Documentary to Feature Gentleman and Alborosie

"Journey to Jah" filmmakers seek funding to finish the project

Directors Noël Dernesch and Moritz Springer have spent over six years on their “Journey to Jah” documentary which follows the journey of two reggae singers -   German-born Gentleman and Italian-born Alborosie – on their search for faith and spirituality in Jamaica. The two foreign-born reggae artists found visions of a better world in the faith and rites of an originally black culture: in Rastafari and its counterpart, reggae music.  Read more... (207 words + 1 image)

CD Review: Easy Star All-Stars, First Light

[Easy Star, 2011]

We all know the NYC-based Easy Star All-Stars are unbeatable when it comes to providing backup for reggae vets like the Meditations, Sister Carol or Sugar Minott (may he rest in peace). And sure, their remakes of classic albums Dark Side of the Moon and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in reggae style as Dub Side of the Moon and Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band are pretty ingenious. (I never heard their Radiohead remake or the original, so nah know ‘bout dat one.) But now they’ve taken a step that’s  bold for them: a new album of original material.  Read more... (364 words + 1 image)

CD Review: David Solid Gould vs. Bill Laswell, Dub of the Passover

[Tzadik, 2011]

Among several breakaways from John Brown’s Body is bassist David “Solid” Gould, who, like former JBB frontman Kevin Kinsella, often has spiritual matters in mind when he makes music. Gould and his Temple Rockers band created one of reggae’s most intriguing pieces of cross-religious syncretism a couple of years ago with Feast of the Passover, a blend of Jewish and Rasta mysticism set on a foundation of reggae as deep as the Old Testament is old. The original’s not-of-this-world vibe is recaptured and in ways accentuated on the killer dub version, even though the cantor-like vocals that characterized much of the first album are minimal or merely implied here.  Read more... (246 words + 1 image)

CD Review: Boubacar Traore, Mali Denhou

[Lusafrica, 2011]

Hard to believe it’s been six years since Boubacar Traore’s quietly stunning Kongo Magni CD was released, but Kar Kar (as Traore is affectionately known) knows what it’s like to be entirely away from music for a considerably lengthier spell. From 1968 to 1987, Traore was a farmer and shopkeeper after a military takeover in Mali when the government banned his uplifting post-independence songs. Prior, he’d been Mali’s original Mandingo blues man and a figure of rock star status. And though his return was tragically halted when his wife died in childbirth, he’s been getting his mojo back since recording his first full-length album in 1990.  Read more... (322 words + 1 image)

CD Review: Seun Anikulapo Kuti & Egypt 80, From Africa With Fury – Rise

[Knitting Factory Records, 2011]  Read more... (373 words + 1 image)