Sunday October 26, 2008
Reggae gurus
Music, Myths & Legends
By MARTIN VENGADESAN
Black Uhuru was a socially responsive outfit that proved to be a winner in more ways than one.
REGGAE’S relationship with the rest of the music world is a strange one. It seems like everybody knows Bob Marley and a few sanitised (read: “white”) hits in reggae fashion. This can mean anything from Eric Clapton (with a cover of Marley’s I Shot the Sheriff), 10cc (I must admit I think Dreadlock Holiday is awesome), The Police and Men at Work (It’s a Mistake) right down to Jason Mraz and his current hit I’m Yours. Yet so many big names in the scene seemed to have slipped off the radar of mainstream popular music (take a look in your local record store if you don’t believe me).
Reggae has had other champions from the smooth solo stylists Jimmy Cliff, Desmond Dekker and Dennis Brown to latter combos like UB40 and Big Mountain. There are also original gurus like ex-Marley cohorts Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, firebrands like Burning Spear and Steel Pulse and veterans Aswad and Inner Circle who found fame late in the game with party anthems.
The cover of Black Uhuru’s ‘Red’-hot album, featuring (from left) Michael Rose, Puma Jones and Derrick Simpson. The band that’s been piqueing my interest of late, though, is one that won widespread admiration (not to mention the first ever Grammy for best reggae album) with its unyielding commitment to social change.
Black Uhuru is largely the brainchild of Derrick Simpson who formed the group in 1972 in Kingston, Jamaica. After a sporadically successful spell as a trio during which band members included future solo artistes Don Carlos and Errol “Tarzan” Nelson, Black Uhuru coalesced around a vocal sound featuring the blend of Simpson, Sandra “Puma” Jones and Michael Rose.
Even more crucial to the group’s success was the addition of the hottest rhythm section in reggae, bassist Robbie Shakespeare and drummer Sly Dunbar, who had just come off a stint playing on classic albums by Tosh (Equal Rights among others) and Gregory Isaacs.
Taking over the producer’s chair as well, Dunbar and Shakespeare tightened the Black Uhuru sound, giving the group’s singers an immense groove to work over. Instantly, Sinsemilla (1980) won critical plaudits both for the witty social commentary and its high production values.
Totally composed by Rose, it showed the group finding a direction that had not been as clear in earlier works. If there were any doubts about Black Uhuru’s commitment to social change and Rastafarianism they were dispelled by Red, the second album featuring this new, stable line-up.
With strident anthems like The Youth of Eglington and the joyous Utterance, Black Uhuru found itself among the most influential reggae groups on the planet in the aftermath of Marley’s death. In fact, so popular were they that Dunbar and Shakespeare were afforded the luxury of a concurrent career, recording and releasing Crucial Reggae during this period.
The Black Uhuru juggernaut gathered momentum with each successive album, with Chill Out and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner charting new territory while expanding its popularity. The group expanded into dub/dancehall sounds, which focused largely on the hypnotic grooves of Dunbar and Shakespeare, but still maintaining a knack for coming up with memorable melodies.
Indeed with Anthem, Black Uhuru’s popularity reached a peak. The single What is Life? was a hit and the album really was full of anthems, with Solidarity and Bull in the Pen becoming instant classics. At this stage the Grammy Award for best reggae album was introduced and it was no surprise when Black Uhuru snapped it up.
As so often happens, however, success can kill a group. In this case, Rose departed for a solo career and despite the talents of his replacement, Junior Reid, 1986’s Brutal was the weakest album Black Uhuru had produced thus far. When Dunbar and Shakespeare then lost interest, the die was cast on a dramatic fall from grace ... but worse was to come.
Puma Jones suddenly found herself too sick to tour and was soon diagnosed with cancer, dying shortly afterwards. Determined to keep going, Simpson took the unusual step of resurrecting the earlier line-up with Carlos, but this only led to long-term problems when the latter ended up challenging him for rights to the group’s name!
Simpson has continued to tour, occasionally reuniting with Rose and there is talk of a new album. Even if one doesn’t materialise, however, Black Uhuru’s place in the history books and, more importantly, the heart of reggae fans everywhere, is sealed.
> Martin Vengadesan, a music lover and history buff, combines his two passions in his fortnightly column. If you have any interesting stories you want him to research, do drop him a line at starmag-feedback@thestar.com.my.
RSS
