... time for a new sankey ...

... a joke making the rounds of late has the International Olympic Committee considering the adoption of a buzzer system to begin races at future events, having concluded that the sound of a starter's gunshot gives Jamaicans an edge in sprint events ...

... part of the reason this jest resounds, albeit uncomfortably, is that the scenario reflects a certain degree of plausibility to anyone familiar with social ills on the island paradise ... post-facto attention (a press feature this morning remembers folkloric criminal figures Sandokhan and Natty Morgan) and crucial pop-culture continuity, keeps a sensational eye on seamy truth ...

... self-satisfied images of Brand Jamaica out of the 2012 Olympics in olde London, a city shaped in all its tradition and modernity by influences from disparate humanity, have been breathtaking and stimulating, not only in the athletic realm, but also culturally ... Danny Boyle's dense opening ceremony set the stage with an admixture of basic acknowledgement, tapping touchstones from Windsor to Windrush ...

... this was indubitably a more colorful Great Britain on display ... a Jamaican aboard a double-decker bus in pre-independence London was more likely to wear a conductor's standard issue than the ubiquitous Cedella Marley urban-casuals of today ...

... The Games themselves, personified by characters like Bolt and Phelps, not to mention Walcott, James, Rudisha and homies Murray, Daley and Mo, proved both gladiatorial and gamin ... Shelly-Ann and the women surpassed suffragette city with historic heroism and hijabs, and through it all there was the sense of this being a threshold opportunity, for the consolidation of Caribbean cultural expression and sovereign self-respect ...

... predictably though, 'cos it's only natural and we've felt this way before, the lyric "back to life, back to reality" from Soul 2 Soul's mellifluous 1989 smash hit comes to mind when we try to assess where to go from here ... reality in life can be coldly sobering, particularly when highs are so lofty and lows so entrenched ...

... every day, since Jamaican runners reached their respective pinnacles, there has been post-mortem, with various pundits trying to extrapolate consequence from the collective plaudit ...

... analyses and tributes abound, in print, poem and song ...

... Tommy Lee, the latest musical spokesman to capture the spirit of youthful hype in Jamaica's virile dancehall scene, has revamped his current hit "Psycho" to lyrically laud sprint speed ... for him, any tie-in to the internationalization of Gaza-hands by Usain and his acolytes is surely not an unwelcome career filip ...

... to my ear (and you may just want to accept ackeelover's word for this) the adaptive re-mix represents a positive shift away from the controversially graphic bravado of the original release, and Tommy's mad style is more than swag enough to fill the void left by the currently incarcerated Vybz Kartel ...

... the joys of nationhood and independence run concurrent with insidious indenture to the "shit-stem" (another Peter Tosh-ism), and, malaise related to perpetual poverty creates an identifiable dichotomy in the present-day Jamaican personality ... affable patriotism goes hand-in-hand with battle-hardened survivalism ...

... if the Bolt of lightning brightening our skies at this moment illuminates anything, it is that we will continue to "sing our own song" (as the upful, apartheid-era UB40 opus rolls through my subconscious) ... and, lifted by the breakthrough achievements of our talented brethren and sistren, we must look to adapt for the prosperity of the next half-century, and fly beyond ...

... it's time to sing that new sankey ...

JAMAICAN GLOSSARY

the "shit-stem" - the system

"sankey" - song (typically of the revivalist, spiritual variety)

"indubitably" - definitely not Jamaican, but I couldn't resist

... summer street seen ...

... in my world Jamaican Music is a twentyfourseven, threesixtyfive prerequisite, without which life just wouldn't feel right, but sometimes it is seen as mere summertime sound with diminishing relevance as the cooler months set in ... while I strongly reject that attitude in principle, I tend to shelve my objections in July and August when, everywhere I turn, there's a bumpin' bassline or bubblin' beat to keep the vibes level ...

