Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus - Rastafari Dub

Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus - Rastafari Dub
Label - Roir
Released - 1979/1989
Style - Nyabinghi, Dub, Rasta, Reggae, Roots, Lee Library

(from reggae-reviews.com)
A classic dub album, Rastafari Dub is one of the select few that outshines its vocal counterpart (OK, so it actually has dubs of two songs from Kibir Am Lak.). The music is beyond reproach here, with artists like Robbie Shakespeare, Tommy McCook, Robbie Lyn, Earl "Chinna" Smith," Carlton "Santa" Davis, Geoffrey Chung, and even Peter Tosh contributing to the mix. Like the vocal version of the album, a distinctly funky atmosphere prevails, and without the vocals, you can focus on the groovy bass lines, crashing cymbals, wa-wa guitars, soaring horns, and synth effects. Thankfully, snippets of the female background singers are left in, the added echoes giving them an almost ghostly feel. "Truth and Right" is my personal favorite, while "None a Jah Jah Children No Cry" is also classic, and the addition of Kibir Am Lak's best track, "No Hoppers," only makes Rastafari Dub all the more invaluable.

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Ras Michael is a unique figure amongst world class and internationally commercially popular reggae artists. His music is based on roots rhythms, African drum and bass and is referred to as the Nyabinghi sound.

Imagine going way up into the hills, miles from the nearest civilized townships in Jamaica, and confronting percussionists sitting in a large circle and playing their different hand built style drums for hours on end and chanting to African rhythms centuries old. Often, these hypnotic ceremonies go on for several days and nights at a time without stopping, new drummers filling in when a drummer falls out from fatigue.

Ras Michael's special style bordering on religious frenzy, occultism, voodoo, black magic and mysticism is related to the energy of drum and bass, which frequently causes the dancers to achieve states of exaltation and go into ritualistic convulsions.

Ras Michael, since the early '60's, has released over twenty records on Shananchie, VP, SST, Trojan and Live & Learn. Perhaps the most sought after and difficult for the collector to find is "Rastafari Dub", which was first released in 1972 as a private white label LP pressing in a limited edition, timed to coincide with the release of the full "Rastafari".

"Rastafari Dub" has found popularity with the same audience that gives props to Lee "Scratch" Perry, Niney the Observer, Mikey Dread, Yellowman, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Burning Spear and the Bad Brains.

In addition to the Sons of Negus Rastafari percussionists, this CD features Peter Tosh, Tommy McCook, Robbie Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chung and Earl "Chinna" Smith.

Lead Vocals and Repeater: Ras Michael Bass: Robbie Shakespeare Guitars: Peter Tosh, Earl "Chinna" Smith Pianos and Organ: Robert Lyn Clavinet: Peter Tosh Trap Drums: Santa Akete Bass Drum: Michael "Junior" Jacob 1st Funde: Joshua Henry

2nd Funde: Keith Halstead "Dreadlock" 3rd Funde: Icy B Flute: Tommy McCook Backing Vocals: Phillipa Smart, Dawn Forrester, Joy Lindsay, Sons of Negus Synthesizer, Organ, Piano: Geoffrey Chung Overdub Productions: Geoffrey Chung


Tracklist:
1. None a Jah Jah Children No Cry
2. Truth and Right
3. In Zion
4. Sufferation
5. Give Love
6. New Name
7. Birds in the Tree Top
8. No Hoppers

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About Ras Michael:
Ras Michael was born George Michael Henry in Kingston, Jamaica. He grew up in the Rastafarian communities of Salt Lane, Dungle, Oxford Street, Pink Lane, Matthew's Lane, Trenchtown, Rosetown, Clock Circle, Water House, Back a Wall, Cockburn Pen, in the ghettos of Kingston. His mother Mercideth (known as Mercy) was a devoted Christian, she was born in the parish of St. Mary, she left there and moved to Kingston where Ras Michael was born and raised, where he learned hand drumming and eventually became an internationally acclaimed master-drummer. The legendary musician is known throughout the world as a reggae vocalist and Nyabinghi "burra" drum specialist whose style is roots, rock reggae. "Nyabinghi" means righteous vibrations stretching all the way back to the Motherland.

Within the world of reggae, at whose core is the celebration of African roots and culture, the name Ras Michael has long been synonymous with the traditional drumming, dancing and chanting of the Nyabinghi Rastaman, the man who answers to no man but that of Jah who lives within his heart. "Wadada" - Amharic for love - is Ras Michael's favorite word, and Wadada is what the music of Ras Michael & the Sons of Negus is all about. Ras Michael is a true patriarch of reggae, among the purest of its sources, a constant conscience and keeper of the culture. In the early 60's, Ras Michael formed the Sons of Negus, a rastafarian group of drummers and singers and founded his Zion Disc label, which continues to release most of his inventive and subtle albums to this day.

