Caribbean Island Music: Songs and Dances of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica

The relationship of Caribbean nations to the United States is often historically fraught with all manner of complexity and complication in terms of economic and political challenges (and the use of "shithole countries" to describe some of them should be an embarrassment far more forcefully countered), with American "intervention" in such places as the Dominican Republic and Haiti in the early 20th century being just one example of a fairly distant past issue, while Kari Lake's very recent nomination to be ambassador to Jamaica a striking development given that nation's generally good ties with this country.

With music truly being an "international language," the cultural connections between the Caribbean and  our society should be strengthened.  This, hopefully, better improves understanding, especially as so many immigrants in recent decades have added greatly to our diversity and democracy.  With this being the 250th year of the Declaration of Independence and some balanced reflection on that founding document and American history at hand, listening to this remarkable early 1970s recording from the Nonesuch Explorer Series is a reminder of how we might find ways to enhance our ties, rather than sunder them.

John Storm Roberts, who handled the recordings, points out in his liner notes that "the rich and various music of the Caribbean lies among a spectrum from country worksongs and lullabies to 'sophisticated' urban dance music of international influence," this latter most notably from many African sources, as well as those from England, France and Spain.  

Roberts programmed the selections so that "this album offers examples of the three major traditions—Afro-Hispanic, Afro-British, and Afro-French—and ranges from rural to urban music, and from the large European to the largely African."  He acknowledges that "no single record can give an adequate impression of Caribbean music," so this highly enjoyable and edifying disc is really an aural snapshot of a very diverse portion of the world with so much interaction and interrelationships.

It should also be noted that there are only two tracks, out of 18, from Haiti, but these, from the Orchestre Jazz Corondo of Port-au-Prince, are very exciting and reflect urban popular music from more than a half-century ago.  Eight tunes in the last section of the album are from Jamaica, but from the rural sections, so no reggae or ska here, but they are remarkable in representing dance, game and work songs found in the country areas of the island nation.  As for the Dominican pieces, the first two are heavily African-inflected and most of the remainder show the strong influence of Spanish tradition and are also mainly rural.

Roberts was a British anthropologist so his approach to the recordings was generally to embed in communities and so, as the sleeve observes, the performances included "incidental dialogue, passing vehicles and barking dogs," so the field work is very distinct from the more pristine environment of the studio and adds greatly to the enjoyment in terms of the feeling that the listener is there as the music is made and not at a more distant vantage report—something that makes so much of the Nonesuch Explorer series remarkable.

Burning Spear: Man in the Hills/Dry and Heavy

This reissue of a pair of classic prime-era reggae albums by Winston Rodney's Burning Spear project on Island Records takes us back to 1976-1977, after the phenomenal Marcus Garvey and its dub version, Garvey's Ghost, which have been featured here before.  With Bob Marley and the Wailers justifiably achieving international renown, many great bands and individuals were given the opportunity to demonstrate their talent, including the awesome Burning Spear.  

Not as hard-hitting as Marcus Garvey, 1976' Man in the Hills is a reflection of Rodney's youth growing up in the same area (St. Anne's Bay) as Marley, as well as political and spiritual concerns.  Moreover, you can't miss with his band mates, Delroy Hines and Rupert Willington, the Riddim Twins of Robbie Shakespeare (bass) and Sly Dunbar (drums), not to mention Marley's great Wailers drummer, Aston "Family Man" Barrett and other great musicians like Earl "Chinna" Smith, Tyrone Downie, Earl "Wire" Lindo and horn players like Bobby Ellis, Vincent "Trommie" Gordon, Richard "Dirty Harry" Hall and Herman Marquis.

With Dry and Heavy, from 1977, Rodney mined his earlier recordings for the famed Studio One and re-recording the material with Shakespeare, Barrett, drummer Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, percussionist Uziah "Sticky" Thompson and many of the others who appeared on Man in the Hills.  This album was more of Rodney-directed project, with producer Jack Ruby dismissed, as were Hines and Willington, though there are backing vocals, and most reviewers view it as less successful as its predecessor.  For this listener, however, Dry and Heavy is a strong record, if mellower than Man in the Hills.

Burning Spear went to make Social Living, released in 1980, and we'll look to feature that in a future post here.  Meanwhile, interested readers might try and find this two-fer, as well as the two Garvey albums, and really delve into some of the finest music made during the essential reggae period of the last half of the Seventies, when there was far more to the music than Marley and the Wailers.