... at the base of the world-famous CN Tower in downtown Toronto, while testing the touchscreen camera app on a new Android Tablet, my attention was drawn to a familiar image on a vending machine ... the resultant snapshot benefitted, quite unintentionally (pinky swear), from a pair of strolling sightseers in my pre-set frame, recalling an early 90's dancehall lick that rocked clubs and looped out of every audio-cassette deck ...

  chorus:

" ... a jus' de Coca-Cola bottle shape a it a run di place,
bruck-out bruck-out gyal, a u have de shape, 

a just de Coca-Cola bottle shape, a it a run di place, 

skin-out skin-out gyal, a u have de shape ..."

   and verse:

"... inna de place, uptown girl have de shape, 

inna de place, downtown girl have de shape, 

inna de place, a London girl have de shape,

inna de place, New York girl have de shape, 

inna de place, Canadian girl have de shape,

a dem have di shape and a give man headache,

a dem have di shape mek man body shake ..."

... you get the idea ... within the genre there is always compulsion to big-up the female form, frequently in illustrative or graphic fashion ... this familiar theme, with attendant effect on the equilibrium of the enraptured beholder, is an eternal spring ...

... here on record (spot the misspellings inspired by yardspeak, a fun-for-all parlour game with reggae covers and labels), figure and bodyline are linked to curvy coke-bottle design and presented over a tuff Bogle riddim, with hooks from the quirky-smirky vocal of self-deprecatingly named DJ, Simpleton ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRUuGVu_JDM

... Christopher "Simpleton" Harrison (1971-2004), late of  St. Andrew, Jamaica, shot to fame in '91/'92 with this hit ... he reportedly suffered from high blood pressure and died of a heart attack at just 33 years old after releasing three albums ...

... I remember him, and his catchy phrasing, whenever I spy Scarlett Johanssen ... or a retro pop-vending machine ...

... heartbreak on di gully bank ...

... if the rapturous triple-play I heard on the radio in Kingston last week is anything to go by, you are going to hear this choon all summer long, so ... nuh watch no face, yuzimi! ...

... riding high for a couple years, Mavado (a.k.a. the Gully God) from the quaintly named but periodically volatile community of Cassava Piece, has been pulling away at the top of the pack ... this is partly natural transition as leaders like Buju Banton deal with career complications and partly due to bizarre abdications like that of Vybz Kartel, whose penchant for skin-bleaching and aesthetic self-alteration alienates fans in droves and sets back his high-profile rivalry with Mavado ... at the same time Mavado, after a stream of hardcore hits, seems to be embracing a transformation from gangsta to golden-boy, a road travelled by several before him ... "Delilah" takes it to the nex' level with a melodic hook and lyrics on a universal theme ...

... there was a time not long ago when speaky-spokey announcers eschewed home-grown music in favour of foreign fare, but today, while you can still hear a wide variety of international sounds on Jamaican radio, there is little doubt that Patwa (the dominant lingua franca) with its attendant riddim, rules the airwaves ...

... Jamaican music, I suggest, is best appreciated as a mercurial continuum rather than a loose collection of (so called) "classic eras" ... some folk savor the Ska or rub-up to the Rock Steady, others revere one-drop Roots, Rock, Reggae and the yout' dem dig the Dancehall ... as such, there's a style for everyone in the musicality of this island, even if you don't regard anything beyond the Mento era or the one singer you know of is named Marley ...

JAMAICAN GLOSSARY

"choon" - tune, song

"nuh watch no face" - don't be misled by naysayers

"yuzimi" - you see me ... y'understand

"speaky-spokey" - describing attempts at proper pronunciation

Patwa" - Patois, Jamaican English

... Distant Relatives ...

... "if this world were mine/I'd play rub-a-dub all the time"... you'll sometimes hear me spontaneously sing this out in my best Dennis Brown style, as if to broadcast the contentment a reggae soundtrack brings to my very heartbeat ... when I mix-up my selection with other styles of Jamaican music or hybrids thereof, and intersperse chosen tracks from non-Jamaican genres, I find I can enjoy continuous musical companionship ... I've collected audio this way forever and do appreciate other music-forms ... so, when I experience a tasty tune, a solid LP/CD or cross-genre fusion, I indulge my sensory need by extending the collection...

