RIFFS: Reggae legend Gibbs gets celebratory treatment

Although no figure looms larger in Jamaican musical history than Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, Joe Gibbs’ accomplishments as a reggae producer and label owner are extremely important.

Like Dodd, under whom he once worked at Studio One, Gibbs made major contributions to every era from ska to rocksteady and reggae, starting with Lee “Scratch” Perry’s amazing song “Chicken Scratch.” He’d subsequently produce and help mentor numerous other top performers, among them Errol Thompson, Winston “Niney” Holmes, Dennis Brown and Perry to name only a handful before his premature death in 2004 at 55.

The excellent new two-disc anthology Joe Gibbs — Scorchers From The Mighty Two (VP) compiles 40 selections, many of them longtime reggae anthems.

Culture’s “Two Sevens Clash,” The Mighty Diamonds’ “Just Like A River” and “Identity,” “Jacob Miller’s “I’m A Natty,” Sylford Walker’s “Burn Babylon” and Cornell Campbell’s “No Man’s Land” are just some of the great singles that are now only heard on specialty shows.

Gibbs was also a versatile type. While he made many topical, protest and religious tracks, he also had his share of romantic hits. Dennis Brown’s “Love Has Found It’s Way” wasn’t one of Brown’s best reggae works, but it was among the few that got some American radio airplay.

Gibbs also made fine love cuts with Marcia Aitken (“I’m Still In Love With You”), Barrington Levy (“My Woman”) and Ruddy Thomas (“When I Think Of You”). These tracks sometimes are extended cuts, and other times contain both the vintage vocal cut and subsequent toast, teaming such performers as Dennis Brown and Prince Mohammed, Culture and Shorty The President or Ruddy Thomas and Trinity.

These are some of the formative cuts that helped hook many in the rock generation on reggae, while also helping expand the profile of Joe Gibbs. It’s reggae from a period when the music was finding its own identity and not relying so heavily on soul and New Orleans R&B for thematic material, though certainly still utilizing the beats and patterns from those styles.

It’s also a good celebratory vehicle for Joe Gibbs, a genuine reggae legend.

More international releases

The two-CD set Soca Gold (VP) is the annual selection of the biggest hits from the Caribbean’s other main musical style, soca (soul-calypso). The songs featured on this annual retrospective are usually the only chance Americans get to hear the music during the year, and the new collection indicates that producers are apparently really speeding up the beats and accelerating the arrangements.

Many songs are played at such a breakneck pace it’s amazing that the vocalists seemingly have no difficulty navigating the progressions and beats. There’s even one song appropriately named “Breathless,” done by the team of Roy Cape featuring Blaxx. That’s another current trend, multiple collaborations, with such other numbers as Gyal Farm (Kerwin Dubois & Shal Marshal), “Wukking Up On Me” (Surface featuring Tony Prescott) and “Bring It (Bunji Garlin featuring Hunter) continuing that trend.

The one thing that’s in short supply is the type of acerbic social commentary that was cornerstone of calypso and has still been a part of many recent soca anthologies. The closest thing on this year’s anthology to this is the final cut “Don’t Call My Phone” by Jadine that does have some rather salty lines about who should and shouldn’t be ringing her up. But otherwise, the emphasis for this season is heavily on romance and celebration, especially on Lil Rick’s “Girls Gone Wild” and Fay-Ann Lyons Alvarez’s heated opening cut “Get On.”

Famoro Dioubate is the grandson of El Hadj Djeli Sory Kouyate, an African balafon giant. Dioubate’s new CD Kakande:Dununya (Jumbie) features his alternately assertive and fluid balafon playing in a setting that’s both musically and linguistically (three languages spoken) diverse.

The balafon can be employed as a striking melodic instrument one moment, then a dynamic rhythmic one the next, and Dioubate’s skilled in either capacity. He also has an effective singing voice as well, and has written the lyrics for such songs as “Bani,” “Mariama Traore” and “Nina Kaba.” His solos are sometimes backed by a full band with guitars, flutes, cellos and multiple percussionists. Other times the songs are sparse works with lean rhythms and textures.

There’s also some shattering lead vocals offered from Missia Saran Dioubate, and other contributions from several topflight musicians.

While this session represents the latest in African music, it was produced and recorded in New York City, a site that’s increasingly becoming a prime one for African sessions as well as jazz, rock and pop.

The link between Brazilian and Cuban rhythms is adeptly explored by Cuban vocalist Yusa and her band on Haiku. Besides Yusa's soothing and expressive singing plus solid bass and Cuban tres guitar work, her band mixes players from both disciplines. Some cuts (“Conga Pasajera,” “”Suddenly You Appear”) are straightforward Cuban pieces, while others like “Tanto de mi” or “Haiku de Paz” feature traditional Brazilian rhythms. Then Yusa mixes and matches them on other songs such as “Minimum” or “Sirvio de Algo”. Haiku is a rich, shimmering and joyful merger of two cultures with a warm and inviting singer mainly responsible for its success.

Old and new jazz

Baritone saxophonist and flautist Sahib Shihab proves the solo star on Sahib Shihab and the Radio Danish Orchestra (Oktav), Besides conducting the orchestra, Shihab executed some swirling, thick and dashing baritone and flute solos, even doing a vocal turn on “Little French Girl.”

Shihab came to Copenhagen for the first time in 1962 and eventually decided to stay there permanently. He joined the Danish Radio Jazz Group a year later, and by the time of this recording (1965) was right at home.

The big band sounds cohesive and exuberant, and it had some other outstanding players in its ranks, among them Palle Mikkelborg (trumpet and flugelhorn), guitarist Fritz Von Bulow, bassist Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen and drummer Alex Riel. But it was Shihab’s prominent baritone playing and able conducting that make this reissue far more than merely another distinguished title from a past time.

The late Gene Harris was a monster blues player, but that element of his style sometimes led others to underrate his proficiency in other jazz areas. Live In London (Resonance) dismantles those notions, as Harris demonstrates superb melodic, interpretative and solo skills during his treatments of “My Funny Valentine,” “In A Mellow Tone,” “Misty” and “Blue Monk.” By the time the quartet finally gets to the more conventional blues finale (“Blues Closer”) Harris has shown that he’s a marvelous stylist in any setting.

Guitarist Jim Mullen was a capable second soloist and harmony contributor, while bassist Andrew Cleyndert and drummer Martin Drew managed not to be overwhelmed by Harris’ keyboard explosions. While always enjoying Harris’ soul, pop and blues excursions, Live In London provided a different, considerably impressive side.

High Wall (Tetrachord Music) focuses on another pianist, but Larry Vuckovich operates in another area. His new CD is subtitled “Real Life Film Noir,” and Vuckovich’s nimble, rigorous rendition of the title track covers a song from the 1947 film High Wall that stars Robert Taylor, But Vuckovich also does many dazzling technical things on other tunes, from able covers of Barry Harris’ “Lolita” and Dizzy Gillespie’s “Owl” to his own originals “Afro 6/8 Minor Blues” and “View From Telegraph Hill.”

Vuckovich also dips into some funk (Joe Sample’s “Put It Where You Want It”), Latin (Joaquin Rodrigo’s immortal “Concierto de Aranjuez”) and pre-rock pop (Jack Lawrence/Ted Shapiro’s “A Handful of Stars’). Whether his partners are bassists Larry Grenadier or Paul Keller, drummers Eddie Marshall or Chuck McPherson, the trio dates are expertly done, and the occasional quintet pieces equally sharp.