Groups come to the fore with a return to roots-reggae sound
Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer
For about 20 years, from the mid-1980s to the latter part of the first decade of the new millennium, it seemed that as a significant musical force, the self-contained Jamaican performance band had all but died.
During that period the bands which had a recognisable name suffered the same ignominious fate as many harmony singers - assured of steady work, but always relegated to second-class citizens of the big stage, their names in tiny type on the all-important stage show poster. They had to be in lock-step with the artiste, though, as Ninja Man recorded in Border' Clash:
"Yu see if yu go pon stage an yu no singing well hot
Yu know seh a Shandy bokkle lick yu an mek yu drop pon yu back
Yu tink a one time me see Derek run offa dat
Him haffi run wid him guitar when a singer a gwaan like a eediat"
That was about renowned bass player Derek Barnett of Sagitarius Band, the backing band of choice in the 1980s. There were different names in the 1990s, some of which were associated mainly with a specific artiste. Blaze (Beenie Man), Kaushon (Bounty Killer), Ruff Kut (Shabba Ranks, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man), Gumption and Live Wyya made many a stage show poster, still in small type. And often backing bands played all night with no break - except from running from the occasional shower of bottles.
Now, though, there are posters where the bands names are in large type, without being attached to the name of a noted performer. Names like C-Sharp (which started out as a backing band, first hitting the road with Tony Rebel and sometimes still touring with Rita Marley), Rootz Underground, Dubtonic Kru (which once did backing band duties for Lutan Fyah, Max Romeo, Mighty Diamonds and more), Uprising Roots, Raging Fyah and Blu Grass in the Sky are among the more prominent, with No-Maddz occupying a unique space.
The quartet of poets (with song by O'neil Peart) performs with the Haadhaadband, much like the connection between Black Uhuru and Sly and Robbie.
It is not just a matter of playing at events and leaving nothing more than the memory behind. The bands are producing CDs. Last year alone, C-Sharp (The Invitation), Raging Fyah (Judgement Day) and Uprising Roots (Skyfiya) have released albums, while Blu Grass in the Sky's first single, High Grade Love, came out in April. Previously, No-Maddz had done The Trod, a live album recording, Rootz Underground put out Movement (2008) and Gravity (2010), Dubtonic released Jungle Fever and Dubtonic and C-Sharp made its full-length debut six years ago (What a Day) with the lead singer who preceded Chevaughn Clayton.
As No-Maddz Sheldon Shepherd put it, "it make it easier when three, four band a release album in one year, rather than jus we one".
These are among the most prominent names in a field that is bursting with bands; of them only Dubtonic and Blu Grass in the Sky played at 2010's Jamaica leg of Global Battle of the Bands, held at the Redbones Blues Café in Kingston. The other names are not as recognisable - Mojahrock, Errol Bonnick and Irie Connections, Stone Dub, Mack4band, Dre and KJ and the FMG Band, Farin Xchange, Mystickal Revolution and Eclectic. And many more hopefuls entered.
Dubtonic went on to win the global title in Malaysia and continue to tour extensively. No-Maddz took their performing trod to Germany earlier this year.
It does not hurt that the bands tend to support each other, not seeming to fall prey to the corrosive competitiveness which affected dancehall for many years, with some performers refusing to play on the same show with others. So for this year's Bands Incorporated, an annual late November/early December concert put on by Dubtonic, the line-up is Dubtonic, Rootz Underground, C-Sharp, Raging Fyah, Blu Grass in the Sky and Blueprint. On December 26 No-Maddz' sole guest for their annual Boxing Day Concert was C-Sharp.
And when C-Sharp performed December 9, their guests included a representative of Third World, the band that once opened for Bob Marley on tour and has carried on the Jamaican performance band tradition outside Jamaica even as it faltered in the land of wood and water, drum and bass.
The revival of the bands has come even as the marathon stage show, numerous deejays performing with the same backing band, has dwindled tremendously. They have found a platform mainly through two venues, Jamnesia (in which Mystic Revealers' guitarist and singer Billy Mystic is influential) and Wickie Wackie, both on the eastern side of St Andrew, which have been hosting live shows over the past three to four years.
It has since picked up in St Andrew, with events at smaller venues such as Redbones Blues Café and the Wyndham Hotel, New Kingston.
Former Third World member Michael 'Ibo' Cooper heading up the Pop Music Department at the country's premier music training institution, the School of Music at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, has not hurt the band production either, C-Sharp coming out of the school under his guidance.
For many years, in Jamaica a few show bands carried the live, self-contained sound, playing a blend of originals (to varying degrees) and cover versions to have people dancing. The Fabulous Five Incorporated, Errol Lee and the Bare Essentials and Byron Lee's Dragonaires (the band renamed from Byron Lee and the Dragonaires after Lee died in 2008) are all still active, but none are as dedicated to the roots-reggae sound as the new wave of Jamaican bands.
Just before the two-decade drought, Bloodfire Posse, Home-T, Chalice and Inner Circle (relocated to Miami subsequent to the death of lead singer Jacob 'Killer' Miller in 1980) disbanded or went quiet in the face of the dancehall onslaught, brought on by the Sleng Teng rhythm of 1985. It may be a cycle, as the big dance bands of the 1940s and early 1950s faded to the sound systems of the early 1960s, after which the self-contained roots bands had a high point in the 1970s with The Wailers, Third World and Zap-Pow (Beres Hammond on lead) at the forefront.
If the trend holds true, then it is time for the Jamaican self-contained band to make a lasting impact on the world again.
Hugh Hoilett, C-Sharp's manager, said "I was speaking to a lady with a booking agency. She said she is pushing her boss to book bands because that is where the market is."