... enter the Nasir Jones-Damian Marley alliance ...















... Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones is a pre-eminent New York rapper and son of Mississipian jazz'n'blues musician Olu Dara (if the birthers ask), "Nas" needs no introduction to the hip-hop world ... Damian Robert Nesta Marley a.k.a. "Jr. Gong" also bears the name of his father ... the Iron, Lion, Zion scion of his lineage ... his mother, Cindy Breakespeare, won the 1976 Miss World Competition ...

... in spite of this princely pedigree ... or perhaps because of it ... the aristocratic duo forged a strong relationship in studio and on stage ... and straight to the ears of each other's core audience ...














... it should be noted that the recent "Distant Relatives" CD is only the latest fruit of their joint effort ... and that it was a long time in the making rather than a hastily convened affair ... significant too that musicians were in-studio with the vocalists ... resulting in a rewardingly cohesive stand-alone work ... eloquent and contemporary in content yet traditional in concept ...













... perfomer ego is an easily identifiable tendon in the muscle fibre of Hip-Hop, and frankly, a large part of why we buy it when we do ... or reject it when we find ourselves discomfited by it's more uncompromising tones ... similarly ... regurgitative versions of "the half that's never been told"(another reference to a Dennis Brown classic) and millenarian Rastafarian themes can cause a listener to move and groove in approval, or close-up and pose-off if left cold by the message ... Nas and Junior Gong know that one way to eschew ego and regurgitation is to skew toward the often-imitated-but-never-duplicated Bob Marley model ...













... lo and behold ... there's ample room onstage for conscious message, dancehall skank, Hip-Hop hype, colorful urban-lingo, two-finger gunshot salutes and a couple of maturing princes under the banner of Bob Marley's Ethio-visionary worldview ... the result is an assuredly honest collaboration worthy of props inside and outside artificial human borders ... these figurative distant relatives make modern music in a philosophical state of unity (or I-nity if you can dig it) ... served up and followed up by tours, TV talk-shows, press-junkets and special appearances ...














... to dismiss conviction of purpose and sincere belief in this mission as preaching ... or to judge song titles like "Count Your Blessings"or "Patience" (two of my faves) as light or trite in sentiment, is as egregious as adding negative stigma to the word "liberal"... and twice as damaging to one's edification ...













... upliftment for Africa at home and abroad is the aim here ... the philanthropic use of generated proceeds and serious countenance of these "riddim piranhas/like two Obamas," bespeaks a common calling and sense of purpose ... the sort of thing that elevates better music above other good music ... this is exemplified on "My Generation" which successfully updates the last track on the Melody Makers 1991 album "Jahmekya"... Joss Stone and Lil Wayne are drafted in on that one for more width ... elsewhere, strategic Stephen Marley vocals and co-production chops add weight ... and ... there's the late, great Dennis Brown again, sampled on "Land Of Promise" to rootsify the proceedings ...













... guest appearances by Somali-Canadian rapper K'naan add extra Africa to great effect including a cool turn on the summarising final track "Africa Must Wake Up"... which incidentally can segue sweetly into "T.I.A." (This Is Africa), first cut on his own release "Troubador", which features a "Simmer Down" Bob Marley sample ... K'naan's link to Africa's World Cup 2010 with "Wavin' Flag", and Damian's appearance on that CD too, ties it all together appropriately ... which is the whole point innit, One Blood/One Love ... movement of Jah people ...











... no matter how you cut it, this recording is a Marleyesque statement ... that it partners seamlessly with Nas and K'naan's Hip-Hop agenda seems the most natural thing in the world ...

... "Distant Relatives" had me at "As We Enter", the irresistable opener subsequently co-opted for a slam-dunk dubplate remix for Stone Love ... back in the day, my own grandparents lived one minute above where Damian lived as a toddler, at the foot of Russell Heights in Kingston, Jamaica ... passing by, I'd curiously crane my neck to catch a glimpse of this golden child of famous parentage ... now he's a hard-working standard-bearer of his father's unstoppable legacy and a bridge-builder through intelligent collaborations and his own solo output ...

