Big bad basses ruled the night at Back to Bass-es
Published:Monday | February 9, 2026 | 12:06 AMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
The event was titled Back to Bass-es, and, officially, it was a “historical moment because we come fi nice up di area” as bass player Lloyd Parks declared. Just imagine: six bad bass players - three at a time - at the same venue, on the same stage, during Reggae Month, taking fans down memory lane as their agile fingers caressed the strings and recreated the sounds that have made Jamaican music great. It was a master class in Jamaican music as they not only played the famous basslines, they narrated the stories behind the songs.
The first segment saw Daniel ‘Danny Axeman’ Thompson, Donald ‘Danny Bassie’ Dennis, and Errol ‘Flabba’ Holt playing their original basslines for some of reggae’s biggest hit tunes.
Danny Axeman skilfully delivered the basslines for songs including Name and Number (Turbulence), Tony Curtis’ High Grade, on which he had also played drums and keyboards, and Richie Spice’s Plane Land; from Danny Bassie came the basslines for Thank You Mama (Sizzla), It’s Me Again Jah (Luciano), and Tony Rebel’s If Jah is Standing By my Side; and Flabba Holt delved into the “rude bwoy style” and had a pull-up session with Dennis Brown’s You Know, John Holt’s Sweetie Come Brush Me, Eek-A-Mouse’s Virgin Girl, as well as Tune In, and Night Nurse from Gregory Isaacs.
“Gregory Isaacs to the world!” shouted Flabba and all who had gathered at the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association’s (JaRIA)Reggae Wednesdays at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts agreed, most of all Isaacs’s widow, June.
“I felt very good listening and watching all the bass players! I was smiling and dancing. I even wanted to do a money pull-up. When you have good music, it lasts. I’m proud of Gregory and his writing skills, and I will always be,” June told The Gleaner.
And before fans could fully recover from all that “niceness” enter Lloyd Parks, Boris Gardiner, and Jackie Jackson to centrestage, taking them on another fantastic bass-filled journey. “We could call ourselves Three Kings, but we are just foundation,” Lloyd Parks said simply.
He delivered the memorable basslines on Ken Boothe’s Everything I Own, Groovy Thing from Beres Hammond, My Number One (Gregory Isaacs) which he dedicated to the late Sly ‘Drumbar’, who played bass on that song, went dubwise with In A Dis Yah Time by the Itals and pulled up Officially - the hit which he also sang and produced - and Should I (Dennis Brown).
Jackie Jackson was smooth as he traced his hit tunes from he was 19 years old and later when he went to Treasure Isle. His special guest was his daughter, Courtni, who sang while he played. On his hit list were Alton Ellis’s 1960s rocksteady hit, Girl I’ve Got a Date, “a pioneering example of Jamaican bass playing”. When he touched on the Bob Marley and the Wailers Hypocrites, his daughter, Courtni, declared:”Big bassline! Yuh haffi wheel dat! Come again, Mr Jackson.” The crowd agreed and Mr Jackson and the band, comprising greats such as Dean Fraser and Robbie Lyn, happily obliged. Alton Ellis’s Get Ready Rocksteady, Toots and the Maytals (of which he was a part) 54/46, the 1968 reggae/ska song, Israelites, (Desmond Dekker & The Aces) followed. Courtni led the in-house choir on By the River of Babylon and Jimmy Cliff’s Harder They Come
Singer Boris Gardiner reminded fans that he is also a bass player of note and delivered hits from 1968 onwards, including You Don’t Care For Me (Pat Kelly), Larry Marshall’s Nanny Goat, War Inna Babylon by Max Romeo, Party Time (Heptones), Police and Thieves (Junior Murvin), Derrick Harriott’s Loser, and Perfidia, (Phyllis Dillon) sung by Janeel Mills. “Gwaan, Boris!” the crowd shouted.
Chairman of JaRIA Ewan Simpson told The Gleaner that he and his team were “very satisfied”.
“For us, this was historic, groundbreaking, and timely. It was evident that the audience connected, and we edified and entertained. We would’ve wanted to see 500 more persons at least, but the word will get around. Our next Reggae Wednesdays will be on February 11 at Coral Cliff, where we celebrate Jimmy Cliff. We return to the EMCVPA on Ash Wednesday for ‘Resilient Praise’ and close out the Month with ‘Bands Rewind’.”