Wednesday, May 21st
two takes
Grace Jones with Sly & Robbie, “My Jamaican Guy”
Live, Jamaica (Kingston), late ’80s
***
Recording, 1982
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passings
Bunny Rugs (AKA Bunny Clarke, William Clarke), singer
February 6, 1948-February 2, 2014
Live (with Sly & Robbie), “Revolution,” “Love Is Blind,” New York, 2013
***
Live (with Third World), “Now That We Found Love,” Los Angeles, 2013
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Recording (Lee Perry, prod.), “Be Thankful,” 1975
two takes
Alton Ellis (1938-2008), “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”
Live
Recording
*****
lagniappe
reading table
First day of spring—
I keep thinking about
the end of autumn.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694, translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
two takes
The Heptones, “Book of Rules”
Recording, 1973
This bass line I could live in all day.
***
Live, London (Jazz Cafe), 2009
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR Proudly Presents: The Jamaican Independence Festival
Starting at 8 a.m. on Saturday, July 28th, 2012, WKCR will broadcast 43 hours of music from Jamaica spanning the development of more than 50 years of recorded music. August 6, 2012 is the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence from Great Britain. The emergence of Jamaica’s modern recording industry began in the late 1950s followed by the emergence of ska in the early 60s. Ska was the first in a continuum of music genres–rock steady, reggae, dub, lover’s rock, and dancehall–that would have global influence in the next 50 years. The WKCR Jamaican Independence Festival will celebrate this musical and cultural legacy through a 43 hour broadcast running until 3 a.m. Monday, July 30th.
The dates of the festival fall between Jamaican Independence Day and Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie’s birthday on July 23rd. Saturday evening, a segment of the festival will focus on Rastafarian music specifically. The Rastafarian movement, which began in Jamaica in the 1930s after Ras Tafari Makonnen’s coronation as Haile Selassie, was a major cultural force in the Jamaican recording industry as many musicians were Rastafarians. The festival will celebrate the Jamaican community, and educate the larger New York audience in preparation for other cultural events the following week. The festival will be segmented to illustrate specific developments in genres, and periods of Jamaican music. Iconic artists whose influence deserves recognition will receive special one-hour profiles, and Sunday evening will feature a live, in-studio performance by the Brooklyn-based Full Watts Band, which specializes in rock steady and early reggae.
Here is a full schedule of the festival:
Saturday:
8-10 Festival Reggae / Independence Songs
10-12 Ska
12-14 Reggae Got Soul
14-19 Tributes to Deceased Icons: Alton Ellis, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Sugar Minott, Bob Marley/Peter Tosh 1 hour each.
19-21 Early Dancehall/Rubadub/Early 80’s Sound
21-23 Guest (stay tuned for details)
23-(1 Sunday) RastafariSunday:
(23 Saturday)-1 Rastafari
1-3 Deejay Style
3-6 Digital Reggae
6-8 Dub
8-10 Jamaican Gospel
10-12 Mento
12-14 Rocksteady/Early Reggae
14-20 Tributes to Living Icons: Bunny Wailer, Bob Andy, Ken Booth, Leroy Sibles, John Holt, Jimmy Cliff 1 hour each.
20-22 Full Watts Band Live Set/Interview
22-(1 Monday) Harmony GroupsMonday:
(22 Sunday)-1 Harmony Groups
1-3 Dub Till Dawn
trying to teach white folks
This Is Ska! (1964)
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lagniappe
found words
Real Messages from Heaven
—book title (Books-A-Million, 144 S. Clark St., Chicago)
more favorites from the past year
Dub shows aren’t an everyday thing in Chicago, so last night, despite the weather (rain) and weariness (from traveling to see a client in prison), I ventured out to a club to catch this guy. A show like this isn’t just an aural experience: each beat of the bass vibrates your ribcage.
