... Dennis, Lincoln, Gregory, troubador trinity ...

... one of the sustaining joys in life is the sound of reggae music ... as a living entity it compares to those hardy species of tree that thrive in the tropics ... trees with anchoring roots that respond to adversity by sending out another shoot, or branch, often in a new direction ... strong like Lignum Vitae, expansive like Guango and ubiquitous like macka or cassie-bush ...

... the Jamaican musical continuum is as old as slavery, even older if you include earlier African and European influences ... for purposes at hand I focus on the last fifty years and the successive passage of definable eras ... one such era has been slipping away since the death of Dennis Brown more than a decade ago ... this year, with the loss of Sugar Minott and now Gregory Isaacs, that process is all but complete ...

... Gregory, a favourite son since the early-seventies, had the sort of talent that proved greater than the sum if its parts ... his appeal leans quirkily on a smooth-as-silk, post-nasal croon, sounding like no-one before or since ... with a keen awareness for a sentimental lover's lyric, a penchant for natty threads and the sort of laconic inner-city cool only Snoop can match nowadays, the Cool Ruler had the skill-set to remain popular down the years ... he drew excited audience responses simply by sauntering onstage moaning contentedly into his cordless microphone ...

... Gregory Isaacs and Dennis Brown, two of the most identifiable figures in reggae due to their unique voices and prodigious output, released steady streams of music over decades, the best of which can be found strewn throughout the prolific chaos of their extensive back-catalogues ...

... these beloved performers rode the riddim to stardom and international acclaim ... from the beginning, the Jamaican public-at-large identified with their brand of sufferer soul ... they started their own labels and were providers for extended families ... the fact that Brown and Isaacs had long-term cocaine habits which hastened their departures from this mortal coil is a sad footnote to the often collaborative legacies they left on record ...

... Gregory sings Dennis, Dennis sings Gregory ... the sheer amount of joint-releases and artistic overlap from them cements their legacies as twin-pillars of the reggae industry ...

... Lincoln "Sugar" Minott wasn't known for the type of drug struggles his two more celebrated compadres became associated with but his career followed a similar path of autonomy and mentorship, garnering the respect of peers and public, more than justifying his inclusion in this company ...

... the genius of entertainers like these is related to their abilities to carry cultural pride along with them as they journey out into wicked Babylon on their way to a better place ... if it is understood that Babylon will present obstacles as well as opportunity, then the way forward requires not just performing talent, but also, love in your heart, commitment to progress and versatility ...

... this trinity of troubadors sang in the voice of African identity, each living the music and honoring it as a driving force for positive energies ... despite occasional expediency-motivated, undercooked releases there was always good music being made, often stamped only on scarce vinyl to be collated latterly on collector compilations or torrent download ...

... Minott mastered Lovers Rock and Brown was born to sing songs of love, but it is Gregory who stirs it up with his ability to help us to ... how shall I put it? ... um ... move the action from the parlour to the boudoir, when it's time for business ...

... it has fast become cliche to big-up Gregory by singling out the iconic "Night Nurse", I was trying to avoid that trap but you just have to heart this tune and it's many remixes ... we've heard Dennis Brown's voice sampled to great effect ... look for same with Gregory Isaacs who's always killer when dropped in a dubmix ...

... in due course, life-lessons from the Original Dapper Don must be absorbed as we try not to repeat the mistakes of our forebears, but thankfully for Gregory and those who continue to enjoy him, it's the good you do that will live on after you ...

... 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 ...