NEW
DOCUMENTARY ON ROCK STEADY MUSIC
Jamaica's
Rock Steady music will be documented by Director, STASCHA BADER from
The
project titled GET READY TO
ROCK STEADY is a tribute to the great music form. "ROCK STEADY was a pivotal part of
The
idea was formulated by STASCHA 2 years ago where we
decided to unite all the artistes and musician involved in that music form. It
was the first time they were working together in over 40 years so this is a big
reunion.
The
only person missing was LYN
TAIT who couldn't come because of health reasons, but as a guitarist he
was the one who came up with the sound of ROCK STEADY.
STASCHA was overly excited
about the project, with his eyes beaming he continued, "I fell in love
with Reggae like everyone else in
I
did my PHD thesis and wrote a book on Dancehall and Reggae in 1985 called Words of Fire for the
He
added, "In 2006 I remembered how much I love Reggae and wondered how it
all began. I came back to the roots and saw where ROCK STEADY was the angular point,
which was clean and full of love. My dream was before they (musician / artistes)
die, to get them back together and record an album and film. The original
musicians and original artistes in the original studio as Tuff Gong Studio was once the Federal
Studio where some of the great ROCK STEADY music was recorded
ROBERT explained, "
Stascha and Robert have joined together some of the greatest musicians and
singers that
SLY DUMBAR - drums, LLOYD PARKERS and JACKIE KACSON – bass, ERNIST RANGLIN and HUX BROWN - guitar, ROBBIE LYN - Key board, GLADDIE ANDERSON - Piano, BONGO HERMAN and SKULLY SIMMS - percussion. On the
Brass section there are GLEN
DACOSTA , DAVID MADDEN , 'Deadly' HEADLEY and CALVIN BUBBLES CAMERON.
Artistes
participating in the project are: JUDY MOWATT , MARCIA GRIFFITHS,
DAWN PENN,
A
high point was seeing one of Jamaica's great 'song bird' JUDY MOWATT rehearsing the song “Silent River” and Dawn Penn doing “No No No” backed by those great
musicians.
One
of the pioneers of local music, LEROY SIBBLES, as bouncy as ever spoke highly about the project. "I
am excited to be a part of it, it brings back memories, it is good to be
reunited if only for this project," he said
LEROY
SIBBLES who is an icon in the business worked as a bass player, musical
arranger and back up singer with the group HEPTONES on many hit songs in the
early day. He worked on DENNIS
BROWN first album, “No
Man Is An Island”, JOHN HOLT 's album, “Love I Can Feel”, to name a few.
CARLTON
SMITH of the TAMLINS shared feelings similar
to SIBBLES
, "It's a good
experience. There are foundation musician like ERNIE RANGLIN, HUX BROWN, who played on several
of our (TAMLINS) early hit songs. We
used to play for SLY & ROBBIE as most of our songs were produced by
them on their “Taxi” Label.
And
we used to be PETER TOSH's back up singers. SLY & ROBBIE used
to be in his band so it is like a real reunion.
The
great man himself, ERNIE
RANGLIN in his humble way said, "It is nice. I haven't seen them for
over 30 years. Not seeing them for a long time, just nice, same spirit, fine
musicians, we had great times in those day and it is good to relive those days.
DAWN PENN said "It is
invigorating, very gratifying for what we do, thanks (to) the people who had
this vision to bring it back to what it used to be.
Hats
off to RITA MARLEY
and Tuff Gong also, they have been doing a great job and carrying on the work.
Engineer
ERROL BROWN who had worked on
several ROCK STEADY songs said he had a
bitter sweet experience on the project, as he explained. "It was good
seeing all these great musician but it was very sad to
see them, shaky and poor. They have put in the work and paved the way for
Source Yardflex.com