Ras Michael was also the first rastafarian to have a reggae radio program in Jamaica ("The Lion of Judah Radio" program first aired in 1967). In those times Ras Michael along with Count Ossie were the main nyabinghi drummers to bring the sound of Africa and the nyabinghi drum to the recording studio and blend it with reggae and jazz. There is no artist alive today who has more continuously been the foremost exponent of Rasta tradition worldwide. Ras Michael & the Sons of Negus grew up in the tradition burra drumming, one of the few surviving remnants of their African heritage. In Jamaica, the burra and kumina drums first sounded to celebrate the religious and social gatherings of the African people in Jamaica.

Gradually, the Rastaman took over, beating the drums at their prayer meetings, or groundation calls, the churchical celebrations and thanks giving of song and dance that are the heart and inspiration of the Nyabinghi. This churchical order dates back to the times of the priests & elders in Lalibela Ethiopia, who played their drums chanting and praising Jah, and scolding the wicked, in ancient churches hewn out of rock. While Ras Michael's music is drawn from an amalgam of biblical and African chants, he distinguished himself from the other drummers in the early Rastafarian movements by forging the connection between the traditional hand drums and the modern electric instruments used in commercial music, thereby taking his message of equal rights and unity from a few scattered communities in Jamaica's parishes out to the entire world.

Ras Michael has worked, recorded and performed with some of the most legendary musicians in the world, including Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Lee Perry, Burning Spear, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar, Stevie Wonder and Roberta Flack. He performed with Bob Marley at the One Love Peace Concert in Jamaica in 1978, one of the most memorable music events of all time. Later that year, while in Paris, Marley was asked what he thought of Ras Michael. "Ras Michael is a roots master and a Nyabinghi specialist" he said. He tells it like it is." Ras Michael has recorded more than 24 albums over the years, including the memorable crossroads Kibir Am Lak (1977) (Glory to God) , the memorable Rastafari Dub featuring Peter Tosh, Robbie Shakespeare, and Earl "Chinna" Smith , Promise Land Sounds Live (1980), and Love Thy Neighbor (1981), Zion Train (1988), and Know Now (1990). His latest album, A Weh Dem A Go Do Wit It is on the Lion Disc label distributed by ROIR-USA. In 1980, Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus received the Martin International Award for Most Cultural Roots Band. Ras Michael is in the British Guinness Book of World Records. In 1995, he was nominated to the Jamaica Reggae Hall of Fame. In 2001, he was honored with the Ragga Muffin/Bob Marley Day Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a lifetime member of the Reggae Ambassadors Worldwide (www.reggaeambassadors.org). In addition to acting as an evangelist, ambassador and diplomat for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahido Church internationally, Ras Michael is one of the founders and president of the Rastafarian International/Marcus Garvey Culture Center in Los Angeles, and the Fly Away Culture Center in Kingston, Jamaica. He is a speaker, lecturer and presenter. Recently, Ras Michael spoke at the California Institute of the Arts on the subject "Jamaican Music with an African Identity". His music is the heart of the African Rasta roots music. Ras Michael continues to tour internationally and spread his light on hundreds of thousands of people around the world. "The music is spreading" Ras Michael says, "and the people are getting more of an understanding. Remember, nothing can leave how long you can hide from the truth and the rights- it swims like oil, it stays on top. Without the one drop hard-core reggae music, without the Nyabinghi drop, reggae would not be reggae and have no true identity. It brings the elders, it brings the old man, it brings the young guys, it brings the ghetto people, the uptown people, downtown and suburbs...everyone, with true expressions of themselves, so it is reality."

Even More...
Negus is a title of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, the Almighty God of the Rastafarian movement, and none pays him more eloquent homage than Ras Michael and his group, the Sons of Negus. This is the beat of the heart, based on the original "instrument of ten strings," the hand-beaten drum. On Dadawah in 1975, Michael took a religious ceremonial gathering as the basis for an album of elegant poetry and raw, visceral power. Later, eschewing minimalism, such works as Promised Land Sounds added electronics and produced a primeval psychedelia without compare in Jamaican history. This is the sound of the Roots Church in the 21st century, highly charged hymns for humanity's future survival. - Roger Steffens, All Music Guide