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Posts published in “Reggae/World”

MUSIC MONDAY: “The Upsetter” – A Tribute to Reggae/Dub Legend Lee “Scratch” Perry (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “The Upsetter” – A Tribute to Reggae/Dub Legend Lee “Scratch” Perry (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on August 30, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Yesterday we lost the great Lee “Scratch” Perry, the monumental reggae singer, producer, and studio wizard who pushed the boundaries of Jamaican music.

He worked with and produced for many artists, including Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Congos, Adrian Sherwood, the Beastie Boys, and many others.

Perry also was a crucial figure in the development of the homegrown art form of dub, which involved the stripping of vocals from previously released recordings and treating the instrumental beds with a variety of otherworldly effects.

Perry serviced dozens of classic “dub plates” to Jamaican sound system dancehalls. Keith Richards told Rolling Stone back in 2010, “You could never put your finger on Lee Perry – he’s the Salvador Dali of music. He’s a mystery. The world is his instrument. You just have to listen. More than a producer, he knows how to inspire the artist’s soul. Like Phil Spector, he has a gift of not only hearing sounds that come from nowhere else but also translating those sounds to the musicians. Scratch is a shaman.”

Brotha had a healthy sense of his own impact, too. “I am the best record producer that Jamaica has seen. Many say that l am the best in the world!” he said in 1984.

Here’s a collection devoted to the best of one the greats. Stay sane, safe, and kind, y’all.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: “Silly Games” – The Best of Lovers Rock Playlist (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Silly Games” – The Best of Lovers Rock Playlist (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on August 9, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

This week’s offering is more than a little inspired by the 2020 film Lovers Rock.

Writer-director Steve McQueen’s loving portrait of a house party was one of the best films of last year. I’ve included a few tracks from the soundtrack by Gregory Isaacs, Janet Kay and others.

Though this collection takes us back the last days of the rocksteady era and early days of reggae, it features artists like Ken Boothe, Johnny Nash and John Holt and Hortense Ellis.

They enjoyed international hits with versions of well-known love songs and originals that would go on to be clone classics of the genre.

Happy Monday, and enjoy this reggae mushy stuff.

As always, stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: A “Rumba Around the World” Collection (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: A “Rumba Around the World” Collection (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on July 26, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy Music Monday, y’all.

The term “rumba” refers to a variety of unrelated music styles. Originally, “rumba” was used as a synonym for “party” in Cuba, and by the late 19th century it was used to denote the complex of secular music styles known as Cuban rumba.

It has since been used in different countries to refer to styles of music and dance around the globe, most of which are only tangentially related to the original Cuban rumba.

This playlist gathers music from Cuba, The Americas, and Africa. This is another one that comes with a “Rump Shaker Warning.”

Please enjoy!

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: “African Unity” – A Collection of Reggae From Around the World (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “African Unity” – A Collection of Reggae From Around the World (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on July 19, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy Monday, you all! This week’s playlist celebrates reggae music from around the world.

Reggae originated in Jamaica in the 1960s. It is deeply linked to Rastafari, Afrocentric thought, and promoting Pan Africanism. It is the nation’s most impactful export.

Over the decades, reggae has traveled with Jamaican immigrants, and its message and popularity has spread cross the globe.

Today there are reggae performers from every corner of the planet. In the United States, Latin America, Europe, the UK, Asia, and Africa you will find reggae artists thriving.

Here’s a collection of established artists like Linton Kwesi Johnson, Steel Pulse, the late Lucky Dube, and Alpha Blondy. Also included are emerging artists like Awa Fall, Los Cafres, and Matthew McAnuff.

Hope you enjoy this collection of classics and new music. And as always, stay safe sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: “Freedom Street” – Songs of Liberty Playlist(LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Freedom Street” – Songs of Liberty Playlist(LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on June 28, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

On this Monday nestled between Juneteenth and Independence Day, Lori Lakin Hutcherson and I thought it prudent to offer this collection of music celebrating freedom and liberty.

Many of these tracks even have the word freedom in their title. Others have just long been associated with the fight for Civil Rights and reform for years.

There are tracks here long-considered, classics, and other new songs on the subject. Clocking in at under 6 hours, this one is a comparatively short collection for me.

Hope you dig this collection of Freedom songs. And if there are any overt omissions, hit me in the comments, y’all.

Have a great week, and stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: “Money Is King” – A Classic Calypso Collection (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Money Is King” – A Classic Calypso Collection (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on May 24, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy Monday from your friend and selector, Marlon. This collection features Calypso classics from the late 1930s to the 1960s, where this musical style reached many through the internationally popular recordings of Harry Belafonte.

I have included many of his predecessors: Attila the Hun, Roaring Lion, The Mighty Sparrow and Lord Invader to name but a few. Lord Invader’s “Rum and Coca-Cola” was covered with great success by the Andrews Sisters.

Another “Lord,” Lord Kitchener, was one of the longest-lasting calypso stars in history. He continued to release hit records until his death in 2000.

The roots of Calypso music started in 17th century Trinidad. The Africans brought to toil on sugar plantations, were stripped of all connections to their homeland and family, and not allowed to talk to each other.

They used calypso to mock the slave masters and to communicate with each other. It is characterized by highly rhythmic and harmonic vocals and is usually sung in a French creole and led by a griot.

