Baby Mother

Philadelphia Reggae Festival

Written By Stan Evan Smith

When I arrived in Philly, my daughter surprised me a home cooked birthday dinner of brown stew fish and fried bammy I left the bratwa for later. After polishing off a delicious meal I called Isis for directions to the park. We hailed a cab, and we were off to Chestnut Park at Penns landing, the south sea seaport of Philadelphia for the inaugural Philadelphia Reggae Festival. When we arrived at the venue we were hit by a balmy fresh sea breeze coming from the scenic Delaware River and bright sunshine. With the river as a backdrop, its banks situated directly behind the stage, the amphitheatre setting was the ideal location. We knew we were in for an eventful musical experience. As we strolled the park, I ran into veteran industry hands like  Patrick “shadow” Lindsay, of Worl-A-Girl who is now managing the singing career of movie star Cherine Anderson, of  ‘Dancehall Queen’ and ‘One Love’ and Roger Grant, former manager of DJ Natural Black. Both seem to be a big part of the Caribbean music scene in Philly. 

On stage, dress in lithe black pinstriped suit and his trade mark bowler hat, was Sanchez with the Chronic band. Reminiscent of his performance at Irie Jamboree in New York a few weeks previously, he was in equally fine form as he blazed through his abbreviated song set. With the sun and crowd staring down on him and the river breeze at his back, the music flowed up the crowd. He reeled of a medley of hits ‘Lonely won’t leave me alone, ‘Pass the Kouthcie’ ‘Brown eye girl’ “Frenzy” then seguewayed into ‘Pretty Girl’, the small but growing crowed was delighted.  I sauntered over to the book signing back stage where Mutabaruka and Andre ‘The Rise and fall of Jamaican Don’ Porter were signed autographed copies of their books.

 Mutabaruka, though he did not perform was the show’s MC. He delighted the audience with his witty repartee filled with Jamaican aphorisms.  He chided Rastas for their lack of appreciation of and hypocrisy towards women; he wanted to know why Jamaican men no longer took their women dances or stage shows. Instead the men spar with ‘one bag a man.’ When he asked if they booed acts at stage, the reluctant crowd was silent, Muta explained to that it was their right to boo any act that was not good. He then explained why the ‘bottling’ phenomenon – akin to stoning performers- has become such an international phenomenon that the Japanese have taken to ‘bottling’ performers in Japan. Next up was Riddim Twins, Sly and & Robbie. 

The Taxi Gang with Sly & Robbie, Franklin ‘bubbler’ Waul and Lenky Marsden on        keyboards, Darryl Thompson on lead guitar and Nambo Robinson on trombone took the stage. Half way into their set one reminded of why they are one of the best riddim sections in music history, and certainly the best Jamaica ever produced. The rip roaring drum and bass, the crescendo crashing pyro techic keyboard wizardry along with the Rass Brass was pure dub-sco. The set took me back to old school, the era of great live Reggae music. It also demonstrated what is all too often missing from live Reggae performance today, innovative musicianship, and just plain musical artistry as distinct from hyped up energy. Their instrumental interlude consisted of Jamaican classics, ‘Rock fort Rock, with Nambo haunting trombone solos and dj-ing reminded us “a long time me noh dj inna dance.” The Dennis Walks classic ‘Drifter’ with Sly MPLA military roll March drumming was channel one all over. Bubbler Waul’s techno key board wizardry on ‘Ballistic Affair’ was call and response. At times Nambo may have forgotten the dj lines and mixed up a few verses but, that made no difference to the obviously enthralled audience as Sly and Robbie simply stretch drum and bass to the outer limits.  Bubbler was virtuoso at work on “Beard-man Shuffle’ as Lenky Marsden’s on keyboard # 2 played steady riffs to provide feel and color. King Stitch was first dj on “Beard-man Shuffle’ riddim in the 1960’s, known then as “Herb Man Shuffle”, the ganja anthem. Interestingly enough, when Sly rerecorded “Beard-man Shuffle’ in 90s, he initially refused to have a dj voice the track. After hearing the band‘s live version, I can understand why Beenie Man after being turned down numerous times, relentlessly chased Sly until he allowed him to voice his monster hit ‘Foundation.’

Sly & Robbie conducted a drum and bass lesson as only they can. Robbie kept disappearing side stage, yet his ever present bass rumbled throughout as they served up Ini-Kamoze’s 80’s joint ‘Worl-A Reggae Music’ with DJ Nambo at the microphone stand as he served the punch line ‘Out in the street, they call it murdhur, when riddim spacing out your head’, ala Junior Gong’s hook  ‘Welcome to Jam rock’ this was more than the crowd could stand, they moved from restive to frenzy. Finally, as Robbie’s bass rang out with “spud dup, spud doo do doo do, toh dup, and Sly’s syn-drum syncopated in response, it was the peace de résistance “Un-metered Taxi.”

I have not seen Nadine Sutherland live since Reggae Cari-fest at NY’s Downing Stadium in the mid 90’s.  Live, her dance routines are well known, at times at the expense of her of her songs, I was curious. Was it going to be more of the same? Well, that curiosity was soon put to rest. She delivered a professional set. Nadine gave an energetic, acrobacized performance. With her sex appeal was evident and the taxi gang driving the riddim, she was in sync and never missed a beat. To put it simply, Nadine has matured greatly as performer. Her dance routines were unchoreographed enough to give them spontaneity, without seeming to be forced. She reeled off ‘Wicked Dickie’ as she kept urging the audience to “bruk out”, when she got to “This is for my Baby Face, you’ve got a cute baby face” she had me, not to mention my daughter and attorney from Jersey with highway to heaven legs, both were having the time of their lives. On ‘I am in love” the audience got to where we were from opening line “We have so many things in common, yet we are too different people”’ She switched gears to a medley of love songs Whitney’s  ‘Your Love, is my love’ E.W.& F’s ‘Reasons’ and Dawn Penn’s ‘No, No, No.’ She trailed off on the big tunes ‘Anything for you’, - she needed Buju, Beenie, Terror or Snow and ‘Action’ where Terror Fabulous was missed.  But you can’t keep a good girl down. Her emotional rendition of ‘Redemption Song’ was tear-jerker, it capped an excellent performance.

Muta came back to complete unfinished business; he chided the fast food feeders  for neglecting the healthy foods of cold suppa’ shop of yesteryear for fast food, he reminded the audience that people were healthier then they ate poor people food, they didn’t suffer from allergies -a wha name suh? For the lovers of chicken tenders, he asked “is wish part de chicken name suh?  Rural Jamaicans love a boiling hot cup of chocolate tea with oil swimming on top in the morning. The oil caused enough daily bowel movement to prevent constipation. 

Muta continued his food analogy by linking Jamaican eating habits to the music, he reminded us of the other kind of Tea when introduced the man from Clarendon. This singer was named after another hot Jamaican tea, Cocoa Tea. As the dancehall singer man from Clarendon made his entrance, he roared “then I heard the voice of the Rasta man say, Babylon you throne gone down, gone down, Babylon you throne gone down’, like magnet to steel, the entire audience surged in unison down to the front of the stage. This was beginning of an hour sing-a-long for the crowd. Cocoa Tea, reeled of his hits ‘Sonia’, ‘Girl you too young’, ‘She loves me now’, ‘Good life’. By the time he got ‘Missing you’; he was in no mood to leave, though his time was up. Like a Rasta man blessed and spiritually possessed he launched into ‘Israel’s King’ then ‘Holy Mount Zion.’ He did not want to leave, nor did the audience want him to. When he came back for the encore, his latest hit ‘Tek Whey Yu gal’ that was it.  His performance was a spiritual odyssey that was thoroughly entertaining.  After a short band change Muta brought on the ‘Canary’.

Now I have heard the late Dennis Brown use his patterned trade mark slurring tremela to replace whole verse of a song, but Barrington Levy used his unique Yodeling “Shabble didle, didle,didle whoa” to punctuate a whole show, this was taking it to whole another level, he did, and it worked. Levy along with his multi-racial band gave a high energy performance. When he chanted ‘Murdereeeer’, the crowd roared with approval, he switched ‘health instead of wealth’ they listened, when he and the band moved to ‘Too experienced’ and ‘Every day I love her Just a little bit more’ the bass-man was dancing all over the stage, while Levy was jumping and prancing, spitting his signature yodeling, and the crowd was eating it all up. By the time Levy got through ‘My time’ & ‘Black Rose’ and the leggy jersey attorney was well pleased and satisfied.  When he launce into  ‘Broader than Broadway’ the fever pitch excitement of the crowd made me wonder if  the electricity being generated wouldn’t wake Benjamin Franklin’s ghost, ignite the Delaware River or fry everybody. What was amazing is that Levy, like Cocoa Tea voice is in the best shape of their entire musical career.

Give Thanks to Isis and the Philly Crew for a wonderful show and we look forward to next year’s event.