Time: 37:52
Size: 86.7 MB
Styles: Funk/Soul/Jazz/Reggae
Year: 1992/2017
Art: Front
[3:47] 1. East Side West Side
[3:43] 2. Honey Coral Rock
[3:45] 3. I Shot The Sheriff
[6:03] 4. Lighthouse
[5:28] 5. Negril Sea Sunset
[4:56] 6. Negril
[4:59] 7. Rasta
[5:08] 8. Red Ground Funk
Bass Guitar – "Family Man" Barrett, Val Douglas; Drums – Paul Douglas, Sparrow Martin; Guitar – Peter Tosh; Percussion – Joe Higgs, Isiah "Sticky" Thompson; Piano – Keith Sterling, Richard Tee; Producer, Guitar – Eric Gale; Saxophone, Percussion – Cedric Brooks; Synthesizer, Organ – Leslie Butler.
I actually just learned this album today. It certainly wasn't one of the most commonly known albums in Eric Gale's catalog. But it was a significant one. This was, especially at this early juncture one of the first jazz-reggae collaborations of this area. Although I should note it was actually an old historical standard coming around full circle. Even before jazz got it's name people from different races would gather in New Orleans in a place called congo square. Many of them were West Indians, likely a lot of Jamaicans as well. Over the years these influences remained very consistant in jazz on an often sudtle level. But here the age old concept all came back here as the fairly new genre of reggae and Eric Gales' bluesy jazz-funk guitar stylings came together just as it had first met in jazz's beginnings in congo square. The interesting part of this album, featuring a slew of Jamaican and American musicians most notably in Peter Tosh on guitar and Richard Tee on keys is that it's divided up into two different styles. The first four songs on the album "East Side","Negril Sea Sunset", a cover of "I Shot The Sheriff" and "Rasta" are all very much attuned to the more urban reggae flavor of the time-the more "commercial" variety of it as it were. For a lot of people at that time it was probably unfamiliar, especially to jazz listeners to hear such direct styles of reggae but even still Eric's guitar style shines through very very well on these songs. The last series of songs including the title song, "Lighthouse" and "Honey Coral Rock" all showcase a more elaborate mixture of reggae with funk/jazz and other Caribbean styles such as Calypso and feature a lot of rainsticks and other percussive instruments. One exception is "Red Ground Funk" which is the most pop oriented funk groove on the album. It actually has something of a blacksploitation flavor to it with a cinamatic style in the melody. The songs provide a very potent brew to the point that you almost wonder if he was saving these more musically ambitious tunes on purpose for later in the album and putting the more sussinct ones earlier in the set. Either way it's an excellent instrumental jazz-reggae album that was both backward and forward thinking all at the same time. Solid proof that when it comes to African American music, especially when it comes to hip-hop and the funk era from which this came is most successful when crossing the bridges between it's past, present and future. ~Andre S. Grindle
Negril
I actually just learned this album today. It certainly wasn't one of the most commonly known albums in Eric Gale's catalog. But it was a significant one. This was, especially at this early juncture one of the first jazz-reggae collaborations of this area. Although I should note it was actually an old historical standard coming around full circle. Even before jazz got it's name people from different races would gather in New Orleans in a place called congo square. Many of them were West Indians, likely a lot of Jamaicans as well. Over the years these influences remained very consistant in jazz on an often sudtle level. But here the age old concept all came back here as the fairly new genre of reggae and Eric Gales' bluesy jazz-funk guitar stylings came together just as it had first met in jazz's beginnings in congo square. The interesting part of this album, featuring a slew of Jamaican and American musicians most notably in Peter Tosh on guitar and Richard Tee on keys is that it's divided up into two different styles. The first four songs on the album "East Side","Negril Sea Sunset", a cover of "I Shot The Sheriff" and "Rasta" are all very much attuned to the more urban reggae flavor of the time-the more "commercial" variety of it as it were. For a lot of people at that time it was probably unfamiliar, especially to jazz listeners to hear such direct styles of reggae but even still Eric's guitar style shines through very very well on these songs. The last series of songs including the title song, "Lighthouse" and "Honey Coral Rock" all showcase a more elaborate mixture of reggae with funk/jazz and other Caribbean styles such as Calypso and feature a lot of rainsticks and other percussive instruments. One exception is "Red Ground Funk" which is the most pop oriented funk groove on the album. It actually has something of a blacksploitation flavor to it with a cinamatic style in the melody. The songs provide a very potent brew to the point that you almost wonder if he was saving these more musically ambitious tunes on purpose for later in the album and putting the more sussinct ones earlier in the set. Either way it's an excellent instrumental jazz-reggae album that was both backward and forward thinking all at the same time. Solid proof that when it comes to African American music, especially when it comes to hip-hop and the funk era from which this came is most successful when crossing the bridges between it's past, present and future. ~Andre S. Grindle
Negril
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