VA - Dj Tracking (DEB Music 1979)
Artist : VA
Album : Dj Tracking (DEB Music 1979)
Year : 2005
Genre : Reggae
Source : CDDA
Label : Deb Music / Badda Music
CatNr : DEB LP 09
URL : www.baddamusic.com
Date : 19-01-2007
Quality : VBR
Size : 50,6 MB
Time : 37:50 min
01 jah thomas - the creator 03:41
02 ras bug - the fisherman 03:56
03 big joe - fifty one storm 03:21
04 trinity - saturday night 03:15
05 buckers - sugar & speice 04:42
06 ras bug - dreadlock disciple 03:43
07 jah thomas - rent man 04:42
08 ras bug - lightning ball 03:08
09 deb music players - murder 03:08
10 ras bug - zo tarry yah 04:14
DJ TRACKING
Ever since the early 1950s when the legendary Count Machouki, as
selector for Tom the Great Sebastian, the founding father of the
Jamaican sound system, discovered a novel way of livening up his
audience by adding impromptu verbal flourishes over and between vocal
and instrumental parts (taking his cue from the jive talking verbal
braggadocio of American southern-based disc jockeys whose shows were
commonly broadcast to the English speaking Caribbean islands), the
contribution of the deejay or toaster has evolved in accordance with the
growth of the reggae sound system as a music mass entertainer, and the
home-grown recording industry its chief pioneers founded to help its
development.
By 1970, U Roy would propel the deejay's profile to unprecedented new
levels, who as resident mike man for King Tubby's Home Town Hi-Fi,
became its first official star, thanks to his seminal King Tubby mixed
re-working of Duke Reid's rocksteady catalogue. U Roy's verbal adeptness
at 'riding the riddim' made him the first to effectively translate the
vibrant spontaneity of this raw street innovation to the more
restrictive demands of the recording studio, inspiring a host of
colourful imitators who would take the music to greater heights as the
decade rolled on.
Most influential among them, of course, would be Big Youth, whose
rasta-inspired monologues and witty references to everyday life
situations ushered in a new 'conscious' era, by which the music itself,
through a heavier dub-oriented drum 'n bass sound, accommodated the
culturally aware approach of this new generation of mike chanters. As
ghetto storyteller, with greater emphasis on local street 'patois'
dialect as a means of expression, 'Jah Youth' placed the deejay firmly
within the ancient West African griot tradition, where the griot would
recount stories to his local audience through song; deejaying as a
discipline by now having evolved from gimmick driven wisecracks and
shouts to something far more socially relevant for its ever increasing
army of followers.
DJ Tracking, DEB Music's ninth album, originally released in 1979,
showcases some of the cre`me of talent on the Jamaican sound system
circuit as represented by reggae's third wave of mike men (U Roy, Dennis
Alcapone, I Roy, and Big Youth, Scotty et all being the respective first
and second waves) headed by such impressive luminaries as Trinity, Jah
Thomas (both featured here), Dillinger, Tappa Zukie, Ranking Trevor and
the late great Prince Fari.
Having already supervised a formidable batch of quality roots album and
single releases from their Battersea, South London office, DEB
co-proprietors Dennis and Castro Brown (the latter featured on the album
sleeve decked resplendently on Honda bike), never one's to miss an
artistic and marketable opportunity, set about making their own
contribution to the deejay phenomenon with this previously long out of
print effort, assembling a number of reggae's a-list reggae deejay
personnel, as well as some lesser known lights, to wax lyrical over
classic DEB riddims.
The ever reliable Jah 'Nkrumah' Thomas is bestowed the honour of
starting off proceedings, whose timeless Natty Contractor single for
Alvin 'GG' Ranglin in 1977 marked the beginning of an impressive career,
that culminated in his memorable entertainment dance hall excursion four
years later with Tristan Palmer. The Creator, utilising the underrated
Earl Cunningham's Words of My Father, sees Thomas righteously exhort
listeners to take heed of the 'words of the prophet' and 'read up the
bible' as 'a chapter a day keep the sins away'. An inspired start, with
the nasal-inflected Thomas maintaining the high standards to which his
many fans became well accustomed during his late 70s/early 80s peak.
Ras Bug follows next with The Fisherman, chatting over Dennis Brown's
Cup of Tea riddim. Sounding like a laid-back Lone Ranger, this more than
curiously named toaster manages to sustain the verbal momentum on this
stellar Channel One riddim cut, in which the Crown Prince's intermittent
echo/reverb vocal (cleverly brought in and out of the mix by Jammy)
provides a more than welcomed call and response element between Brown
and Bug's own featured deejay performance.
Next up is the consistently entertaining Big Joe, one of the better Big
Youth sound-alike who emerged during the mid-70s, and whose impressive
Bunny Lee produced Keep Rocking and Swinging set for Third World
subsidiary Live and Love in 1977 was one of that years underscored music
highlights. Fifty One Storm sees the deejay ride the late great Junior
Delgado's strident Famine dub to full dread potential, informing the
listener of the harmful effects of natural and not so natural (famine)
disasters. Recommended loud and (bass) heavy for optimum heartical
effect.
