Gregory S. Parks

Big Youth's debut full-length album, 1972's Gussie Clark-produced Screaming Target, was an instant classic, showcasing Youth's uncanny ability to transfer the vitality and energy of Jamaica's dancehall sound to the studio setting. But Youth did more than that. Recognizing that if one is given the chance to say something, then one ought to have something useful to say, he lifted the art of DJ toasting to the level of art by intelligently incorporating bits of Rastafarian wisdom, pop-culture references (frequently connected to the world of cinema), children's rhymes and key lines from traditional Jamaican mento folk tunes into his toasts to create a music that both drew from and added to the classic island rhythms he used, ultimately creating a template that allowed constructive cultural themes to be reintroduced into the frequently slack dancehall scene. An essential Jamaican album in its original ten-song incarnation, Trojan has here reissued it with fourteen bonus tracks that include the original vocal cuts Youth used for his versions, along with some marvelous dub versions.

Originally released in 1976, ‘Reggae Masterpiece’ demonstrated the growing authority of Jamaican producer Joe Gibbs. Over the preceding nine years, the former electrical engineer had increasingly tightened his grip on the island’s music industry with innumerable best-selling 45s.
The pulling power of his hit-making status by the mid-70s is reflected in the artists featured on the album, with the selection featuring tracks by such reggae royalty as Jacob Miller, Horace Andy, Cornel Campbell and Lloyd Parks.
Previously unavailable on CD, the collection is now further enhanced from the cream of Gibbs’s the cream of Gibbs’ output from the period, including major Jamaican hits from Gregory Issacs Leo Graham, I Roy, Silford Walker and many more. Featuring a dozen tracks unavailable since their original issue on vinyl.

The soaring spirit of Blue Note Records – served up here with a really special twist to fit the mode of the Free Soul series! The package is overflowing with goodness – four hours' worth of listening, with a special focus on two periods of the label – that great late 60s/early 70s stretch when they were trying out so many new ideas and rhythms, including elements borrowed from soul, Latin, fusion, and Brazilian modes – and the more recent stretch that has seen Blue Note re-emerge as one of the most forward-thinking labels in jazz!

A few years after the release of her fourth album with Verve, a gospel-themed set of reinterpretations titled Fellowship, Lizz Wright signed to the Concord label with an eye toward concentrating on original material. The vocalist made a connection with veteran multi-instrumentalist and producer Larry Klein and recorded Freedom & Surrender with a stable backing band that included drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, percussionist Pete Korpela, bassist Dan Lutz, guitarist Dean Parks, and keyboardists Pete Kuzma and Billy Childs. For most listeners, the change of label and mostly new set of supporting musicians will seem transparent. Like Wright's previous albums, Freedom & Surrender is graceful and exacting, yet those qualities come across in a fashion that does not seem deliberate – remarkable for material that draws from folk, blues, jazz, soul, and gospel and often fuses two or more of those genres. Longtime collaborator Toshi Reagon contributes only two songs, "Freedom" and "Surrender," but they neatly begin and end the album in spirited and assured form. David Batteau and Jesse Harris separately collaborated with Wright and sometimes Klein on the writing of seven selections.