If you were to pick any of the major rock-steady
and reggae releases of the 60s and 70s that feature an electric
organ you can bet that Jackie Mittoo’s name is on the credit
notes. His organ sound together with that of drummer Sly Dunbar
and bassist Robbie Shakespeare defined the early reggae era. The
“Showcase” component of “New Champion In The
Arena 1976-1977” was recorded at Dynamic/Channel One Kingston
and mixed at King Tubby’s studio three years before Jackie’s
untimely death at the age of 42. This instrumental set includes
the entire “Showcase” album with 7 bonus tracks added.
Full of Jackie’s rich, groovy, fat organ sound, throbbing
bass from Robbie, those distinctive rocker’s era polyrhythms
from Sly, a slew of some of the best accompanists in the business
(including Chinna Smith’s guitar and Skully Sims’
percussion) and judiciously placed, stimulating dub throughout
the superb, varied tunes, this has got to be one of the truly
great instrumental reggae albums of all time.
You’ll recognise some of the themes or theme fragments from
pop-music stolen and retitled. For instance “Darker Shade
Of Black” is obviously based on the Beatles’ “Norwegian
Wood” and there are a couple of other themes I can’t
put my finger on. I don’t care and I’ll quote Russian
composer Igor Stravinski here “Great artists steal, mediocre
ones merely borrow”. Well there’s nothing mediocre
on this bona fide classic. Here’s a piece of amazing information.
The “Showcase” album which constitutes 10 of the songs
here almost didn’t eventuate. Singer Barry Biggs who was
at the session and impatient to record tried to stop it. One of
Barry’s songwriters at his side said “Oh no man, these
guys amaze me, don’t stop it.” They proceeded to record
the songs in less than an hour. And that’s how masterpieces
are born. If that’s not enough recommendation, the sound
quality is astonishingly good, filling the room with a warmth
that no amount of digital reprocessing could ever hope to achieve.
Simply wonderful. Soul Jazz Records have set themselves a daunting
task; to document the course the course of Jamaican musical history.
If you wanted to start up a definitive, knowledgably selected
collection then the label is good one to go for.
If your collection of classic rock-steady and reggae music is
small, then the Studio One Story, the latest Soul Jazz Recording
to arrive with clockwork regularity on my desk, is a good choice.
Running the gamut from early JA R&B, ska, rock-steady, ballads,
roots classics and jazzy instrumentals from the 60s and 70s it
gives an excellent overview of early JA music. A lot of the more
dedicated or long-time reggae followers will have a lot of the
songs on compilations or individual artist albums….numbers
like “Guns Of Navarone” by the Skatalites, Delroy
Wilson’s “In A Dancing Mood”, Michigan &
Smiley’s, “Nice Up The Dance” and the classic
“Declaration Of Rights” by the Abyssinians. The sound
quality is good for the period and even if you have all the songs
it’s a pretty damned essential acquisition as the CD is
accompanied by a 3hr DVD that tells the Studio One Story and contains
rare music footage of The Skatalites, Jackie Mittoo (see his brilliant
release above), Count Ossie, Marcia Griffith, Ernest Ranglin and
others as well as interviews with Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, Ken
Boothe, Sugar Minnott, Dennis Alcapone, The Ethiopians, Lone Ranger,
King Stitt and others most of whom can also be heard on the CD.
If that weren’t enough inducement, the whole package comes
with a100 page book of text and rare photos. Ask anyone in the
street to name a reggae star and the unanimous response is bound
to be Bob Marley. Ask the same person to name three and it’s
head-scratching time. In a world where perceptions are moulded
by multi-national conglomerates Bob just scraped in with a few
hits in the 70s before the gates closed. Then he died….
so now he’s the cool revolutionary, the guy who smoked half
a truckload of dope a day and appears on a million T-shirts…..and
guess whose face will be on the first packet if dope is ever legalised.
What’s lost in all the brouhaha is that Bob was a poet of
the first rank and a composer of literally thousands of songs.
Almost a decade before international stardom the Wailers, fronted
by Bob, Peter Tosh and Neville Livingstone (Bunny Wailer) had
already had a string of hits that had made them household names
throughout Jamaica.
Even at this early stage Bob’s philosophical concerns were
fully developed as evidenced by “One Love”, his most
eulogised song which opens “Bob Marley and The Wailers –
Greatest Hits At Studio One (Heartbeat)” with Bob’s
distinctive vocals and great harmonies from Pete and Bunny. Another
classic to be reworked later “Simmer Down” is here
as well. Its cry for peace in the ghetto is an anti-violence theme
that was to mark the singer’s later work. Another Wailers
singer, Studio One producer Coxsone Dodd’s favourite, Jr
Braithwaite also contributes superb doowop era vocals on several
numbers, most notably the swinging ballad “It Hurts To Be
Alone” which also features some tasty jazz guitar from Ernest
Ranglin. Most of the material captures Jamaican music at a point
where ska was beginning to give way to rock steady. Bunny Wailer’s
original 1966 version of his immortal “dreamland’
is here. This CD is a veritable reggae incubator as Peter Tosh
also introduces his classic “Sinner Man”. Based on
a traditional hymn, the song was later to become his famous “Downpressor
Man”. Bob’s “Love and Affection” and Pete’s
“Maga Dog” are present, together with an expertly
compiled selection of the group’s best songs of the era.
For anyone seeking out the definitive pre-international stardom
Wailers, this is definitely the one to get. There’s so much
history and great music here.
