likely single candidate “So Hi, So Lo,” are overproduced and feel dubiously canned. And who says “So Lo” and honestly expects success?

Merritone closes 58th anniversary at The Deck

When Merritone Music was started in St. Thomas, approximately 14 miles from where Paul Bogle began his epic march to Spanish Town in 1865, Alexander Bustamante had been out of detention at Up Park Camp for nine years and it would be 14 years before Marcus Garvey’s body was brought home.

The sound system started the ‘Las’ Lick’ of its official 58th anniversary celebrations on National Heroes Day, and the merry folk continued dancing into the early hours of Tuesday.

Day 3: Ari Up and Away

Most CMJ bands play indie and rock, but sprinkled throughout the week there is also some world flavor. At Santos Party House last night for the DubShot Records showcase, I saw three interesting and different bands— all playing variations on reggae music. First was the racially mixed Fear Nuttin Band, a group that blends hip-hop vocals, reggae beats and heavy metal guitar riffs. The energy was high for this set and the two vocalists had great charisma between them.

Next up was 77 Klash, pronounced “two seven clash.” Klash hails from Jamaica but lives in Brooklyn and has tons of love for the borough. His best song of the night was “Brooklyn Anthem,” in which he shouted out the hood numerous times. Backing Klash up were three teens from East New York who performed their best dance hall steps.

Golden State lauds veteran reggae group Third World

In their 35 years as ‘Reggae Ambassadors’, Third World has travelled far and wide and much has been written about them.

However, when they played the 18th annual Jazz at Drew Festival, held at the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, California in early October, they returned to their origins in the United States and a handful of honours spoke volumes about them.

Lucky Dube: Invocations of a reggae icon

One year after the gruesome murder of Lucky Dube, philosopher, poet, messenger, entertainer and lyricist, his eminent position and the vacuum created as a result of his death is yet to be filled in the world of reggae. It is unarguable that Dube secured a place among the truly great of the world. Dube craved for philosophical distinction and visionary power, force and pride which made even Prime Ministers to honour him.

Alton Ellis king of soul

I’ve lost my musical hero and icon, Alton Ellis, but my mourning is mixed with enormous celebration of a professional life well lived. Comparisons are said to be odious, but apart from Bob Marley, Alton Ellis was the single greatest artiste Jamaica has produced and we are a superpower in music.

Well, lets start with the incontrovertible up to the time of his death, Alton had no contemporary from the era of the 1950s or 1960s who elicited more frenzy, excitement and passion than he did among audiences in Jamaica and the world.

King of reggae

Nesta Robert Marley was born Feb. 6, 1945 and died of cancer May 11, 1981.

Over those 36 years he emerged from crushing poverty in Jamaica to become one of the biggest musical and cultural icons of our time.

In Bob Marley: A Life, veteran UK and Canadian journalist Garry Steckles traces Marley’s roots from early childhood in the heart of rural Jamaica, through his adolescence on the hardscrabble streets of Kingston, to his incredible journey to becoming the Third World’s first superstar.

Artist mixes it up at Whiskey Dick’s

Collie Buddz is all over the map both literally and figuratively.

Colin Harper was born in New Orleans, grew up on the island of Bermuda (aka “The Rock”) and stayed intermittently in Toronto, Ontario. His musical alter ego, Collie Buddz, reflects that upbringing, incorporating influences from hip-hop and reggae to West Indian soca.