More Island Music To Get Me Through The Michigan Winter!

I know, it’s another post about reggae/calypso music.  But my broke-ass can’t afford to go on vacation anywhere warm, so I’m stuck in my basement in Ypsilanti.  Digging through my reggae records is the next best thing!

I’ll share a couple of interesting ones.  First off is Soul Sam doing The Doors’ Light My Fire off my Swing Easy Studio One rocksteady comp.  I don’t know anything about Soul Sam, he isn’t even in my Rough Guide To Reggae reference book, which has all kinds of obscure, semi-important Jamaican artists.  Soul Sam was probably like many of the Jamaican musicians, including the young Bob Marley and The Wailing Wailers, who tuned their radios to the far off sounds of Florida stations playing American Rhythm and Blues and Rock and Roll music.  The traditional Jamaican calypso sound was already there, and ska began as their interpretation to these American sounds, with the unique emphasis on the upbeat.  Ska evoloved into rocksteady around 1966 or 1967 (see my post on Phyllis Dillon for a good example of this genre), which preceded reggae.

Soul Sam was apparently into The Doors, and he does like a Jamaican rocksteady garage version of Light My Fire and it ends up sounding pretty cool.  Of all the great songs on this compilation, this was one of the stand out tracks, and definitely the most intriguing.

Listen to Soul Sam’s Light My Fire:

The next song I’ve got for you is sort of a follow up to the last post I did when I paid tribute to Caribbean bands and talked about the The Igniters doing No Woman No Cry.  As I was digging around in my reggae section at home I came across my Gemini Brass Band album titled The Time Is Right, and I remembered how much I liked it.  I hadn’t listened to it for a long time, but I put it on and my 4 month old daughter started making noise and smiling and bouncing around so I figured it was worth putting on the site. 

 

The Gemini Brass Band is total high energy.  They pack a full lineup: guitar, conga, bass, organ, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, drums, timbale, and a vocalist.  They are from Trinidad and Tobago.  Andy Seebaran assures us on the back cover that “there are many good bands in the Caribbean, but with it’s unique renditions and tempos, GEMINI BRASS can outplay them all.”  He also adds “We are all one people”.  The band was formed in 1965, and this is their first album.  I love it: it’s crazy and fast and funky.  One of my favorite tracks off the album is their version of Jackie Wilson’s Higher and Higher.  Go organ go!

Listen: