Happy new year to all.
I was so consumed by my other music projects that I did not post as much as I would have liked.
Anyway, have a great one and I hope to see you (and me actually) around here more often in 2016.
Respect
From
The CaribbeanMusicMan
Jamaican Dancehall music has always maintained the Afro-Diasporic aesthetic of having a distinctive voice. This voice does not merely relate to content but the sound of the voice.
Here is a Top 10 of the most distinctive voices in Jamaican Dancehall.
10. Tiger
Tiger was one of the mid 80s Dancehall dons. Tiger’s unique self call-and-response, where he goes between a broad pronunciations and a deeper clipped tone, is not only humorous but terribly unique. He also possesses one of the most elaborate speaking/chanting styles you will ever hear on a stage. If that was not enough, he also uses his call phrase, “see!” copiously.
9. Shabba Ranks
In the early 90s Shabba Ranks was possibly the biggest name in Jamaican Dancehall. Shabba gained cross-over success with his Mr. Lover track which replaced the Dancehall reggae beat with a generic back beat. However, I have chosen the seminal “Dem Bow” tune which started a whole genre to showcase his unique vocal. Shabba brings a deep baritone and an aggressive attack to his chanting. He also has surprisingly clear diction especially when compared to other Dancehall artists.
8. Vybz Kartel
From the modern brigade we have Vybz Kartel who has a school of Dancehall performers who implement his template of low chanting and contrasting higher pitches between sections. This style makes Vybz Kartel distinctive and a solid member of this list.
7. Sizzla
Sizzla brought a distinctive lyrical voice to Dancehall in mid-90s. As a Rastafari from the Bobo Ashanti mansion, Sizzla set about inserting his ideology which at the time was largely relegated to Reggae. Sizzla also brought a new approach with a singing chant style that used double-time rhythm and falsetto singing. As time went on, Sizzla utilised more of the falsetto and remains one of the most recognizable voices in Dancehall.
6. Eek-a-Mouse
Eek-a-Mouse was one the early 80s Dancehall performers and a contemporary of the more famous Yellowman. With his nonsense syllables and a nasal voice, Eek-A-Mouse set himself apart in terms of sound.
5. Snagga Puss
Although not original in terms of sound, the idea of chanting like Snagga Puss the cartoon character, is a stroke of genius. With a speedy vibrato like the character and a quick rise and descent pitch at the end of each word, Snagga Puss scored some moderate Dancehall success in the late 80s and early 90s. Needless to say, his lyrical content was mostly far from serious.
4. Mavado
Here is another of the post 2000 Dancehall artist. Mavado and his call, “baby” are as well-known as his singing come chanting style. Unlike Sizzla, he does not use the falsetto, instead Mavado engages in what can only be described as a whine where he constantly slides into notes like if his fingers are caught in a door. His success shows this style pays off however.
3. Lady Saw
In a space dominated by men, a female voice would of course stand out. Lady Saw is easily the premier female voice in Dancehall and has been for quite for a while. She also is very rhythmically secure with an attack and ride of riddim that is as good as any.
2. U Roy
In the earliest days of Dancehall this toaster was the man. With an elaborate speaking style that doesn’t always reflect a Jamaican accent, U Roy was a pioneer and is still distinctive some 40 years after his initial success.
1. Tommy Lee
Tommy Lee is the youngest person on this list. Due to the fact he emerged so late in a genre of so many great and unique voices, he took it upon himself to be as extreme in terms of sound as is possible. From an extremely nasal voice, to a guttural sound and an elaborate style like Tiger, Lee does it all. The combination is not to everyone’s taste, especially the older Dancehall heads. However, Lee has marked a space for himself and no one sounds like him.
Remember, can’t include all!! Who are some of yours?
A big part of what I do is lead the 1688 Collective.
The collective is a musical ensemble based in the Caribbean that is dedicated to keeping music#aLive in Barbados and throughout the English-speaking Caribbean.
Check the video below as I speak to how the group works and what I do in it.
Enjoy!
When you think Dancehall has run out of ideas…
Check this article:
http://jamaica-star.com/thestar/20150731/ent/ent1.html
Now check this video:
The debate rages on.
