Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Right: Della Manley in performance at Musical Enchantment with Dwight Richards, held at Stella Maris Prep School Grounds, Shortwood Road, on Sunday. She performed 'I Know' for the first time. - PHOTOS BY WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER - Left: Mutabaruka
THE COMFORTING light rain on a zinc roof of Della Manley's voice and the gravel of Mutabaruka's carry over four minutes of the promise in one version I Know against near languid music, dominated by guitar, with saxophone and piano, very well.
Although Mutabaruka, in a deep voice which is more along the lines of Isaac Hayes' timbre and tempo in the extended introduction to I Stand Accused than the rhythmic, often higher pitched intonations of reggae based poetry, begins and ends the first version of I Know on the CD single, it is clear that it is Della's song.
DELIGHTFULLY DELLA
Not only are the threads of Mutabaruka's spoken words woven into the broad tapestry of Della's singing, but after his introduction, there is a speak and respond format to I Know, the poet previewing and counterbalancing the singer's following lines. And the second version of I Know on the CD is all, delightfully Della.
It is interesting to hear Mutabaruka in this mode, different in subject matter and approach than the many recordings we have heard from him from over the past two decades, as after the cymbal, saxophone, piano and percussions with which the recording starts, he says:
Here I am again trying to pull you out
Starting and stopping
Here I am again
With those words and a huskiness of tone on the last line, the stage is set for a song of commitment in which, although there is no mention of love and romance of the Mills and Boon and R&B song kind, it is clearly about the trust between 'friends' of the Jamaican kind.
FROM POET TO SINGER
Della's voice comes in with the guitar, the instrument she plays when she performs live, expressing her situation and hoping for "some kind of something to pull me out." There is hesitation in the determination, as she sings that she is "starting and stopping but I just can't quit." We next hear from Mutabaruka as he says, "But you've got me to call on," the first line of many in which he provides a preview of and dialogue with Della's following line, as she sings, "I've got you to call on."
At one point Della's voice goes higher into the refrain of I Know and at another, the spiritual is introduced with "say a prayer".
With good harmony and excellent arrangement and well-timed exchanges between Della and Mutabaruka, I Know ends with a semi-whisper of "no doubt", a final promise from poet to singer.
I Know is produced by Red Bway Productions.
