Jammys - From The Roots 1977-1985

A little while back I was asked to review Jammy's obscure 'Strictly Dub' album, recently re-released on Pressure Sounds, but I had to decline. It was not that I thought it was awful it was just that it just didn't do anything for me. It seemed a bit like it was just going through the motions, a kind of Dub by numbers and I found myself all too often drifting off when listening to it and the album becoming just back ground noise, a nice noise but a noise that was just passing me by all the same. This on the other hand grabbed me and held me from the first opening few strains of Johnny Osbourne's anti rude boy "Fally Ranking" right the way through to the peace and love call of Black Uhuru's "Willow Tree" closer.
This album showcases some of Jammys great roots / early dancehall works from that classic age for reggae between the mid 70's and early 80's before he would change the face of reggae forever with his digital explosion on the back of Wayne Smiths "Under Me Sleng Teng". Smith in fact appears on here pre digi with the beautifully haunting keyboard, melancholy of "Time Is A Moment In Space" a track that is a rocket ride away from Sleng Teng, while displaying more than just a passing resemblance to Barbra Streisand's "Woman In Love"!
The rest of the cast list on this album reads like a veritable who's who of reggae from the era with the likes of Junior Delgado, Frankie Paul, Sugar Minott, Barry Brown, Half Pint and more. Some though are not quite as familiar to me such as The Travellers who give us the bouncy "Jah Gave Us This World" and subsequently U Black who toasts and sounds a bit like Big Youth over a dub version of the Travellers cut. Also there are the Fantails with "Name Of The Game" on the Shank I Sheck riddim and Natural Vibes' "Life Hard A Yard" on a version of Bob and Marcia's Really Together. I could go on but to what end, other than just to say, Jammy's crisp and sparklingly clear production helps makes every one of these tunes a must and you really won't go wrong should you invest in this is a fantastic compilation.

Full Track List

1. Johnny Osbourne - Fally Ranking
2. Half Pint - Mr Landlord
3. Hugh Mundell - Jah Fire
4. Echo Minott - Youth Man
5. Earl Zero - Please Officer
6. Frankie Paul - Do Good
7. Augustus Pablo - Pablo In Moonlight City
8. Junior Delgado - Love Tickles Like Magic
9. Black Uhuru - Tonight Is The Night To Unite
10. Travellers (the) - Jah Gave Us This World
11. U-black - Natty Dread At The Controls
12. Johnny Osbourne - Jahovia
13. Barry Brown - It A Go Dread
14. Frankie Paul - Children Of Israel
15. Natural Vibes - Life Hard A Yard
16. Lacksley Castell - What A Great Day
17. Frankie Paul - Foreign Mind
18. Wayne Smith - Time Is A Moment In Space
19. Sugar Minott - Give The People What They Want
20. Frankie Paul - Pass The Tu Sheng Peng
21. Junior Reid - Boom Shack A Lack
22. Half Pint - One Big Ghetto
23. Johnny Osbourne - Mr Marshall
24. Junior Reid - Higgler Move
25. Dennis Brown - They Fight
26. Black Crucial - Conscience Speaks
27. Junior Delgado - Liberation
28. Frankie Jones - Cally George
29. Jays (the) - Jah Do Love Us
30. Fantells - Name Of The Game
31. Echo Minott - The Last Train
32. Black Uhuru - Willow Tree

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