What A System

Clinton Fearon & Boogie Brown Band

Clinton Fearon, vocalist and bass player with great Jamaican vocal trio The Gladiators, is now resident in Seattle, Washington, working, recording, and playing regular live gigs with his own Boogie Brown Band. He is currently making a full recovery from surgery for cancer of the colon. Reggae fans will also be delighted to know that on the evidence of this two CD set his voice is as fine as ever. The title track, as explained in the exhaustive sleeve notes by reggae writer and Wailers historian Roger Steffens, is inspired by Clinton Fearon's dismay at current conditions in Jamaica: "The violence there is not like the '70s when so many people got killed for the politics. Now it's more drugs, and the stealing that goes on, 50% of it is to buy another round of drugs."

However, while the lyrics of this set often deal with harsh and uncompromising social realities, the feel and tone of the music is positive and uplifting. Clinton Fearon's voice is warm and deep with that ability to turn a musical phrase which contributed so much to the sound of The Gladiators. Above all his voice has heart and this set is a golden ticket back not just to The Gladiators but to all the other fine vocal groups and voices of that period in Jamaica's musical history. Mention must also be made of the sterling work done by The Boogie Band who bubble along behind him with some crisp riffing horns and floating organ lines. Rock Your Bones, the opening track, is highly danceable and the whole album strikes me as perfect music to be played outdoors on a hot summer's day, preferably at enormous volume to many thousands of people, which of course makes it perfect for those big festivals which are taking place over the next couple of months.

There are twelve vocal cuts on the first CD. The second CD of this set is the dub set to the first and if that isn't a bonus in itself, they're mixed by the great Scientist who, as a youth and apprentice to dub sorcerer King Tubby, laid down from the end of the '70s some of the hardest and wackiest dubs yet heard on the planet. Like Clinton Fearon, his touch is as sure as ever, utilising high stepping bass lines, with echoed horns and organ moving briskly in and out from all directions, judiciously punctuated by hugely amplified drum crashes.

This 2 CD set is released by Kool Yu Foot. Clinton Fearon can be reached on boogie@wolfenet.com and you can check his website at http://www.wolfenet.com/~boogie/CF.html.

Check the current issue of US reggae magazine Full Watts, e-mail: milne@csus.edu , for an excellent extended interview with Clinton Fearon.