The Basement Rug

It really is amazing how many out-of-print albums you can find out in the blogosphere these days.

I was hoisting a few beers with my brother-in-law last night while spinning from a crate of vinyl I put together for a listening “session” (a semi-regular ritual of ours). A couple of great recent finds in this crate were Joey Lewis and his Orchestra - One of the Boys (from Trinidad), and Alpha Blondy and the Wailers - Jerusalem (1986).

I am so suspicious of most music from the late 1980s, that I almost didn’t buy the Jerusalem LP, but as I am a fan of the Wailers, and have no Blondy in my collection I decided to give it a chance. It was a wise decision. Despite having some of the tell-tale signs of the synthetic 80s, this album stands up quite well, with its strong “roots” vibe, and the incredible vocals of Alpha Blondy. Add the messages for social justice and you just cannot go wrong.

My brother-in-law immediately put in a request for me to transfer the LP to CD, and so I decided to peer out into the blackhole of the blogosphere before I set out to create the CD. Within 10 minutes I had found a CD-rip from 2006 in the archives of the Cesar Tjalbo blog. The CD is very well produced, most noticably in the final mastering. Prior to 1990, most CD’s had not yet fallen prey to the loudness war, and thus the fidelity of the original recordings remained intact.

Once you have downloaded the CD, you will need to unzip the RAR file, which requires the following password: CaesarTjalbo.

The Cesar Tjalbo blog has lots of great finds and is a worthwhile place to drop by. I have added it to my blogroll.

Track Listing:

1) Jerusalem
2) Politiqui
3) Bloodshed In Africa
4) I Love Paris
5) Kalachnikov Love
6) Travailler, C’est Trop Dur
7) Miwa
8) Boulevard De La Mort
9) Dji

Details:

Recording and mixing done at Tuff Gong in Kingston, Jamaica in 1986. Produced by Alpha Blondy; Engineer: Anthony Kelly & Gary Sutherland & Soljie Hamilton; Vocals: Alpha Blondy; Backing Vocals: Dahlia Lyons & Georgia Higgs & Olive Grant & Lorna Wairwright & Marcia Higgs; Backing Band: The Wailers; Drums: Carlton Barrett; Bass: Family Man; Lead Guitar: Junior Marvin; Rhythm Guitar: Chinna & Owen Reid; Keyboards: George Kouakou & Earl Wire Lindo; Horns: Bubbles Cameron & Glen Da Costa & David Madden; Percussion: Scully Simms & Sticky.

I had hoped to put together a New Year’s Eve podcast, but alas, I am heading off to work (I know, I know) for the night, and I haven’t had time to put anything together. I have been cleaning a closet though and came across some reggae LP’s, so I thought I should at least offer a couple of single track posts before heading out the door.

“Feel Like Jumping” is from Marcia Griffiths’ 1978 album “Naturally”. 

The following info is from wikipedia.org:

Marcia Griffiths (born Marcia Llyneth Griffiths, 23 November 1949, Kingston, Jamaica) also called the “Queen of Reggae” is Jamaica’s most famous, successful female singer. Griffiths started her career in 1964. From 1970 to 1974 she worked together with Bob Andy in the group Bob and Marcia, on the Harry J label. Between 1974 and 1981 she was a member of the I-Threes, a background group, which supported Bob Marley & the Wailers. Her song “Electric Boogie” made the Electric Slide, a line dance, an international dance craze.

Ere be sam dub fir ja New Year’s Eve party! This is Round 5 of “I Came, I Saw, I Conquered”, from the Channel One label from 1980 (produced in 1978). The following is from wikipedia.org:

Set up in 1975 as the house band of the Channel One Studios owned by Joseph Hoo Kim (following Skin, Flesh and Bones), The Revolutionaries with Sly Dunbar on drums and Robbie Shakespeare on bass have created the new “rockers” style that would change the whole Jamaican sound (from the roots reggae to the dub) and be imitated in all other productions. Beside Sly and Robbie, many musicians played in the band: Betram “Ranchie” McLean, Radcliffe “Dougie” Bryan on guitar, Ossie Hibbert, Errol “Tarzan” Nelson, Robert Lyn or Ansel Collins on keyboards, Uziah “Count Sticky” Thompson, Noel “Scully” Simms on percussion, Tommy McCook, Herman Marquis on saxophone, Bobby Ellis on trumpet and Vin Gordon on trombone. The band played on numerous dub albums and recorded as a backing band for artists like B.B. Seaton, Black Uhuru, Culture, Prince Alla, Leroy Smart, Gregory Isaacs, John Holt, The Heptones, I-Roy, Tappa Zukie, Trinity, U-Brown, Errol Scorcher, Serge Gainsbourg among others.

