Category Archives: Dub

Larry Mac, Jahmai, Ani, + Ridim live; Bay Area Reggae Musicians Special, May 19th 1980 Midnight Dread #20 -complete show-

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Nor Cal legends Ridim play three live tracks from The Catalyst & Keystone Berkeley in MD #20 Parts 1 & 2. Two of Ridim’s principals, yardies Larry MacDonald & Jahmai, speak along with Virgin Islander Ani on the history of roots reggae & Jamaican musicians living in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s. Another 33 years ahead Midnight Dread goes deep & comes up with full coffers. The week’s Reggae Calendar includes a double bill of Toots & Third World live at The Old Waldorf in San Francisco & Zellerbach Auditorium across the bay on the campus at UC Berkeley. Discs, Wheels & Sports is moving their reggae wares to a new location near Lake Merritt. M Al’s reggae sound studio is open for biz nearby downtown Oakland. Listen to the ripples of reggaemylitis’ invasion into the bay music scene. Amazing advance vinyl pressings from Black Uhuru & Pablo Moses round out this well-charged radio program.

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Larry McDonald plays three key Ridim tracks from an upcoming limited edition vinyl release and goes into great detail on the musicians. Mac also talks at length about the just closed Broadway musical REGGAE, Michael Butler’s followup to HAIR starring Phillip Michael Thomas with music by Max Romeo & Ras Karbi who also appears in the ambitious stage play. Michael Kamen, producer of The Wall by Pink Floyd who went on to produce Jah Malla’s first album for Atlantic around this time, was Music Director for REGGAE. Key times for reggae & culture. Sans the wonderful live Ridim “Wadasowa (Love)” selection from end of Part One, here’s the entire Larry Mac interview:

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“The medal on my neck was won in the 1970 Festival competition. I came to US in 73. It was in the Daily Gleaner so my guess is that they own the copyright. Their morgue would have quite a bit of stuff on me.”-Larry McDonald:
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Dreadcasting & streaming liquid musical jewels with daily 21st Century Midnight Dread programs at 12am including deja views often heard in Wendt’s Best of All Worlds slot when noon is high. Become conscious with the indigenous sounds of Native Son Rising curated by Doug everyday at 6am (all Pacific Times). Explore more Midnight Dreadness here.

Mass Herb-Icide! Ganja Catapult Sensibration for NORML May 12 1980 Midnight Dread #19

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"No differences" chants Toots Hibbert & The Bredren as the herbal meditation begins in the round midnight posse circle of this 33 years ahead Midnight Dread four hour radio program. Kaya anthems abound in the multitude like Sambo Jim's deep & deeper "Collie Burning" featured in this opening eighty minute segment. Hunter S. Thompson protege, lawyer Michael Stepanian says a few words at a February 13th, 1980 NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) signature raising event for CMI-80 (the California Marijuana Initiative for 1980) held at the Sleeping Lady Cafe in Fairfax, California just down the road from KTIM's home studio base in San Rafael. A smokin' Nigerian Reggae & Highlife band Lokoto play two great live tracks from the Sleeping Lady that same night. One of the first San Francisco bay area reggae bands Jah Love whose lead singer Josh went on to sing for Reggae Jackson (Jimmy Foot's band before The Rhyth-O-Matics) play "Jah Love", a never released studio gem from Sausalito's 'dredgetown experience' pioneeering roots rock reggae outfit. Several Marin County musicians lent a hand including Frank Hubnick & The Music Wizards, Prune Music, The Record Plant, & Wally Heider's Studio in San Francisco. Cynthia Johnson speaks live on the air for NORML. Change comes slow. So lift up you conscience & get ready for a noon high 'Light Up For Liberty' rally planned for May 13th. Don't be late for the future!

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Dreadcasting & streaming liquid musical jewels with daily 21st Century Midnight Dread programs at 12am including deja views often heard in Wendt’s Best of All Worlds slot when noon is high. Become conscious with the indigenous sounds of Native Son Rising curated by Doug everyday at 6am (all Pacific Times). Explore more Midnight Dreadness here.

Ring Craft Posse – St. Catherine in Dub

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St. Catherine in Dub 1972-1984 captures a snapshot of a special place and time musically, as well as a particular musical equation involving dub producer Rodguel “Blackbeard” Sinclair and his backing band, the Ring Craft Posse. The where, when, and who of St. Catherine in Dub 1972-1984 result in a delightful collection of 14 previously unreleased, newly remastered dub recordings named after various sections of St. Catherine, Jamaica. These dubs may or may not already be familiar to you; for instance, the opening dub, “West Bay,” is a version of Burning Spear’s “Joe Frazier.” Then again, unless you’re a real wiz about ’70s reggae, chances are you probably won’t know many, if any, of these versions.

