It's life, it's love, it's joy, it's everything.

By the time you read this, Valentine's Day will have passed.

But fear not young lovers, for I design these thoughts to endure, like true love itself. Chocolate lays a credible claim to the title but for my purposes here, Cupid's award goes to another. Music, the food of love.

Anyone who ventures to this page will know within short order that, by "music," I refer to Reggae. The Jamaican sound calibrated to cardio, programmed to pulse and honed to the beat of your heart. That same organ used as the universal symbol for love.

Being a multi-faceted industry, well past infancy, there's a wide selection of Reggae extant. Genres and sub-genres, good and bad. Bad, "good" stuff and yes, even good, "bad"stuff. But the best of the product soothes the sensory like inevitable breeze, biding-up with the natural world.

There's Reggae for every occasion. This Valentine's Day is when I'll remember first hearing this new work from Tarrus Riley.

Reggae chromosomes regenerate themselves. Progeny of the music-form routinely carry on batons of their forebears. Tarrus has a foundation pedigree, which is hardly unique (Reggae heads will get the insider pun), but it's the select few who supersede the benchmarks of their lineage.

At once traditional and modern, experimental and respectful, the man also known as Singy-Singy, has found a commercially viable groove which will have broad appeal and attract new fans. Skit interludes and unaffected chat marry a contemporary approach to classy Rock Steady riddims. The glue is Riley's vocal excellence and topnotch Dean Fraser production.

A very early contender for next year's Grammy. This is one to seek out if you want to experience the feeling "upful," which no music delivers more comprehensively, for the whole soul, than Reggae.

... she sells cheesecake by the seashore ...

... the real-time web-interview lasted just over one hour ... seems some people can't live without periodic updates on their favourite castmembers from Stargate franchises ... one question put to me was, "what would people be surprised to learn about you?" ...

... my unimaginative answer went straight for the mildly anachronistic fact that I have a Geography/Archaeology Bachelor's degree, but I could just as easily have spoken about my predilection for analog audio - the type preserved in concentric grooves on retro-vinyl platters known as records ...

... my overwhelming preference is, not surprisingly, for Jamaican music-forms, but my tastes are eclectic enough to embrace multiple genres, which makes for a large collection of diverse direction ... no longer the reigning format of issuance, records are now irreverently found (if at all) in dusty corners of thrift-stores, junk-shops and clearance-houses ... 

... on a recent excursion to one such emporium, which has yielded a full set of sharp kitchen knives, sundry furniture items and utilitarian bric-a-brac, I made a foray into the boxes of forlorn LP's, in search of a way to turn one dollar into its weight in gold ... emerging grimy, but clutching a dank smelling sleeve which would regress me to the early/mid 1950's ...

... y'see, these were times when Bob was still in short pants, Ska and Rock Steady weren't yet heard, and a word like "Reggae" might have earned you a straight-jacket for sheer randomness ...

 

... back then, indigenous music in Jamaica was called Mento, a more afro-percussive folk-style than the popular Trinidadian sound-of-the-day, but similar to the casual ear and consequently often marketed as Calypso ...

 

... as it turns out, this relic really is as represented, cool calypso, significantly featuring typical ribald lyrics and uncredited vocals from Gene Wolcott a.k.a. The Charmer (later to become Louis Farrakhan, Nation Of Islam leader), among others ...

 

... I've noticed copies of this relatively rare record sell online at prices ranging from $20 to $150 depending on condition of the playing surface and the state of the cover ...

 

... and indeed, it is that cover that leads anecdotally to a most titillating tease to this curious collector ... 

 

... chiffon shrouded show-girl Venus LaDoll, who graces the front, proves an enigmatic enough figure to outshine calypsonians ... my research reveals beguiling photos of this dancer-cum-comedienne turned burlesque stripper, whose act held "hip-tossing" sway in and around the years 1953-1955 ...   

 

... the sexy pics and the "bump and grind" descriptives, by themselves, would've been sufficient to keep my interest ... but ...

... "let them eat cheesecake!" could be the post-script riposte, as this lady, who reportedly tripled her income by embracing the time honored art of striptease, may be best remembered for being awarded "a small fortune" by a food manufacturer after testifying in court that she found a bug in a can of potted ham ...

... yep, y'heard it here kids, record collecting can be fun ...

 

... 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 ...

... random riddim, Powa to the people ...

... walked into a Big Smoke burger joint the other day, having seen their sign nestled along the King Street stroll ... there's just something about the association of grilling and smoke that sells a Wimpy ... while ordering my avocado-gorgonzola topped burger, a lunching cabbie asked me to suggest one track for a random playlist in his ride (I must have that kind of face) ... so, "that's a cool idea" said I, before proffering the hottest hoodoo on youtube these days ... "Nobody Canna Cross It" , via DJ Powa ...

... DJ Powa's resourceful use of free time, turning an earnest news-report on rural flooding into a hot-pop media-byte, promptly rewarded with its own dance, is some clever-ass trickery ... but beyond that, he's created a flashpoint piece of cultural art possibly inspired by a hip-hop model which, when Jamaicanized, becomes its own stylee, strong enough to bend two branches of digi-driven modern music into a fusion ... explaining this to a stranger might seem a little ( ... that word again) random, but sheer randomness is a big part of this cross-over ...

... a self-identified Christian, Powa slays all secular competition with a dexterity that is driven by the riddim-of-life rather than any particular agenda ... the inherent musicality of Jamaican voice and expression is finely nuanced, tonal interpretations are numerous and his Fruity Loops mix of atmospheric beats complement this perfectly, serving up a piece of audio-candy ...

