When jazz and reggae collide

By GRAHAM REID

When guitarist Ernest Ranglin first played here, expectations were high. Here was a man who had virtually invented ska, recorded with the young Bob Marley, and produced the crossover ska-pop hit My Boy Lollipop for Millie Small. In reggae texts his name is written large in the early chapters.

But when he played, there was disappointment from some expecting a man singing songs of redemption and righteousness. They had neglected to read the rest of Ranglin's story.

He went to London in the 60s, played Ronnie Scott's, toured with Jimmy Cliff as a guitarist and returned to his homeland of Jamaica only in 1990, after which he recorded a series of jazz-reggae albums.

Ranglin didn't sing - his band didn't even have a singer - so what you got was jazz guitar "inna reggae style".

The intersection of jazz and reggae isn't explored often. Jamaican-born pianist Monty Alexander does it and, sometimes, so have saxophonists Oliver Lake and Courtney Pine.

Maybe it is drawing a long bow to put keyboard player Jackie Mittoo into that company.

Mittoo was born in Jamaica in 48 and playing professionally by his early teens. He was a founding member of the Skatalites, did session work alongside Ranglin, headed to Canada in the late 60s where he recorded his easy-listening albums (although made regular trips home to record reggae sides), and eventually ended up in London.

So where's the jazz? It is less in what he played than how he did. He was a keyboard player who found the gaps and would nip through with improvised lines and flashes of glorious colour.

In a dub context he revelled in the open spaces, left plenty himself, and could dish up dollops of kitschy keyboards before making odd stabbing right-hand manoeuvres which would have amused Thelonious Monk.

Jackie Mittoo's: Championship in the Arena 1977-77 is a 17-track collection of dub-influenced sides recorded in Kingston with Sly'n'Robbie, guitarist Earl "Chinna" Smith and others, and is produced by Bunny Lee.

They bristle with invention, humour and - like Booker T and the MGs, whose sound he sometimes conjures up "inna reggae style" - also have a memorable pop economy.

He casually appropriates the Beatles' Norwegian Wood for Darker Shade of Black. But at other times he also explores his keyboard, finding unexpected notes or chords. And under his guiding hands they never felt so right. A joyous, jazzy collection of soulful, summery sounds.

Label: Blood and Fire/Chant

(Herald rating: * * * *)

* * *

What Mittoo did for reggae on the Hammond organ, Augustus Pablo did with the melodica - and found an audience here when Duncan Campbell used a version of Pablo's Up Warika Hill as the theme to his long-running reggae show on 95bFM.

There are quite a few Pablo collections out there - and the essential reggae album King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown among others features him - so In Fine Style joins a long list.

Essentially a collection of tracks and their dub plates (or alternate takes and dubs) this broadens rather than deepens an understanding of Pablo's serious and often simple (in a good way) style.

Like Mittoo he, too, hijacks Norwegian Wood for his own purposes, here called Kid Ralph. Aside from a few experimental tracks (particularly the Rockers All Stars' deconstructed Zambian Style) this is a minor addition to Pablo's already extensive catalogue.

Label: Pressure Sounds/Chant

(Herald rating: * *)

* * *

Although he died less than five years ago, Pablo was of a generation in Jamaican music almost wiped away when 70s reggae was supplanted by the harder sound of dancehall - just as soul was overtaken by rap in the States.

Jamaican toasters (proto-rappers if you like) were always popular, but by the late 70s King Stitt and his kind had been superseded by the likes of U Roy, who in turn gave way to local B-Boys influenced by Stateside rappers. And so you got Shinehead and Shaggy, and digital dancehall masters Steely and Cleevie.

Nice up the Dance: Two Worlds Clash is a collection of recent electro-dancehall with one foot in New York and another in Jamaica.

So Kenny Dope (of Masters at Work) is here producing Shaggy (the early Gunshot) alongside Cutty Ranks, Chaka Demus and Pliers, Dawn Penn's classic No No No rejigged by Steelie and Cleevie, and the hip-hop mix of Tenor Saw's old Ring the Alarm.

Some haven't entirely turned their backs on roots music: J Live's Satisfied samples Augustus Pablo's classic Easy of the River Nile and British dancehall act Singer Blue weighs in with a decidedly old school sentiment on If I Know Jah.

Label: Soul Jazz/Chant

(Herald rating: * * *)

* * *

Finally, something to wipe a smile across your face: the funny and thoroughly rockin' collection of late 60s/early 70s rare funk and soul on Miami Sound.

This is the world of superfly guys, Afros and bellbottoms, Funkadelic Sound by Little Beaver, and sho'nuff don't wanna be uptight, y'all.

There is heartfelt soul from local star Della Humphrey with her plea to men on Don't Make the Good Girls Go Bad, and Timmy Thomas' little-known but out-there instrumental Funky Me.

There are some too-close-for-comfort songs here also: Clarence Reid's Cadillac Annie is a shallow but energetic reworking of Mustang Sally.

From the other end of the telescope of time Prince's lawyers might want to form a huddle when people hear Helene Smith's You Got to be a Man (the Kiss-like "You don't have to be rich and have three or four cars") which also comes in a gutsy Godfather/Sly version from Frank Williams and the Rocketeers.

As the man say, "Outta sight, yeah. Huh!"

Label: Soul Jazz/Chant

(Herald rating: * * * *)