"Give thanks for I & I Father Haile Selassie
I for the inspiration for all melodies which I & I play for
His children all over this, His cration, Selah."
"Until the day the African Continent will not know peace. We
Africans will fight if necessary, and we know that we shall
win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil."
Selassie I
"Give thanks and praise to the Most High King Selassie I for
inspiring I and I to create this disc."
Hugh Mundell & Augustus Pablo.
Africa
Must Be Free By 1983 album.
"Produced by King Selassie I through His Divine powers working
thorough I and I to manifest these inspirations."
Augustus Pablo.
Who say Jah No Dread
album.
"All praises due to His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I. Without
Him this music would not be possible."
Augustus Pablo.
King's David Melody album.
"All these musics were created through the divine powers of
His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I from whom all blessings
flow continually, so I and I have to give praises for the gift
he give I and I singers and players of instruments, Selah"
Augustus Pablo.
Rising Sun album.
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| How come you dont' talk about dub... |
From the CD "El Rocker's"
Pressure Sounds 29 - 2000
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One of the single most influential and important
figures in musical history the work of Augustus Pablo defined
an era and evolved a style whose reverberations would sound
far outside of the confines of reggae music.
It has always been difficult to explain the appeal of Pablo's
music in words and just how much it meant to an entire generation
of music lovers.
The embodiment of spirituality it was underpinned at all times
by deep, dark rhythms and its intangibility was both unprecedented
and unparalleled in popular music.
His use of the melodica (which had
previously been seen as a "child's" instrument and used primarily
for teaching children before they graduated to the "real" thing)
made little "musical" sense - in terms that had been understood
before anyway.
His good friend, King Tubby, a musical
genius without any training as a musician realised that the
instrument was at its most haunting when played in minor keys
and it was at his prompting that Pablo's "Far
East" signature sound was born:
"Tubby's a my brother! Him buy xylophone for me.......him did
show me certain things and him come like the man who pass the
music............... just say inna them type a key there!".
Their work together possesses an otherworldly quality that is
eerie and haunting, not in an obvious horror film soundtrack
way, but almost transcendental and always coupled with a weight
that, at times, borders on the awe-inspiring.
What is excluded begins to assume the same importance as what
has been included as the spaces between the music took on a
resonance and depth of silence that was continually counterpointed
by the rock solid drum and bass core.
Pablo's story is probably too well known to repeat in its entirety
here.
Born Horace Swaby in Kingston, Jamaica
in 1953 he died tragically in Kingston in 1999 of Myasthenia
Gravis (a nerve disorder).
He did not actually come from a musical background although
there was a piano in his comfortable, middle class home.
His father was an accountant and one of his clients was Miss
Sonia Pottinger of Gay Feet/High Note fame.
Pablo remembers being given a dub plate of Ken
Boothe's "Lady With The Starlight"
as a youth:
"l had it in my house a year before it come out!".
Young Horace would practise on the piano and he also built his
own guitar with fishing line for strings.
"I just loved the sound of music all kind of music. Just music
was inside me from early days."
He entered the music business through Herman
Chin-Loy who gave him his name.
Their story and work together is detailed on the essential "The
Red Sea" compilation which contains the blueprint for
the "Far East" sound - "East
Of The River Nile".
He then moved on to work with his old school friend from Kingston
College, Clive Chin at Randys
where their groundbreaking "This
Is Augustus Pablo" album was recorded.
In 1972 he began to produce records for himself on his Hot
Stuff and Rockers labels:
"It's pure sound system me deal with. Me and my brother Garth
started up the sound but Garth gwaan come, gwaan come so me
operate it more time. Jah Bull a the deejay for the set. Through
we named it Rockers we didn't play any more soul music."
His first self produced release was on the Dynamic Sounds' subsidiary
label Panther.
It was a version of the "Norwegian Wood"
melody that was already a reggae standard under the name of
"Darker Shade Of Black" which Pablo
entitled "Kid Ralph".
"I just lock off playing for other people. Comes a time when
you draw in 'pon producers. Anything they can do we can do better!
most of the producers well........it's really musicians who
make the music. They build up a different vibe. Me name musician
and the them only name producer! So me just start producing
myself. The first records nah sell much. We'd only press 100/100,
200/200 or 300/300 at a time."
