News & Updates — reggae

Definitely the world's most famous melodica player, Augustus Pablo was a crucial figure on the reggae and dub scene for two-plus decades. Born Horace Swaby in Jamaica, he learned organ and keyboards while in school before becoming addicted to playing the melodica, a free-reed mouth keyboard mostly used as a tool to teach children music. While still a teenager he cut his earliest sides in '71 for Aquarius Records, taking on the name "Augustus Pablo", which had previously been used by other musicians for records on the label. He began working with Randy's and other labels and "East Of The...

Happy born day to Jamaican roots singer Hugh Mundell, most famous for the classic "Africa Must Be Free By 1983". Born in East Kingston, Jamaica, he grew up with Earl Sixteen, Winston McAnuff and Wayne Wade. He cut an unreleased tune for Joe Gibbs, after which Mundell hooked up with Augustus Pablo for a bunch of productions from '75-78, becoming his Africa Must Be Free album. Mundell wrote all the tracks and two of them were recorded at Lee Perry's Black Ark studio. He performed just a handful of concerts in the Caribbean, US, UK and France. He also worked the...

Born day shout-out to Michael Campbell aka Mikey Dread! He operated sound systems, hosted the massively popular Jamaican radio show Dread At The Controls, worked on TV, cut sides with Lee Perry, Sonia Pottinger, Carlton Patterson and Joe Gibbs and performed with the Socialist Roots Sound System. He started his Dread At The Controls label, producing Edi Fitzroy, Sugar Minott, Earl Sixteen, Althea & Donna and Junior Murvin. He also produced music for and toured with The Clash. His contribution can be heard all over Sandinista! and "Bank Robber". In the '80s he worked with Adrian Sherwood and UB40, also...

Here's a salute to the recently deceased Jaki Liebezeit, the human metronome for Can, among other projects. After playing free-jazz in Germany in the mid-to-late '60s, including an ensemble led by Manfred Schoof, as well as with Globe Unity Orchestra (with a young Peter Brotzmann on sax!) he decided to go with a decidedly more disciplined "motorik" beat as a founding member of Can, a band of Stockausen's students that were really into the Velvet Underground and "world music" and forged a whole new template for out-rock. Indeed, Can are synonymous with the "Krautrock" history. Brian Eno called Krautrock's "motorik"...

Among the greatest and most influential of Jamaican singers, Lincoln "Sugar" Minott was already a known entity on the Kingston scene by 13. After working as a selector on various sound systems he started The African Brothers (with Tony Tuff & Derrick Howard) in 1969. They were a successful unit through the early '70s, especially with their rasta perspective. At 18 Sugar started working as a session musician at the famed Studio 1, becoming a recording artist under his own name shortly thereafter. His '70s & '80s recordings for Studio 1, Channel One, Wackie's, Taxi, Trojan and his own Black...