... the other star in this scenario is Clifton Brown ... a Jamaican everyman in the Chauncey Gardner sense, who unknowingly adds philosophical high-ground to the actual high ground he touts in the video ... being interviewed on television is enough to trigger a default twang in his natural delivery, setting up the humorous inspiration for the video, while his overwrought sincerity (try to say that Cliff) attests to the reality of the circumstance ... the truth of the matter is, this community needs a municipal solution to the very real problem of being swept away into St. Thomas Pond ... in a fascinating turn of events "Cliff-Twong" Brown is now a televisual personality and an oft-quoted spokesperson ...

... you might even say Jamaicans have a new cause celebre ... a kind of patriotic filip for a national identity drawn by distractions yet still in touch with the common strands of human need and nature as they exist for everyone, even in this cyber-age ... some get embarassed by honesty of spirit when it is exposed unselfconsciously and giggle hyperactively in its presence, as evidenced by some subsequent mainstream media attention, but the rest of us giggle 'cos we get it ... and it continues to go viral ...

... this sort of phenomenon not only heralds a potential shift in the sound-of-the-day but also adds to the ultra-dynamic street lexicon ... woe betide he or she who "canna cross it" ... jackpot too for Powa on other levels, as he gets to cross it, be it with the Cross of Jesus or Bounty Killer's sampled trademark yelp, "Cross!" ... don't tell me it's just a video 'cos, all over the world we jus' a siddung 'pon di replay button ... smiling ...

... my new cabbie friend works the Metro Toronto area, he took to the idea immediately and is presumably crossin' it right now, spreading Yallahs river lore all over the 416 ... while I head for Lake Muskoka ("... we lock away in the wilderness!") to show the younger ones how a kayak can "monidge the waughter" ...

... 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

... 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 ...

... i-slam, you-slam, livin' on almshouse lane ...

... there's nothing like the threat of a little koran or bible burning to prompt waves of indignation and reflexive repercussion ...

... the post 9/11 world is crying out for a new kind of detente ...

... growing up Jamaican you're not often exposed to that sort of secular vitriol nor are you given any divine answers to life's questions, but you are supposed to become familiar with supernatural mysticisms ... geographically blessed, the island was fashioned out of disparate strands by that very kind of energy ...

... looked at another way, I come from this vibrant land in a region which boasts country-comforts and urban challenges both plentiful and real ... they combine to make it a great place to practice faith ...with more churches per square mile than anywhere else in Christendom (Guinness Book of World Records), the people are into faith ... if the colonially-imported fundamentals of high and low Christianities don't entirely engage, then check the knowledge of faith-systems anchored in the enduring African nature of the popular zeitgeist ...

... this is an age of resurgent tribalism ... I choose my images thoughtfully for this post, knowing there are those who will constipate at the sight of a dreadlocked last supper or sigh at the repeated use of Bob Marley's image as a banner ... instead of a currently active representative ... or anything else for that matter ... ... well, while Marley is still the benchmark standard, there was a prior time when non-dreadlocked Prince Buster invoked Allah and became Jamaica's scandal ... and all the rage ...

... public focus on Prince Buster's Islamic involvement has faded in time and the currently-informed will now recognize Sheik Abdullah al-Faisal, deported recently to Jamaica from England via Africa, as the scandal du jour ... and the outrage ... once again giving Jamaica a home-grown link to the apparently insoluble impasse between Christians and Muslims ... both camps appear to insist on moral and territorial ascendancy ...

... inter-faith tension is nothing new ... what could be new is a neo-Rasta application to the friction based on the intrinsic one love/one heart tenet ... simplistic as it sounds ... for ultimately this must be the bottom line ... "a man is just a man" as Garnet Silk sang ... freedom of faith is an inalienable right but not if one belief occludes the liberty of another perspective ... then it becomes tyranny ... no faith has a veto on this ...

... most of us in the human family have been exposed by now to the top messengers and palliative philosophies of Rastafari, the pre-eminent Ethiocentric Jamaican belief-system ... and have had a taste of that rhythm ... or riddim ... in spite of the anomalous fact that the spearheading ambassadors of Roots Rock Reggae, Bob Marley and The Wailers, never actually got to Rock The Casbah like that timeless Clash refrain, in an Islamic country ...

... nonetheless, the vibe permeates ... in Canada I had the pleasure of reasoning with random Iranians across a language barrier during one of GB's memorable Bob Marley birthday bashes at Vancouver's Graceland niteclub back-in-the-day, grooving to half-Muslim, half-Christian Ivorian singer Alpha Blondy and some stunning Reggae-Rai fusion from North Africa ... 'mongst plenty Jamaican raggamuffin dancehall ...

... I understand ... or overstand, that arabs and muslims can identify with themes found in Rasta-inspired Jamaican music ... Algiers, Lagos, Paris, London, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal and New York are fertile ground for cultural interface when the theme is togetherness ... music as healer ...

... Jamaica's metaphysical dimension engenders psychological pride in the face of often jarring mismanagement and rampantly destructive social habits, but its dynamism is also its strength ... witness the creative outlook and humor of the people ... and the patwa (patois), that ever-more-phing language of choice ...

... any guy burn dis ya bible? ... brimstone an' more fyah!!

... one word that has taken on alternate meaning after treatment from Jamaica's relentless etymology machine is "almshouse" (i.e. poorhouse ... literally an address where alms are collected for the poor) ... in the Jamaican context its original meaning, though not lost, has given way to popular meanings ... foolishness, fuckery, combativeness, cussedness ... wickedness an' badmind ...

... though this might sound like hot air to those inclined to dismiss, it's meant as an elementary discourse on an entangled situation ... so just imagine, as Bob did ... if Imam and everyman, and woman ... and I man ... could be Irie man ...

... leave out the almshouse ... simple key open complex lock ...

... 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 ...