Blackbeard’s production is top notch, as well as the mix, which is provided by Jah Thomas.  And the Posse?  Amid the numerous bands that made the ’70s such a golden age for reggae, with the blossoming of both roots and dub styles, the Ring Craft Posse stand tall, alongside other such luminous bands as the Aggrovators, the Revolutionaries, the Upsetters, and the Roots Radics. The band backed Blackbeard for a long and illustrious stretch of time, from roughly the early ’70s until the mid-’80s, and recorded a wealth of tracks at his Mr . Tipsy studio.  Definitely a band to look for if you’re into ’70s roots-dub reggae, the Ring Craft Posse are comprised of drummers Sly Dunbar and Mickey “Bo” Richards, bassists Robbie Shakespeare and Lloyd Parks, keyboard/organ/pianists Winston Wright, Ansel Collins, Herbert Herbie Harris, and Robbie Lyn, guitarists Willie Lindo, Winston Bopee Browne, and Dwight Pinkney, and a horn section including Bobby Ellis, Roland Robinson, Dean Fraser, and David Madden.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this is one of the very best dub albums I own, and may be one of the best ever.

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Ring Craft Posse – Westbay
Ring Craft Posse – Garvey Meade
Ring Craft Posse – Passage For T
Ring Craft Posse – Cumberland
Ring Craft Posse – Caymanas Park
Ring Craft Posse – Waterford
Ring Craft Posse – Edgewater
Ring Craft Posse – Bridge Port
Ring Craft Posse – Braeton
Ring Craft Posse – Portsmouth
Ring Craft Posse – Independence City
Ring Craft Posse – Naggo Head
Ring Craft Posse – Westchester
Ring Craft Posse – Southboro

Producer : Roy Sinclair

Backing Band : The Ring Craft Posse
Drums : Sly Dunbar & Mikey Boo Richards
Bass : Robbie Shakespeare & Lloyd Parks
Guitar : Willie Lindo & Bo Peep & Dwight Pickney
Keyboards : Ansel Collins & Herbie Harris & Robert Lynn & Winston Wright
Horns : David Madden & Bobby Ellis & Nambo Robinson & Dean Fraser

Studios :
Recording : Mr Tipsy’s

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Glory Dominion Power Majesty (Half Moon 2xLP, Comp)

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If you have not had the rare opportunity to listen to ‘Glory Dominion Power Majesty,’ then you are missing a near-religious experience.  If a better roots reggae compilation album exists, I have not listened to it.  The music contained on this double-LP is “roots to the marrow.”

A fascinating compilation of seventies reggae out of Canada’s Half Moon label produced by one Oswald Creary and containing rare tracks from Joe Higgs, Carl Dawkins, Stranger Cole and Johnny Osbourne alongside such unknown names as Pluggy Satchmo and Rothadam. Actually, Higgs’s tune, “Creation”, is probably the best known tune here as it was released in the UK on Ethnic Fight label in the mid-seventies. The Half Moon sound has similarities to New York’s Bullwackies set up, slightly off-kilter keyboard sounds and eccentric Upsetter-ish mixing. A Real curiosity…

It is extremely hard to find as I am told there were only 500 pressed to vinyl.  The CD is easier to find but still rare as hell.

So I selected my favorite tracks from this treasure of an album and present these selections here for you…

Untitled

Joe Higgs – Creation
Dill Smith – Set Me Free         
Stranger Cole – Freedom, Justice & Equality
Pluggy Satchmo – What Rasta Say     
Rothadam – Sampson         
OJ – Things Felt Right
Bongo Ossie* & Moonlights, The – Sky Jacking Version         
Pluggy Satchmo – 23rd Psalm
Bingi Kicks & G. Campbell – Black Society

 

Prince of Dub Augustus Pablo Tribute with Lance Linares on 5/5/80 Midnight Dread #18

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It’s Sunday Midnight & time to become dreader than dread with a crucial overview of The Dub Organizer Horace Swaby aka Augustus Pablo. Joining Doug Wendt this week is Lance Linares, Pablo devotee & reggae radio pioneer who hosted his Friday night very popular prime time “Roots Rock Reggae” Pataphysical Broadcasting program on KUSP in Santa Cruz, California from the 1970s to the 2000s, the earliest longest continually running regular reggae radio show heard anywhere in the United States. Linares pulls gem after gem from his extensive Augustus vinyl collection to flood the airwaves with pulsing Prince of Dub masterworks while passing along vital background info on one of the deepest Sound Generals ever to come from Jamaica. Listen to the mystic & be transfixed via music unto Jah Jah. Burning Spear & Mikey Dread debut new material while Hugh Mundell, Tetrack & Israel Vibration join the Pablo posse just beyond this side of east of the river Nile where melodica & other keyboard devices open the doors of perception. X-Ray Music never sounded so good, so massive, and so wonderful. All aboard this version excursion!

This detail just in straight from Lance’s head: “I started in 1974 on KUSP but first iteration was Satta High which morphed into Roots Rock Reggae at some point in ’76 or ’77. Last show was Aug 29, 2008 I think. So 34 years or so….” Quite a run. Well you can’t run away from yourself seen. Would be nice to see Lance back on the beam soon, the master of the non-style style announcement school. In those early days of KUSP the Santa Crucial boss public radio station was right on the beach so the live sound of the surf could be heard whenever one opened the mic. His bitchin’ vintage tapes, reggae library, & comprehensive Augustus Pablo archive must be heard. Word.

Dreadcasting & streaming liquid musical jewels with daily 21st Century Midnight Dread programs at 12am including deja views often heard in Wendt’s Best of All Worlds slot when noon is high. Become conscious with the indigenous sounds of Native Son Rising curated by Doug everyday at 6am (all Pacific Times). Explore more Midnight Dreadness here.