It's some of those records that are collected together here
and in particular the rhythms and tunes that were used to make
up the epochal "King
Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown" album.
Described as having no equal - if you want to know what dub
is all about, what it means and, perhaps most importantly of
all, what it meant nearly a quarter of a century ago then start
with "King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown".
Originally released on Brad Osborne's New York based Clocktower
label in 1977 it hasn't been out of press since and is an awesome
collection of versions of records that had helped to make the
Rockers sound:
"First LP me put out. Me want Tubbys to mix a dub LP in stereo
but I see dub a different from how everybody else see it. Me
nuh invent dub! (That was) a whole class of us together drawing
out the rhythm and just echo it. So them call it dub......but
some people give different meanings for dub. Me is a man who
try to do something new. Me nuh follow nothing!"
Pablo actually felt that the album was not his best work and
he preferred the full instrumentals - which should be fairly
obvious if you think about it.
How would his namesake Pablo Picasso feel if half to three-quarters
of his work had been erased by the time the pictures were hung
in the gallery?
In many ways Pablo refuted and refused to take the credit that
rightly belonged to him:
"People call it successful. I just doing the works, you know."
He was a deeply religious man and much of his work cites Haile
Selassie as co-producer but it is undoubtedly Pablo's
deep knowledge of music and his understanding of Jamaican musical
history in particular that form the solid foundation to his
work.
His first self production for the Rockers
label was a cut to "Swing Easy"
a theme originally from "Fiddler On The Roof"
that Studio One's Soul Vendors had
adapted and adopted as their very own.
He was to return again and again to Brentford Road rhythms,
not out of any lack of inspiration, but as part of an entire
vision of reworking and adding to these tunes.
Pablo had even recorded at Studio One
but:
"Coxsone never really put them out. Three organ instrumentals....
one was 'Moving Away'. Me have an idea 'pon it and just play
it.....and two original rhythms. Sylvan Morris and Larry Marshall
supervised the sessions. This was just before Herman (Chin-Loy).
'Real Rock', 'Swing Easy' me did love them tune' It's music
me a talking. Me listen to anything named 'instrumental'. The
Skatalites with Jackie Mittoo....them me really love!"
This style came steeped in history as the endless possibilities
inherent in reworking these musical templates became more and
more apparent as the decade progressed.
Now seen as established "classics" in many ways it was actually
the do-overs that elevated them to this exalted status and the
work that Pablo started in 1972/73 was later carried to its
inevitable conclusion by Channel One
and Joe Gibbs - it really was "Rockers
time now!" Even Bob Marley referred
to the phenomenon:
'.......... so we return to the Rockers......'
as he introduced "Kinky Reggae" live
at the Lyceum, London in 1975 although the track was omitted
from the 'Live' album.
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It can be said that great art is often the result of accidents
that are probably more incidental than accidental.
Not to imply that Pablo's approach was at all haphazard but
he did work in a very 'loose' way to build up the whole.
When you're out there on a limb then the next branch might seem
like a logical step at the height you have reached but it doesn't
necessarily look like that to an observer whose feet are firmly
planted on the ground.
Yet Pablo was quite vehement in his criticism of those who later
tried to find meaning where none had existed:
"It's the way you a go look 'pon it now! You see it like a pattern
and a time. You can't look 'pon it so."
It might be regarded as presumptuous to attempt to version over
"King
Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown" and some often sound has already
been covered on Jacob Miller's "Who
Say Jah No Dread" album where the original vocal tracks
have been matched with the dub sides to the seven inch releases.
Consequently the versions to "Stop Them Jah"/"Who
Say Jah No Dread" and "Each One Dub"/"Each
One Teach One" are not included here as this set is specifically
designed to show still further facets of an already sparkling
jewel.
It's not even a matter of attempting to be completist either
(although the temptation was always there) and there are cuts
to "Cassava Piece" and "Satta",
for instance, that are not included here.
Apart from the aforementioned Jacob Miller
tracks every track on the original Jamaican release of "King
Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown" is presented as a full instrumental
or a further Tubbys dub cut and it would be nice to think that
Pablo would have appreciated it.
He was never personally satisfied with just one take and many
of the tracks that were subsequently re-released on compilation
albums are almost inevitably different to the seven inch releases.