I was inspired to dig up and rip this influential instrumental ska album from the early 1960s after seeing the cover art in the cover of the new Bedouin Soundclash album, Street Gospel. The exact date of this Up-Beat label (101) recording is unknown, but it was produced and arranged by Carlos Malcolm and engineered and recorded by Graeme Goodall. I thought this LP was long out of print, but it turns out that it was re-issued by RPH Productions in 2001, although I am not sure if it is still available. More details at Roots-Archives.com and All Music Guide.

1) Skamania
2) Run For Cover
3) Hunchback N°1
4) Tiptoe
5) Earthman
6) Skokian
7) Sweetie Charlie
8) Head Shrinker
9) Skaramouche
10) Hopalong Kassidy
11) Wings Of A Dove

Biography from CarlosMalcolm.com:

In August 2000, Carlos Malcolm, the legendary Jamaican trombonist /composer/arranger/bandleader, was brought home by the Government of Jamaica and presented with the prestigious Prime Minister’s Award. Referring to him as “a national treasure”, The Hon. P.J. Patterson, Prime Minister, awarded Malcolm the silver platter in recognition of the many outstanding contributions he has made to the development of Jamaican music. This award also acknowledgedhis musical influences upon young artists during the pivotal period, 1960 – 1965, when Jamaican Mento music was fused with the New Orleans (back-beat) Shuffle Rhythm to produce a throbbing Jamaican urbanized music called Ska.

In 1959, the Jamaican Government started preparing for Independence in 1962 and established the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, a national radio station, to develop and showcase Jamaican talent. From a cadre of writers, producers, musicians, Carlos Malcolm was hired as arranger for the JBC 10-piece studio orchestra and co-director of a program called “The Jamaican Hit Parade”.

The program molded the careers of many hitherto unknown artists such as Jimmy Cliff, Owen Gray, Jackie Edwards, Derrick Morgan, Alton Ellis, and Joe Higgs. These individuals and other Jamaican musicians took Ska to London. The rhythm was warmly embraced and eventually evolved into the international phenomenon of Reggae Music, the most enduring exponent of which is generally recognized to be Bob Marley.

Early Ska music was recorded from head-arrangements of studio musicians. Through his formal musical training, Carlos Malcolm became the first arranger to bring his pen to organized arrangements of Ska music, by transcribing the music from 7″-45r.p.m. discs and re-arranging it, so that the JBC 10-piece band could accompany artists on the “Jamaican Hit Parade”, (adapted from Dick Clark’s show), which was broadcast “live” from the stage of a local theatre in Kingston every Friday.

In 1962, Eon Production of London hired Carlos to arrange and compose original background music for the first James Bond movie, “Dr. No,” which was filmed in Jamaica.

As Carlos Malcolm and His Afro-Jamaican Rhythms, he divided his time between writing scores for musicals with his 10 piece band and establishing a musical production company which, with success, recorded commercial jingles for name brand products such as Shell Oil, Texaco, Vickk’s Vapor Rub, Ovaltine and Maxwell House Coffee. These successes also extended into other American advertising agencies marketing in the Caribbean.

While in New York, Carlos produced 3 albums: “Don’t Walk, Dance” for Roulette Records, “Bustin’ Outta De Ghetto” for AJP Records and “Jamaica Brass”, for Scepter Records. In 1996 Carlos was inducted into the Ocho Rios Jazz Festival Hall of Fame, along with James Moody, world-famous Jazz flautist and alto-saxophonist.

Carlos Malcolm now lives in San Diego, California, where he is a state sponsored Artist In Residence and has also teamed up with Anthony Ackee, Certified Drug Counselor/Therapist and Dr. Michael Lardon, Board Certified Clinical Psychiatrist (advisor) on a community-based project called “Music?Yes!/The Age of Reason.”

The program, which uses music as the gateway to critical thinking, is very popular with young people. Carlos Malcolm’s forthcoming book, “Reggae Roots” will contain personal recording studio experiences (as arranger/musical “live” radio director) on the genesis of Jamaican urban music (Ska), the precursor of today’s Reggae Music. The book will be a welcome source of information to ethnomusicologists who regularly consult with him on the subject.

Contact Carlos Malcolm at reggaeroots2003@yahoo.com | www.carlosmalcolm.com