Saturday Night has one time superstar deejay Trinity nice up the dance
with a humorous lickle ditty over Junior Delgado's Trickster riddim, in
which the dapper 'Three Piece Suit' deejay warns us to beware of 'da
cheater gal' dem. Performed in his customary tongue in cheek manner,
this reprimand of gold digging femme fatale's epitomizes the often thin
line between serious and irreverent issues that characterizes many a
reggae deejay performance on wax. 'She put on her Kung Fu shoes, a weh
she rock to the blues'. Witty and infectious, with plenty 'ow' and 'uh'
yelps thrown in for good measure that were to serve as verbal trademarks
of this never underemployed late 70's mike chanter.
The impressively named Field Marshall Buckers is next with Sugar and
Spice. Using the Tamlins interpretation of the Heptones I Got a Feeling,
he berates his woman for treating him badly, urging that he deserves to
be treated like the song title, the melancholy Channel One riddim adding
to the song's overall sombre mood.
Dennis Brown's memorable Slave Driver riddim serves as the backdrop for
Ras Bug's second and much improved outing, the self-explanatory
Dreadlock Disciple. Showcasing Sly and Robbie's rhythmic talents at
their roots-laden best, Bug more than holds his own here, energetically
riding the foreboding yet lively steppers riddim.
Track 7 sees Black Uhuru's militantly driven Rent Man get the re-work
treatment, this time from Jah Thomas who startlingly delivers once
again, his familiar dry monotone delivery providing the perfect
accompaniment to the brutal Sly and Robbie riddim and Michael Rose's
impassioned vocal; given full dubwise treatment here courtesy of (the
former) Prince Jammy.
Lightening Ball features Ras Bug at his most inspired, no doubt a result
of the heavyweight Channel One riddim track on hand, one of Brown's
finest ever roots productions. Strickly steppers a de works here, as Bug
heartfeltly pleads for repatriation to the motherland Africa, land of
'milk and honey'.
Trickster is once again re-visited on the DEB Music Players' Murder,
with an unaccredited though wholly recognizable Dennis Brown, who
provides a curious lickle vocal take on the gal 'dat gwan like a
monster'. Humorously entertaining, in which the Crown Prince, knowing
full well the limits of his deejaying abilities, refrains from taking
himself too seriously yet far from embarrasses in this bold one off
deejay effort by Jamaica's greatest ever crooner. A definite must for D.
Brown fans and collectors alike.
Another Junior Delgado contribution, on this occasion the rhythmically
loose Warrior, provides the backdrop for No Tarry Yah, the album's final
track, as Ras Bug takes to task the brutality of gunman antics inna the
ghetto. 'Away with your fussing and fighting' he opines to those intent
on getting their own way via the gun. 'Badness nuh pay, yuh fe learn!';
on a well traversed subject that sadly still holds resonance for many a
concrete jungle across the world.
DJ Tracking confirms how far deejaying had come since its key alchemist
U Roy chose to 'Wake the Town and Tell the People' about this dynamic
music phenomenon nearly a decade earlier. Far from being a flash in the
pan gimmick as some had erroneously predicted, the art of deejaying,
thanks to its culturally and socially conscious ambassadors, had become
an integral part of the reggae pantheon, as clearly demonstrated by the
voluminous sales in deejay records, and the loyal following afforded its
key players on the sound system circuit.
The styles and phrasing showcased on this album are very much of their
time and the appropriate roots and culture sentiments that were the
bedrock of the majority of reggae music of the period; thus serving more
than a hint of nostalgia some 26 years later for those who have followed
reggae's trajectory throughout its myriad of phases from early ska to
current dancehall excursions.
As a new decade dawned, profound changes in the prevailing
socio-political climate would of course see the emergence of a new
generation of deejays. The likes of Lone Ranger, Ranking Joe, General
Echo and Yellowman emerged to fine tune the discipline to new levels
through further lyrical mastery of the art, with ever more irreverent
subject matter serving as inspiration for this next generation. They in
turn would later on be supplanted by another crop of aspiring ghetto
mike men, such was the seemingly transient shelf-life of the deejays'
lot by this time, but that's for another story.
The re-issue of DJ Tracking serves as a timely reminder of the finer
elements of that noble and quintessential Jamaican phenomenon known as
the reggae deejay, when the music that served as its backdrop was at its
creative peak. The album's overall consistency further emphasizes the
discerning quality of so much of the music produced by reggae's young
Crown Prince, whose commitment to both artist and label during DEB
Music's all too brief lifespan remained as sincere as the label's sound
was uncompromising. Like all other DEB releases, it should be acquired,
extensively played and made accessible for the benefit of future
generations.
Akin Shenbanjo
London 20th April 2005
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