The set opens with "Black Gunn" and
"Brown Jim" a double A-sided single
from 1974 that featured xylophone and melodica cuts to Jacob
Miller's "Keep On Knocking".
Pablo lifted the titles from a then current "blaxploitation"
film starring Jim Brown naturally enough.
"New Style" is a xylophone cut to
Bongo Pat's "Young
Generation". This is the original B-side version from
1974 and is a completely different take to the one found on
the "Original
Rockers" album.
Pablo's habit of naming tunes after streets and areas in Kingston
reached a high point on the 1974 release of "555
Crown Street", "1 Ruthland Close".
An ethereal melodica piece to the rhythm Jacob
Miller used for "False Rasta"
is backed by a chilling Tubbys dub - different again to "555
Dub Street" on "King
Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown".
"Tribalist" is lifted straight from
the version side to the 1973 USA only Jam Rock release of Dillinger's
"Braces A Boy" attack. This full melodica
cut does not appear anywhere else to the best of our knowledge.
Next comes the tune released on Pablo International
that finally established Pablo's name on the international stage
when Jacob Miller sung "Baby I Love You So"
over the "Cassava Piece" rhythm and
Tubbys deconstructed it as "King Tubbys Meets
Rockers Uptown". The version here comes direct from the
original 1973 Hot Stuff release and
it's radically different to the cut that appears on "Original
Rockers". It was later versioned over by Joe
Gibbs and Errol Thompson as
"Chapter Three" - the title track
of "African Dub Chapter Three" with
Sly Dunbar putting in some serious
overtime work on the drum kit.
Another release from 1973 follows, "El Rockers"/"Rockers
Rock", Pablo take on Studio One's evergreen "Real
Rock" where he chose to retain the melody but alter the
rhythm of the original. Listen closely and it doesn't appear
to be a Tubbys mix here! Confusingly enough a deejay cut from
Jah Iny backed by a bizarre echoed
tape rewind cut that also incorporated the "Hot
Milk" melody on clavinet appeared at the time with exactly
the same credits.
"Say So" was one of the hardest to
find Rockers records until repressed as part of Pablo's reissue
programme in the nineties and, like Mr Dodd at Studio One, there
is always a selection of classic Rockers singles to be found
at the Rockers International shop. Here we have the original
version side from the 1973 single - the reissue utilised the
take from the ""King
Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown" album. What a pity Pablo never
released an instrumental cut to this most stubborn of rhythms.
Two pieces to "Swing Easy" follow:
first the debut Rockers release - a
melodica cut from 1972 followed by the 1973 clavinet cut which
was released on both Rockers and Lion
labels.
Next another Studio One rhythm - Pablo's
melodica and dub cuts to "Frozen Soul"
from 1972 which he later used for Leroy Sibbles
to sing over his "Love Won't Come Easy"
opus - a Heptones classic from the
sixties.
Like so many other reggae artists Pablo found inspiration in
the Abyssinians' immortal " Satta
Amassa Gana" and here far your listening pleasure we
have two totally different melodica variations on its hymn-like
beauty. "Silent Satta" was mixed by
Lee Perry at the Black
Ark while "Pablo Satta" reinforces
the Heavenly qualities of the original.
You will, no doubt, be aware that Pablo died last year at a
tragically early age but while his health had visibly deteriorated
over the last decade his music continued throughout to be an
almost evangelical confession of faith.
His music, of course, lives on as does his Rockers
International Record Shop on Orange Street - itself surely
a conscious decision to place himself and his work firmly in
the context and historical perspective of Jamaican musical history
- which still supplies the Rockers to the public.
Here he is as a young man at the start of his musical journey
and at the height of his creative powers.
Don't look on this as gilding the lily (that's a pointless exercise)
just see it as adding some more lilies to the vase in memory
of Augustus Pablo.
Harry Hawke
March 2000
Sources:
King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown
- Augustus Pablo - Clocktower (USA) 1977 & Yard (Jamaica) album
1979
The Red Sea -
Augustus Pablo & Friends - Aquarius (UK) album 1998
Interview with Augustus Pablo, London 21 September 1996:
Paul Coote, Noel Hawks, Dave Hendley & Chris Lane
I have also borrowed shamelessly from Boom Shacka Lacka's essential
(yet still unpublished) faultless Augustus Pablo discography.
Taken from CD "El Rocker's" Pressure Sounds 29 - 2000
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