... see 'ow t'ings work? ... keep it locked ...

... Lioness On The Rise ...

... everywhere I turn these days someone is analyzing Jamaican Music, the entertainment industry it spearheads and the relationship it has with cultural forces of the day ... both in Jamaica and the wider world ... this isn't idle study, because despite technological adjustments, erratic sales and noticeable market marginalisation, Jamaican cultural expresssion continues to influence beyond local origins ... for better and for worse ...

... much is made of tuneless digi-beats ... aggressive hyper-hetero masculinity ... gunplay and war-worship ... crass content ... repetetive themes of fundamentalism and political entrenchment ... certainly there is enough to repel those who found the bubbling heartbeat and sincere songcraft of earlier eras so embraceable .. if .. it is accepted that the new has obliterated the old ... but Jamaican Music is a living continuum and the truth is more complex than that ...

... first and foremost it is important to recognize that dreck and drivel is not exclusive to current output ... there has always been forgettable music ... only the best survives to represent an era ... secondly it will surprise some and vindicate others to be reminded that the pedigree of musicianship and the power of invention that comes from poverty continues to translate into a tradition of gamechanging on the wide open playing field ...

... it's the time we live in that has changed ... the proverbial pie has effectively shrunken as more clamour for a share of it ... the standouts will include those with the maddest flex, the baddest gangsta gun, the lewdest act ... but also highlighted will be the artiste with the innovative incantation, the fresh lyrical flow or the expanded inspiration ... Jamaican Music has always reflected these and other dichotomies in the society ... if the listener is discerning (granted this can be difficult as it's the hype shit that gets the videolight) then revelation awaits ...

.... I'm a lifetime beneficiary of Jamaican Sound ... readers of Ackeelover Chronicles will come to know this ... there has always been music from the island and it's wider sphere of influence that "sweet me" ... at this point in my life there is enough variety to cater to all my instincts, including those times when I want to feel the high-drama excitement of the dancehall that causes so much hand-wringing and consternation, think Dutty Fridaze in Fletcher's Land Square ... for listening pleasure it's different vibes, all sorts of oldies, "pop-reggae" ... Virgin Islands reggae, Various Artist Samplers ... any Marley, Toots, Tarrus, Tanya, Prezident Brown, the list is virtually endless ... most performers have some superior material in their prolific catalogues ... Sizzla, for example, can sizzle and fizzle ... finding the hotta track is part of the addiction ...

... then, every so often there emerges an artiste who hits stride and produces work that is consistently a-cut-above ...

... several years ago I caught a Tony Rebel show at the venerable Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, Canada ... a great concert venue ... one favoured by reggae acts when they make it up the West Coast ... the Flames Label undercard featured a young Rebel protege who rocked the spring-loaded wooden dancefloor with a ska medley of her father's hits ... this year she released a CD of admirable quality ...

... the music speaks for istelf, diverse material showcasing strong vocal delivery both as a DJ chanter and a singer ... Queen Ifrica is one of the brightest lights on the scene and an obvious antidote to the prominent mediocrity and negativity... in the greater scheme of things it is important that positivity is uplifted in ways that will encourage emulation ... gratuitous Gully/Gaza/Daggering lyrics are primarily hype, by nature temporary, and it feeds critics a steady stream of ammunition ...

... solidly rooted in Rastafari this Queen is a winning personality with interests outside the world of music ... the "Fyah Muma," daughter of ska luminary Derrick Morgan, is also a film buff as she told me in the Carib Theatre foyer last year when she came to see A Winter Tale during the general release ...

... the discussions will continue, talking points will invariably start with the sensational ... but after the brouhaha passes on to the next flashpoint we will still have the core of the music to provide continuity and anchor the soul ... Queen Ifrica is part of this core and it is heartening to see that she gives a good interview ... http://www.reggaenews.co.uk/interviews/queen_ifrica.asp  ... she is conscious of thought and accurately represents herself in song as a Lioness On The Rise ...