Music experts analyse the greats - UWI salutes 'Reggae Vanguards' for International Reggae Day

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Mutabaruka credited Burning Spear for doing "what no classroom has ever done in Jamaica" in pushing Marcus Garvey's name and philosophy. Evah Gordon outlined some of the reggae vanguards' vital musical statistics. Professor Carolyn Cooper went into the dual meaning of some of Bob Marley's love song lyrics and Ibo Cooper spoke to the hoped for continuity of reggae, with each generation accepting the baton from the one before.

And host of the 'Saluting Reggae Vanguards' symposium at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus, Dr Michael Barnett, closed off the presentations to a near full house in the N1 lecture theatre with a look at Sugar Minott's influence.

The symposium was held to mark International Reggae Day, which is actually July 1, and before the slated presenters the annual celebration's founder, Andrea Davis, explained how it functions.

"It is firmly grounded in the belief that reggae is the soundtrack of brand Jamaica," Davis said.

However, she explained that with its own music many times Jamaica is a guest at the party and not the host.

adding value to J'can music

Davis spoke to Jamaicans adding value to their own musical product and doing more than simply exporting raw talent, which is the current situation.

The vanguards up for discussion were Dennis Brown, dubbed reggae's Crown Prince; the 'Cool Ruler' Gregory Isaacs and Winston 'Burning Spear' Rodney.

Mutabaruka spoke expressly to Rastafari and reggae. "We have to connect all of this, the Leonard Howell, the music, all of this is very important," he said. "We see the essence of the music being lost to McDonald's and denim jeans."

Specifically about Burning Spear, Mutabaruka said "he has allowed us to recognise Marcus Garvey in this contemporary time, in a way that no one else has been able to do ... Every CD that Burning Spear has made has included something about Garvey and that is crucial understanding of where the music should go, where it is not going today."

He cast Spear's renown Ol' Marcus Garvey, with its refrain "no one remember ol' Marcus Garvey" in the context of memory.

"By saying no one remember in the negative, he is calling us to remember in the positive," Mutabaruka said.

Gordon laid out the facts and stats on the vanguards, summarising the singers' careers and generally leaving assessment to the audience. Brown had two Grammy nominations and no wins, Isaacs had four nominations and no wins, Spear has had two Grammys from 12 nominations.

On the other hand, by Gordon's count of them all Spear has the fewest albums - over 50, including compilations, while Brown had over 200 (including compilations), although he died at a mere 42 years old.

Isaacs, with over 500 albums, including compilations, to his credit has the most prodigious output.

Gordon pointed out that by one ranking, Brown is among the 50 best tenors of all time and also emphasised Spear's business acumen.

Cooper dubbed her speech 'nuff love', the play on Marley's lyrics and the women he was involved with tickling the audience.

"I am reading Bob Marley's lyrics from a feminist perspective," Cooper said. And, beyond specifically Marley, in lyrical treatment Babylon can be conceived as both 'the system' and women.

The famed 'single bed'

So in Is This Love, Cooper said, "the Rastaman is presenting himself in a very vulnerable way ... This thing jus' lick him an him have to ask 'is this love?'." The famed "single bed" not only suggests monogamy, but also not much money as simply a small bed.

In Waiting in Vain, Cooper said "Marley kind of vex because the women not letting off as quickly as he would like". Turn Your Lights Down Low is a "man lyricsing a woman in true Jamaican style"; No, Woman No Cry "in a sense could be read as an apology ...".

"I may be reading too much into it. That is what literature people do, but I would like to read this as Marley's apology to Rita," Cooper said.

Ibo Cooper grounded his talk on three things - the macho image of Jamaican men; the notion that one should not exchange a continent for an island and money. He spoke about the all too common situation of a man publicly cursing a woman who has left him, yet secretly trying to win her heart back.

He said that "for Jamaican people a journey to Africa should be like a Haj for the Muslim". He gave an idea of the relative perspectives, saying "what we consider big here small thereso".

With money, Cooper said "all the young artistes through generations have the same problem, how to make money to sustain themselves. You have to make it appealing to people outside your culture, but make it palatable to us at the same time."

"We always have a crisis between identity and economics," Cooper said.

In offering some solutions to the younger artistes, Cooper encouraged them to look at their involvement in music as "a relay ... you have to have information about what happened before. Many of the young ones don't want to hear what people before them did".

And he said that they should not, in this age of technology, sit behind all the equipment and not use their minds. "You can be behind all the technology and still be a big copycat," Cooper said. "Visionaries see the picture before it paint. The others you have to paint it for them."

Barnett closed off with a look at Sugar Minott's impact on lover's rock, roots reggae and dancehall, including running Youthman Promotion and mentoring Junior Reid and Tenor Saw, among others. He tabbed Minott as the founder of the lover's rock genre in England, as well as his impact in Japan.

With over 60 studio albums, Barnett said Minott was very down to earth, humble and looked out for the artistes he mentored, even sacrificing his own stage time.