Not On Label – none
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
VA - (2017) Black Man's Pride 2xLP
Soul Jazz Records – 398
While the righteousness of blackness is at the heart of the Rastafarian faith, this collection illustrates how black pride remained a central theme, if not the defining essence, at the very core of all the music created at Studio One Records.
Black Man’s Pride is the striking new Studio One collection of deep heavyweight reggae featuring Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, The Gladiators, Sugar Minott, The Heptones, Freddie McGregor, Cedric Brooks & more.
In order to understand the centrality of black identity in the music created at Studio One, we need look no further than Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd who, who created the first black-owned record company in Jamaica.
In similar fashion Alton Ellis’s defining ‘Black Man’s Pride’ brings up emotions that are at the heart of many of these uplifting songs. Alton Ellis’ birthplace was the Trench Town ghetto of Kingston, also the birthplace of The Wailers, Ken Boothe and many other Studio One luminaries.
Clement Dodd established a musical empire firmly rooted by the core musicians working at Studio One many of whom came out of the Alpha School for Wayward Boys, run by Roman Catholic nuns, whose luminaries include Don Drummond, Johnny Moore, Leroy ‘Horsemouth’ Wallace, Cedric Brooks, Vin Gordon, Tommy McCook & more.
Many of the songs featured here come from the transitory phase in reggae at the start of the 1970s. After the exhilaration of Ska and following the cooling down of Rocksteady. While reggae awaited the arrival of roots, Studio One’s vocalists were already producing some of the moodiest music imaginable! Here are 18 heavyweight tunes, both classic cuts and super-rare tunes!
Tracklist:
A1 –Alton Ellis Black Man's Pride 4:03
A2 –Horace Andy Child Of The Ghetto 2:22
A3 –Dennis Brown Created By The Father 2:30
A4 –The Gladiators Roots Natty 5:39
B1 –The Classics Got To Be Cool 2:20
B2 –The Nightingales Rasta Is Calling 2:25
B3 –Glen Miller Love And Understanding 5:23
B4 –Sugar Minott Woman Shadow 2:37
C1 –Lloyd Jones And The Super Natural Six Red In Babylon 2:47
C2 –Dudley Sibley And The Soul Gang Love In Our Nation 2:55
C3 –The Heptones Equal Rights 2:23
C4 –Glen Miller You Must Be Love 3:35
C5 –Winston Jarrett Up Park No Mans Land 2:49
D1 –Cedric "Im" Brooks What Can't I 3:12
D2 –Larry Marshall Let's Make It Up 2:32
D3 –Freddie McGregor Children Listen To Wise Words 2:32
D4 –John Holt Build Our Dreams 3:11
D5 –Johnny Osbourne Forgive Them 2:38
VA - (2018) Black Man’s Pride 2 (Righteous Are The Sons And Daughters Of Jah) 2xLP
Soul Jazz Records – 414
This is the second installment of deep roots Rastafarian reggae at Studio One and features classic music from some of the most important figures in reggae music – Alton Ellis, The Heptones, Jackie Mittoo, The Gladiators – alongside a host of rarities and little-known recordings, such as a truly rare Mystic Revelation of Rastafari seven-inch single, Willie William’s first ever recording ‘Calling’ and Horace Andy’s righteous (and equally rare) masterpiece ‘Illiteracy.’
Black Man’s Pride 2 extends the legacy of Studio One’s ground-breaking path in roots reggae which began at the end of the 1960s and continued throughout the 1970s. The album tells the story of how the rise of Studio One Records and the Rastafari movement were interconnected, through the adoption of the Rastafari faith by key reggae artists – everyone from the Skatalites and Wailers in the 1960s, major singers such as Alton Ellis and Horace Andy at the end of the decade, through to major roots artists such as The Gladiators in the 1970s – and how Clement Dodd consistently recorded this heavyweight roots music throughout Studio One’s history.
The extensive sleeve-notes to this album also discuss the links between Rastafari and Studio One in time and place, noting how both the religion and Clement Dodd’s musical empire had their roots in the intense period of pre-independence Jamaica in Kingston, expanded in the 1960s following the visit of Haile Selassie in 1966, and how roots music then came to dominate reggae music in the early 1970s. Also discussed is how the outsider stance of both reggae music and the Rastafari movement relate back many hundreds of years to the original rebel stance of the Maroons, escaped slaves who set up self-sufficient enclaves in the hills of the Jamaican countryside.
There is also a track-by-track history by the noted Studio One writer Rob Chapman (Never Grow Old). This new album comes as heavyweight gatefold double vinyl (+ download code), deluxe CD and digital album.
Tracklist:
A1 –Horace Andy Illiteracy 3:12
A2 –The Heptones Be A Man 2:20
A3 –The Manchesters Natty Gone 2:33
A4 –The Gladiators Down Town Rebel 3:35
A5 –Willie Williams Calling 2:02
B1 –Roland Alphonso & Brentford All Stars Sir D Special 6:25
B2 –Keith Wilson God I God I Say 3:01
B3 –Alton Ellis Almost Anything 6:41
C1 –Bobby Kalphat & The New Establishment Adis A Wa Wa 3:01
C2 –Peter Broggs Sing a New Song 4:13
C3 –Mystic Revelations Of Rastafari Let Freedom Reign 3:36
C4 –Larry & Alvin Free I Lord 2:27
C5 –Jackie Mittoo Happy People 3:06
D1 –Ernest Wilson & The Sound Dimension Freedom Fighter 8:32
D2 –Prince Lincoln Daughters Of Zion 3:05
D3 –High Charles Zion 3:05
D4 –Winston Jarrett Love Jah Jah 2:39
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
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