Mad Professor (AKA Neil Fraser, born 1955, Guyana)
Live, London, 2011
Vodpod videos no longer available.******
Live remix, Bob Marley and the Wailers, “Lively Up Yourself,” c. 2008
Vodpod videos no longer available.(Originally posted 9/19/11.)
*******
Life thickens as you get older, becoming more layered. The other night, for instance, listening to Mad Professor dub Bob Marley at a club on Chicago’s south side (Reggie’s, State near Cermak), I found it hard not to think of another night over thirty years ago, of another club on the other side of town (Quiet Knight, Belmont near Clark, now gone), of hearing Bob Marley not dubbed but live.
Bob Marley and the Wailers, “Trenchtown Rock”
Live, Chicago (Quiet Knight), 1975
(Originally posted 9/20/11.)
Life thickens as you get older, becoming more layered. The other night, for instance, listening to Mad Professor dub Bob Marley at a club on Chicago’s south side (Reggie’s, State near Cermak), I found it hard not to think of another night over thirty years ago, of another club on the other side of town (Quiet Knight, Belmont near Clark, now gone), of hearing Bob Marley not dubbed but live.
Bob Marley and the Wailers, “Trenchtown Rock”
Live, Chicago (Quiet Knight), 1975
Today we remember him with a mix of new clips and old favorites.
Gil Scott-Heron, April 1, 1949-May 27, 2011
new clips
“The Bottle,” live, Jamaica (Montego Bay, Reggae Sunsplash), 1983
Cool Runnings: The Reggae Movie (1983)
*****
“We Almost Lost Detroit,” live, Austria (Vienna), 2010
*****
Interview, England (London), 2010
*****
old favorites
Here’s a voice I didn’t know if I’d ever hear again.
Gil Scott-Heron, I’m New Here (out this week)
“Where Did The Night Go” (Gil Scott-Heron)
***
“Me And The Devil” (Robert Johnson)
**********
lagniappe
I’ve had bad times in my life when I’d rather be somewhere else doing something else, for sure. But you get to my age, that shit happens. You get in trouble; you maybe lose some folks—a parent or a friend. Maybe your marriage breaks up, you lose your wife, lose touch with your kid. But what life does not have those things in it?—Gil Scott-Heron (in yesterday’s Guardian)
(Orignially posted 2/8/10.)
**********
I’m the person I see least of over the course of my life, and even what I see is not accurate.
—Gil Scott-Heron (New Yorker, 8/9/2010 [Alec Wilkinson, “New York Is Killing Me”])
Gil Scott-Heron, “I’m New Here” (2010)
(Originally posted 8/24/10.)
**********
It’s a remix world.
Gil Scott-Heron, “New York Is Killing Me” (2010), Chris Cunningham remix
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lagniappe
Here’s the original track, followed by a couple more remixes.
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
With Nas
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
With Mos Def
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
langiappe
musical thoughts
In the dark times, will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing. About the dark times.
—Bertolt Brecht
(Originally posted 12/16/10.)
**********
langiappe
remembrances
Richard Russell (XL Recordings; produced and released GSH’s last album)
passings
(an occasional series)
Lloyd Knibb, drummer (Skatalites, et al.)
March 8, 1931-May 12, 2011
Lloyd Knibb’s importance to Jamaican music can’t be overstated. The inventor of the ska beat at Coxson Dodd’s Studio One, Knibb created a sound that spread like wildfire the world over.
—Carter Van Pelt, host, Eastern Standard Time, WKCR-FM
Skatalites, “Freedom Sound,” live, Belgium (Lokerse Festival), 1997
***
Skatalites, “Latin Go Ska,” live, Los Angeles, 2007
***
Skatalites, live, Los Angeles, 2007
***
Skatalites, “(Straighten Up And) Fly Right”
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lagniappe
reading table
Spring
It would be
good to shrug
out of winter
as cicadas do:
look: a crisp
freestanding you
and you walking
off, soft as
new.—Kay Ryan
music clip of the day 