While Calypso is most often danceable, there often much social commentary, and innuendo laced in the lyrics.

Hope you enjoy this collection of music that would go on to influence Ska, Rocksteady, and Reggae.

Have a great week! And as always stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: “Pressure Drop” – A Ska and Reggae Collection (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Pressure Drop” – A Ska and Reggae Collection (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on May 17, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy Monday! I’ll keep it brief this week. This collection gathers decades of ska and reggae.

From pioneers like The Skatalites to new artists including Jaz Elise. Here is hours of roots, rock steady, dancehall, and dub reggae.

I have endeavored to include classics and releases from 2021 in the playlist that will move you all day long. Please enjoy!

And even as we emerge from lock, stay safe, sane, and kind!

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: “Dream Land” – A Tribute Playlist to Bunny Wailer and the Wailers Legacy (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Dream Land” – A Tribute Playlist to Bunny Wailer and the Wailers Legacy (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 8, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Bunny Wailer, born Neville O’Riley Livingston, died on March 2nd. He was an original member of The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, and a lifelong standard-bearer of reggae music.

“The Wailers are to reggae what the Beatles are to rock ‘n roll and pop music,” according to Jamaican music-business veteran Copeland Forbes.

This collection is devoted to the work of The Wailers, and the solo work of Rita Marley, Peter Tosh, and of Bunny Wailer himself.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:0mBxXxCdAMgcOvgwFSlefk”]

In the 1960s The Wailers hit their initial stride with Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One label, often called Jamaica’s Motown. They recorded for several producers, including Leslie Kong and, most notably, Lee “Scratch” Perry.

I’ve included several of those songs, and ones The Wailers went on to release on their own Wail ‘N Soul ‘M and Tuff Gong labels.

By 1974, Tosh and Wailer both would leave the group for solo careers. Bob Marley would use The Wailers name for his backup band.

Hope you enjoy this collection of music by greats artist done together and separately.

Stay stay, sane, and kind, you all. Until such time.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
R.I.P. Reggae Legend Bunny Wailer, 73, Founding Member of the Wailers with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh (VIDEO)

R.I.P. Reggae Legend Bunny Wailer, 73, Founding Member of the Wailers with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on March 2, 2021

Bunny Wailer, a founding member of the Wailers and a reggae music titan whose career spanned seven decades, died today at the age of 73, according to the Jamaica Observer.

Wailer’s manager Maxine Stowe confirmed that Wailer died  at the Medical Associates Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica (via the Jamaica Observer). No cause of death has been named so far, but Wailer had been in and out of the hospital since suffering his second stroke, in 2020.

Wailer, born Neville Livingston — before adopting his famous moniker — was a member of the original Wailers trio with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.

https://youtu.be/R2rmFRHhwoA

To quote from Rolling Stone:

While Marley and Livingston were being mentored by Joe Higgs, “the Godfather of Reggae,” they met Higgs’ fellow student Peter Tosh; the then-trio ventured to Kingston. Soon after, they were joined by singer Junior Braithwaite and backup vocalists Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith. Following a string of name changes that included the Teenagers and the Wailing Wailers, the Wailers aligned with Coxsone Dodd’s sound system and Studio One label — which employed songwriters and producers like Lee “Scratch” Perry and Jackie Mittoo — and released the Marley-penned “Simmer Down,” a Number One hit in Jamaica.

Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith soon departed the Wailers, leaving the nucleus of Marley, Livingston, and Tosh intact; that trio recorded the band’s debut LP, 1965’s The Wailing Wailers, a collection of tracks the band recorded during the mid-Sixties. The Wailers then went on hiatus as Marley married his wife Rita and joined his mother in Wilmington, Delaware; during this period, Livingston served a yearlong sentence for marijuana possession. However, the three principle Wailers reunited upon Marley’s return to Jamaica.

While Marley and Tosh served as the Wailers’ primary singers and songwriters, Livingston played an indispensable role in providing harmonies to the trio’s songs. The Wailers next teamed with Perry and his Upsetters for 1970’s Soul Rebels and 1971’s Soul Revolution; around that time, Livingston wrote and recorded one of his signature songs, “Dreamland,” a track he revisited when he released his solo LP Blackheart Man in 1976.

To read more:

MUSIC MONDAY: “Roots, Rock, Reggae” – a Bob Marley Collection in Honor of his 76th (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Roots, Rock, Reggae” – a Bob Marley Collection in Honor of his 76th (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on February 15, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Earlier this month was the 76th anniversary of the birth of Robert Nesta Marley.

It is hard to overstate his impact on popular music and culture. Marley was a Rastafari icon, and he infused his music with a sense of social consciousness and spirituality.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:6OsMQUWxzKzubeTmVwsSHr”]

He is still a global symbol of Jamaican music, culture, and Pan-Africanism. He co-founded The Wailers vocal group with Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Beverley Kelso and Junior Braithwaite.

They created early ska and rocksteady in the studios of legendary producers Coxsone Dodd and Lee “Scratch” Perry.

Marley would go on to bring reggae music to an international audience, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Rolling Stone has ranked him No. 11 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Here’s a collection includes his many classics, early recordings, live performances, and remixes, and dub reworkings. This playlist is a testament to the lasting impact of Bob Marley.

As always stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)