Edwin Yearwood emerged to real popularity in the mid 1990s with his band Krosfyah. Since then, he has produced some of the biggest popular music hits in Barbados. He simply rocks, here is his Top 10.
10. Sak Pase
Done with co-lead singer Khiomal of Krosfyah, this duet uses “hello Haitian style” as its hook. It actually uses a blues form as well which is rather different (along with copious cowbell which is not very different). The Sak Pase dance was also huge and when this song is played in Barbados it is mandatory.
9. Obadele
Edwin Yearwood won the Pic-O-De-Crop competition which is primarily a calypso competition using this up-tempo soca number. It was also on his seminal album with Krosfyah, Ultimate Party/Pump Me Up, which was a massive seller for the genre. Due to its significance it gets a place here.
8.
Krosfyah Massive
Krosfyah Massive is from the same period as Obadele and for me it marked the first time I heard the group doing their own material. This turned out to be Edwin’s first hit of many.
7.
Nah Missing Me
Edwin Yearwood is one of the major innovators of the sub-genre Ragga/Groovy/Sweet soca. This song was released years after the genre came into popular existence and typifies Edwin’s style with call and response and short motifs.
6.
Wet Me
This song was one which came after Pump Me Up in the early days of Ragga/Groovy/Sweet soca. It is still popular throughout the region despite being nearly 20 years old.
5. Down the Road
Edwin Yearwood won the Barbadian Party Monarch competition with this song. This one is the other spectrum of his material and is a typical Brancker fast soca of the late 1990’s. Once again it typifies his strong call and repsonse style chorus and verse.
4. In the Middle of the Road
The Road March song is the most popular song played by bands at the climax of Carnival. Edwin won several in the mid-noughties all speaking about roads. This song shows a departure from his late 1990s work as he basically sings over a rhythm track.
3. Sweatin
This is another Ragga/Groovy/Sweet soca. Call and response is heavily used again with the trademark Brancker style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2twusbdPG8
2. Yardie
Yardie was released for the 1990s Congaline festival. This song is one of the biggest nostalgia party songs for the over 30s and it still rocks a fete to this day. It also spawned a Yardie Graduate 10 years later which though cool, could not make this list.
1. Pump Me Up
This song is possibly Edwin’s biggest. It spawned a new vocal approach to singing soca and ushered in the Ragga/Groovy/Sweet soca genre.
A massive song!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTL-2o8Mzjo
The Caribbean is a cosmopolitan space.
The music known both internally and externally is generally based on indigenous rhythms. However, there are some artists who do not utilise indigenous approaches.
These artists are usually part of the Underground…
So let me present the Caribbean Underground scenes II, Trinidad and Tobago.
1. Here is to my view, one of the best rock bands ever to come from the English-speaking Caribbean, the phenomenal Orange Sky.
Here is their ReverbNation page.
2. Rap is global. Immigrant Caribbean youths were at the forefront of the early Hip-Hop movement and here is a group, H.T., which pays more than just a tribute to the urban style.
3. Trinidadian Brent Anthony, a R &B singer who brings the falsetto and the beats – check him out.
4. To end, here is Brent’s family doing some explicit R&B. Make sure the kids are not around.
If you know of anymore underground groups hit me up here!
The Caribbean is a cosmopolitan space.
The music known both internally and externally from it is generally based on indigenous rhythms.
However, there are some artists who do not use local sounds.
These artists are usually part of the Underground…
So let me present the Caribbean Underground scenes I, GRENADA
1. Here is a charming little group called Sabrina and the Navigators who have digested the current popular style – check the “indie/jazz” voice. The quality of the recording and the video are quite good as well.
Here is their Facebook link.
https://www.facebook.com/sabrinaandthenavigators
2. Here are some gospel guys, called Soul Deep, who are bringing an American style with a hint of Jamaica.
Their link:
https://www.facebook.com/SoulDeepGnd
3. Finally on my Grenada underground list is Tammy Baldeo, who too has internalised what is up and current. Enjoy.
Her Google link:
https://plus.google.com/102205452253370730781/posts
So guys, that has been a quick look at the Underground in Grenada. Special thanks to my researcher and former student, Renee Plenty who hit me up with these links. Feel free to send me some links of other Grenadian Underground artists.
