Godfather of reggae back in New Zealand

By FEDERICO MONSALVE

"Mi a Kingstoon nau, mi a go lef fo Nee Yok tiday, mun."

From the first sentence it became clear that Toots' - real name Frederick Hibbert - patois was going to take a strenuous attempt at translation, if not a mammoth feat of cultural bridge building.

This reggae veteran's vowels are long, relaxed and highly outnumber his consonants. Each sentence is made up of jiving combinations that are one-third metaphor, one-third sing-song, and the rest full of references to Jamaican lifestyle.

"Ole still, ole still wan big maskitta pan yu ead," he screams to one of his seven kids as I can almost hear him swatting dangerously close to the child's head.

"I started playing at around his age," he says. "I would sing at church in the morning, sing at church in the afternoon, sing at church in the evening - hard work, and when I got home ma used to tell me I was going to be a good singer one day."

The patois becomes sugary and easier to understand.

From his four decades of playing, Toots claims two legacies: inventing the word "reggae" (which the Guinness Book of Records says he derived from "Straggey", Jamaican for shabby) and being a quiet force behind three generations of ska.

In the early 70s when he put out albums such as Funky Kingston, Toots' music made the transition from Jamaica to Britain.

Although he has always lacked the poster-boy attributes of Marley or Bunny, or the political angst of Burning Spear, his songs were covered by the English punk and ska generation - the Specials did Monkey Man, the Clash Pressure Drop - and later by the third wave of ska aficionados, once the genre found a new home in California.

"The music became this popular because it's about the roots. It's all about where we come from and where we are. People always want to go back to their roots and reggae gives them a lot to choose from.

"No matter where you are or who you are, there is always a need to be feeding from the earth, feeding from your past and looking at your future that way. That's what this music's all about."

On his latest LP, True Love, producer Richard Feldman matched him with a new generation of musicians influenced by the Jamaican phenomenon.

"[The] album is about respect - the respect artists have for Toots and the respect Toots has for other artists in sharing his music with them," said Feldman from Los Angeles.

"I thought that making Toots revisit his past was going to be tough, for him and for those around it but, once he got on board, the mood was completely different and since there is a huge resurgence of dance-hall, reggae and ska, it made sense."

When asked how he feels about singing alongside kids who are so far removed from the Jamaican struggle that was so ingrained in reggae, Toots seems detached. "Real reggae never dies, whenever I play live shows more than 50 per cent of the audience is made of young people.

"If a musician knows the music, that's what matters. You can do ska if you know ska, you can do reggae beats but the lyrics will change according to where you are."

Burning Spear, who grew out of that same generation of Jamaican musicians and who will open for Toots during his New Zealand tour, echoes that sentiment. "Back then we were tired of the establishment and we spoke out. It was a simple credo of love, Jah, and understanding. Now there are kids repeating those words ... "

Toots, like the Kingston generation of 60s musicians, had a lot of reasons to be tired of the establishment. "I was framed in the 60s. I know who did it but [would] rather not talk about it. I was framed and put in prison for possession of grass. While I was in the slammer, the only thing they would allow me was my guitar and that's when I wrote 54 46, that was my prisoner number."

When Feldman suggested Toots do a duet of 54 46 with Bunny Wailer (Marley's cohort), Toots apparently immediately refused.

"No man, 54 27 that was Wailer's number in the slammer. It would make no sense." By this stage his patois is completely indecipherable.

But some words about last time he was here. "Last time I came to New Zealand it is just happiness and good reggae music - that's what the people need."

And a final pronouncement, as if addressing a packed stadium: "I dedicate this album to the people in New Zealand, the younger generation and to the world. The world with this new album we gonna deliver true love fo tha world."

Performance

* Who: Toots and the Maytals, Burning Spear

* Where: Logan Campbell Centre

* When: Thursday, April 15

* Tickets: Ticketek $70