That’s something I’ve always believed, as a criminal defense lawyer, and it’s something that may be going through the mind of this guy, whose federal trial in Tampa, on drug charges, recently ended in a hung jury and mistrial.
He’d been charged with trying to buy five kilos of cocaine. The defense, apparently, was that he’d been set up (or, in legal parlance, entrapped). A retrial is expected soon.
Bob Marley’s son, Stephen, appearing as a character witness, called him the “voice of the people”—the “voice of Jamaica.”
Jimmy Cliff, “King of Kings,” live, Jamaica (Kingston [Sombrero Club]), 1962
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lagniappe
The Sound System was and is an integral part of the Jamaican social scene especially the working class who rely on this for their entertainment and social life. The middle and upper class fly to Miami and N.Y while the working class depend on the Sound System, which had an impact on my life from my boyhood days in the countryside of Jamaica where I could listen the Sound System at the big upstairs house that was beside the little house where I lived with my Father and my Brother.
This big upstairs downstairs house had a bar called ” Money Rock Tavern ” where the Sound System called “Pope Pius” would play and this was my me only opportunity to hear different kinds of music especially Latino.
My parents were staunch Christians so I was not permitted to associate with those kinds of music so I had to hide and steel away to go to the fair grounds where dances and fairs were held. I could see and learn the latest Dance moves and hear the latest, Rumba, R’n’B, Calypso, Merengay etc…
A little later in my youth life my Father managed to buy a little battery powered radio so I had another opportunity to tune in to American radio particularity New Orleans and Miami, and of course Cuba which is close to Jamaica only 90 miles away. On the local radio station I learned of local Artists writing and recording their own songs so I decided to write my own while still in school, quite a fete for a little country boy but I had high ambitions. Among the locals that inspired me wave Derrick Morgan, Prince Buster and Monty Morris.
After leaving primary school at Somerton my father took me to the capital of Jamaica Kingston to go to Kingston technical school, with a few songs in my head I had written. Where I was going to live was unknown but I ended up in East Kingston. Miss Gwen a stranger Lady said she would cook and wash my clothes while I slept with my cousin in his one rented room.
I was happy to be in Kingston to fulfil my dreams. I tried many producers while still going to school studing radio and tv trying to get the songs recorded without much luck. I entered talent shows and won some and was cheated on some. One night I was walking past a record store and restaurant as they were closing, I pushed myself in and sang for the Chinese owners of the store and convinced one of them Leslie Kong to go into the recording business starting with me.
My second recording with him Hurricane Hattie became a number one hit in Jamaica. I followed that hit up with Miss Jamaica, One Eyed Jacks, King of Kings and Leslie Kong went on to become King Kong among the producers in Jamaica.
This was the ska era of Jamaican Music.—Jimmy Cliff
Wednesday’s featured artist, Curtis Mayfield, was so popular and influential among Jamaican musicians, including the early Wailers (back when the group included Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer [before becoming “Bob Marley and . . .”]), that one British deejay dubbed him the “Godfather of Reggae.”
The Wailers (with Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer), “Keep On Moving” (1972)
Want more? Here (don’t miss “Soul Shakedown Party”).
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The Impressions (with Curtis Mayfield), “I Gotta Keep on Moving” (1964)
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lagniappe
reading table
It’s odd to think back on the time—not so long ago—when there were distinct stylistic trends, such as “this season’s colour” or “abstract expressionism” or “psychedelic music.” It seems we don’t think like that any more. There are just too many styles around, and they keep mutating too fast to assume that kind of dominance.
As an example, go into a record shop and look at the dividers used to separate music into different categories. There used to be about a dozen: rock, jazz, ethnic, and so on. Now there are almost as many dividers as there are records, and they keep proliferating.
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We’re living in a stylistic tropics. There’s a whole generation of people able to access almost anything from almost anywhere, and they don’t have the same localised stylistic sense that my generation grew up with. It’s all alive, all “now,” in an ever-expanding present, be it Hildegard of Bingen or a Bollywood soundtrack. The idea that something is uncool because it’s old or foreign has left the collective consciousness.
I think this is good news. As people become increasingly comfortable with drawing their culture from a rich range of sources—cherry-picking whatever makes sense to them—it becomes more natural to do the same thing with their social, political and other cultural ideas. The sharing of art is a precursor to the sharing of other human experiences, for what is pleasurable in art becomes thinkable in life.—Brian Eno, 11/18/09
This is the kind of guy who gives discographers fits. According to Wikipedia: “On recordings, he is credited under many different names, including: Noel ‘Scully’ Simms, Noel ‘Skully’ Simms, Scully, Scully Simms, Skullie, Skully, Skully Simms, Zoot ‘Scully’ Simms, Mikey Spratt, Scollie, Zoot Sims, and Skitter.” Even in the course of a single book, Lloyd Bradley’s This Is Reggae Music, his name’s spelled two different ways (Skully, Scully).
Noel “Skully” Simms, live (recording session, Horace Andy, Livin’ It Up [2007])
lagniappe
mail
Tuesday I emailed Oran Etkin, letting him know that his music was being featured here, and he sent this response: “That is great. Thank you. Are you the writer of the blog? I like the melodic rhythm and rhythmic melody idea.” In a later message, he added: “Great stuff. I’m checking out the 3-part Lacy interview. Checked out the Malian drumming and gospel sax stuff too.”
Nobel-Prize-winning economist devises a way to turn faces—images of them, that is—into marketable commodities: the more expressive the face, the greater the value.
March, 2013
Haiti is named one of the world’s wealthiest countries.
music clip of the day 