Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
BOOK: Reggae Explosion: The Story of Jamaican Music
AUTHORS: Chris Salewicz and Adrian Boot
PUBLISHER: Ian Randle Publishers
IF A picture is worth a thousand words, then Reggae Explosion: The story of Jamaican music speaks a zillion plus on approximately 224 pages of hardcover encased glossy paper.
I say 'approximately', because the page numbering stops at 217 and there are another seven pages, including the index and a beautiful shot of a man in silhouette, thigh deep in seawater with a boom box on his left shoulder, right hand out and fingers snapping to the unheard (to the reader) rhythm.
However then there is a blank page and one turns to a parting shot (which duplicates the opening shot) of a two-page collage of reggae history in pictures Luciano, Big Youth, Bob, Scratch Perry, Lady Saw, Jimmy Cliff, The Wailers, Gregory Isaacs and a dancehall hottie in full effect mode.
As a matter of fact, the visuals begin from the cover, where a picture collage (seems to be the same one) is in the words of the title.
Before you think that Reggae Explosion is all sight and no words, the pictures illustrate a story of Jamaica and Jamaican music which begins at the precise moment that the deejay phenomenon began, on December 26th 1950 and ends somewhere in the late 1990s, with Beenie Man, Capleton, Sizzla, Bounty Killer and Buju Banton. This sixth chapter, entitled 'Dancehall', precedes the final 'Reggae Outer-National' chapter which, as the name suggests, gives an indication of the global impact of reggae.
The first five chapters deal with 'Mento to Ska', 'The Birth of Reggae', Deejays and Dubmasters', 'Roots Rock Reggae' and 'The Marley Legacy' in that order.
The picture to word ratio seems to be about 55:45 at a rough guess.
Reggae Explosion does not tell a stunning, new tale of Jamaican music (is there one?), but what differentiates it from the pack (apart from those beautiful pictures) is the details.
Just like pinpointing that Boxing Day dance when Count Machuki invented toasting while sound system owner Tom the Great Sebastian went to replenish the liquor supplies, 'Reggae Explosion' is chockfull of these dates and specific circumstances which transform the book from literature to a living, breathing historic drama.
Details like exactly how Prince Buster got Count Ossie to play on Oh Carolina, cocaine use by hangers-on on Marley's last tour, the members of Israel Vibration being kicked out of Mona Rehab for ganja, the true origin of the name Trench Town and Jimmy Cliff leaving Island Records to Chris Blackwell's dismay - only for Marley to walk into the office a week later.
And while these details are effective in the author's words, they are even more powerful when told by the players themselves. With an introduction by Chris Blackwell, Reggae Explosion contains a series of interviews with persons as diverse as Prince Buster, Ernest Ranglin, Big Youth, Lady Saw and Buju Banton.
They are powerful, authentic voices.
The detailing and the pictures apart, the authors of Reggae Explosion have a beautiful style of putting the stages of Jamaican music's development in historical context, so that the movement from one style to the next does not take place in some sort of vacuum. In fact, the social context gets as much billing as the musi - if not as much page space. For example, the dancehall chapter speaks about the cocaine invasion - and Dennis Brown and I-Roy falling prey to it. Similarly, the first chapter, although it begins with that aforementioned deejay birth moment, quickly steps back to give a brief history of the colonial setting, including going back to Africa and the drums, before leading into mento.
It is good.
Reggae Explosion is extremely well-laid out, with a good-sized, very readable font. The interviews are differentiated by font size and layout style.
Reggae Explosion avoids the trap of making judgements on different eras of Jamaican music, or making predictions as to where it goes from here. However, I found a leaning towards the seventies - which I have no problem with. Put it this way; a couple nights ago I dreamt that I missed Burning Spear's upcoming performance at Reggae Sumfest 2002 and I woke up almost in tears.
Nuff said.
The absence of dub poetry is a glaring deficiency, although Linton Kwesi Johnson's opinion is solicited on three occasions.
On page 117, in a picture caption, Jacob Miller is credited as "the vocalist on several solo hits, including the pristine Cottage in Negril. It is either a different song or Tyrone Taylor's beautiful number was a cover, something of which I was blissfully unaware.
To cap it off, the book has an exhaustive index, making finding individuals a snap.
Reggae Explosion: The Story of Jamaican Music, is a beautifully illustrated, simply and effectively told story, which is not only extremely readable but also remarkably detailed.
The authors and publishers can feel smug about this effort without being accused of being cocky.
It is a must have for anybody remotely interested in knowing more about Jamaica and Jamaican music than can be learnt from a CD, 45 or cassette tape.
Legends speak
WESTERN BUREAU:
PRINCE Buster. Lady Saw. Black Uhuru. Lee 'Scratch' Perry. Buju Banton. Derrick Morgan. Luciano.
Reggae Explosion: The Story of Jamaica Music contains a set of interviews which give a certain ring of authenticity and authority that is incontrovertible.
These interviews tend to pinpoint historical musical details and influences, rather than stroke the egos of those being interviewed. In addition, they are illustrated with pictures of those being interviewed which in themselves are often eye-openers.
Ernest Raglin, guitarist of all guitarists, gave an eye-opening comment on the development in musicianship as genres changed, when he was asked what audiences were like in a particular era.
Music was a different thing in my young days. We had the bands that play the stock arrangements of people like Stan Kenton, Erskine Hawkins, Count Bassie - And the people used to be so conscious about this music: if they listened for those solos and a musician missed one, they knew he was not reading his music properly. When it came to the ska days, the ability of the musicians seemed to fade because they were only concentrating on playing ska music. The Latin American music and the swing music that we used to play were fading away.
If one thought that violence and 'badmanism' in the dancehall is something new, then Prince Buster sets the record straight.
Being an ex-policeman, Duke Reid knew a lot of criminals who he had sent to prison himself- All these old prisoners flocked around him. He challenged Tom (the Great Sebastian) a couple of times and then found out he was no match. So he decided to use the bad men to mash up Tom. They started fights and everything and Tom wasn't a man of fights...
Ska king Derrick Morgan speaks about an early Bob Marley.
This is where Bob got his first show. In May Pen, what he did was he danced - he used to be a good dancer. He danced all the time that I was singing and he was very tired. I took him backstage and said, "You, that is not the way you do it - yuh mus' sing and when the solo come yu must dance-
That gem of an entertainer, Lady Saw, says that "I have been criticised a lot over the years. But it's less recently. I think I'm too tough for them, so they just love me and let me go through. I'm too tough".
But my favourite interview quote comes from Lee 'Scratch' Perry:
Rude songs. Scratch songs. 'Roast Duck' mean back when yuh f-..n an all those things. I am extremely slack. Mentally dirty.
Mel Cooke