Be sure also to look out for II, Trinidad and Tobago.
“It is the same, it isn’t the same, yes it is…” Round and around we go.
Since the Blurred Lines verdict for the Gaye family the above argument has been dominating my social media pages. For those of you unfamiliar with what this whole thing is all about see below.
So Did Williams and Thicke steal from Gaye? Is Blurred Lines a smokescreen for Got to Give it Up?
Well once again, as outlined in my last blog post, it depends on WHO is doing the listening.
To show you this, let us take a look at one of my global blogging colleagues, Joe Bennett who did a fantastic breakdown of the nuts and bolts from both songs. Here is the link below:
Did Robin Thicke steal ‘Blurred Lines’ from Marvin Gaye?
So I believe that Joe shows conclusively that the songs are indeed different given his expert musical analysis. However, Joe’s expert ears were not part of the jury, instead the panel was probably made up of non-musicians whose opinions were ultimately similar to those expressed below:
“Not understanding the anger about this expected Blurred Lines ruling. Don’t blatantly copy songs, & if you do, get it cleared beforehand.” – Michonne
“‘Got To Give It Up’ is one of my all time favs, had no idea these fools claimed original production and didn’t share royalties.” J Vincennes
The two Tweeters here are absolutely convinced Blurred Lines stole from Got to Give it Up, so why the discrepancy?
Once again, as in my other post, it is because musicians listen differently. So while Joe can analyse the chord changes and bass lines to the cheques come home, to others that stuff was not even THERE! In other words, to many non-musicians the aural similarities between the two tracks are blatant, while to musicians, the songs are obviously quite different. Who is right? Apparently the musicians are NOT, at least for now. So once again, let me repeat my summary from the last time, musicians listen differently.
I therefore hereby decree an end to all social media arguments.
🙂
Singing, as most of my friends and family will say, is not a strong suit of mine.
Singing was also not an activity I was particularly interested in either.
However, as this blog generally poses questions to accepted norms, it is only fitting that I ask, am I really that bad a singer?
Actually, I think I am not a good singer but definitely not a bad one. Here is why.
To start us off here is a clip of me singing.
It is obvious that I am not a technically gifted and by that I mean I don’t have the natural ability where my voice apparatus, vocal muscles etc, creates sound that matches pitches. Of course this was no big deal before the modern recording age. In fact, many communities before modernity were communal and their music activity was centred around participation, think Amazonian or West African village life, so no matter your voice, you sang!
What modernity did though was create the professional singer. And the recording of the professional singer gave value to a certain kind of singing which in some ways eroded how people considered singers globally, this ultimately made singers like me…
BECOME BAD!
Listen to the following clips, first up is Wendy Moten then Beyonce.
These songs are damn fricking hard to sing.They also have a certain history and tradition behind them that many people globally were not a part of. So for example, if a Tuvan tried to sing these, he might not succeed, even though he might be an excellent throat singer.
In other words, Wendy Moten and Beyonce are not only PROFESSIONALl singers, they are also showing a CERTAIN TYPE of good singing based on the values of their music culture. It does not make the Tuvan a bad singer. If you are unsure what Tuvan throat singing is let us reverse this now and take a listen to some Tuvan throat singing.
Here is a clip from American Idol where this guy was dismissed.
The judges and audience thought he was crap but was he? They were just using the value system from their music culture which was totally inappropriate to judge Tuvan throat singing. If I used the Tuvan method, Beyonce and Wendy Moten were rubbish because they only produced one pitch, in fact where was the drone Queen Bee!!!???
In short, there are no universal values when it comes to singing. Singing is dependent like all value systems on who makes the rules. So if I someone calls you a bad singer, just ask them if they understand the discourse of power at work in aesthetics. If the look at you blankly, continue singing just like I will now…
* This post does not condone karaoke. Any suggestion that it does is just a coincidence. 🙂
Heard about this through social media. I love it when then that platform works!
stefanwalcott.com 