12.20.12 - Jamaica Rock Holiday Style

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Happy Holidays on behalf of myself and the East Village Radio crew. Not quite sure how to describe this one... it has some reggae Christmas songs and some love songs and also some that were inspired by  the people that thought the world was going to end the next day. If you'd like to check out last year's holiday show you can do so right here. There are many more Xmas songs on it, and this year I didn't feel like playing quite as many. Anyway, hope you enjoy and listen to in good health!

12.13.12 - Moody Studio One

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I was inspired by the celebration of the man Mr. K (the Deadly Dragon Studio One maven) this night to do an all Studio One set. So it starts moody and gets a little, say, happier towards the end and also has some Studio One Christmas songs in there as well. I hope you enjoy, check the archive.

12.06.12 - Brubeck, B Sides & Byze One

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I have always had an affinity for certain types of jazz music, especially the older songs and especially the song Take Five. It was so cool when I found reggae versions of this song, and songs that took Take Five and made it into a riddim. So as a tribute to the passing of the composer Dave Brubeck I dedicated the first part of the show to some of my favorite takes on Take Five. A couple years ago Scratch Famous did an hour tribute to the same riddim on the Deadly Dragon Sounds show you can check out here. I was also in the mood to just check out some of my B Sides aka versions before our good friend Byze One joined us with a set of some of his favorites he brought to the East Coast with him while in town for the Street Industry Awards. Check the archives and rest in peace, Mr. Brubeck.

11.29.12 - Horace Andy Inspiration

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Since Horace Andy was performing in Brooklyn and the Bronx this week alongside Brigadier Jerry (for the first time in about 10 years), I decided to take some of my favorite Horace Andy tunes and base the show around it. There are some favorites that I have left out if I have played them recently, but I think you will get the picture.

I was lucky enough to go and see him perform at the Brooklyn show and he still sounds the same. Incredible. Next time I hope to have him on the show!

11.15.12 - Sound Digital Sound

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I've always loved the Steely & Cleevie version of Rockfort Rock on the album above, as well as the sound boy killing tracks. The hardest one being "We A Di Don" by the dancehall godfather Johnny Osbourne. For this show I decided to start off with this very track and base the show around some of my favorite sound, digital and dancehall tunes. Check the playlist and archive above.

11.08.12 - For The Love Of Covers

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There has been a lot going on here in NYC lately. I hope everyone is doing okay from the storm that crushed the East Coast, parts of the Caribbean and also put the East Village Radio studio in the dark for almost a week. Big ups to all of the people around here helping each other out, and of course you can donate to the Red Cross or Occupy Sandy.  I needed some fun songs to play for myself and of course for you the listeners. I am a huge fan of cover songs so I decided to go for an all-covers show, hoping they would make you as happy as they make me. One reason why I love reggae covers of songs that I like is because I feel it connects me with that reggae artist - "hey I like that song too!". I'm sure you are aware that there are some very bad covers out there, but I think I chose some of the best. Enjoy!

10.25.12 - Vampires, Duppies & Haunted Riddims

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I have always been a fan of Halloween, there's is something exciting to me about the anonymity and mischief in the air (not into the free candy because I don't have a sweet tooth). For this week's show I decided to pull together some songs about vampires, ghosts and other darkness. I missed last week due to a CMJ preemption (if you tuned in, thanks) and that was also the late great Peter Tosh's birthday. So I included some songs on this tip from him too. Of course, there are the lighter more straightforward vampire tunes like Barnabus Collins by Lone Ranger and then there are the deeper vampire tunes such as the ones by Tosh. Vampires can basically be a metaphor for any evil force sucking the good out of you. For the second hour I decided to play some dark dancehall tunes for you since I have not done a later dancehall set in a while, inspired by one of my favorite riddims, the Haunted riddim. Enjoy... if you dare. Muah ha ha ha...

10.11.12 - Joe Gibbs Hour + Brother Culture LIVE

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Joe Gibbs was born on October 14th, 1942 in Montego Bay and the first hour of this show is dedicated to him as it falls the Thursday before his birthday. One of my favorite producers, he has worked with producers such as Coxsone Dodd, Lee Perry, Niney, Errol T and artists such as Delroy Wilson, Dennis Brown, Jacob Miller, Gregory Isaacs and many many others. Joe Gibbs proved he could adapt his talent during his prolific career, going from big rocksteady and early reggae hits to rockers, dub and beyond. He was also a big influence to the 70s UK scene, probably most notably The Clash. He sadly passed in February of 2008, survived by 12 children - one of whom is Rocky Gibbs who has the label of the same name that has updated and put out some of his father's classic tunes.

Brother Culture is one of UK's most renowned reggae MC's. Based in Brixton, London, he first started chanting on Jah Revelation Muzik Sound System way back in 1982 and spent much of the 80s touring around the UK, the US, Canada and the Caribbean. In the 90s, UK reggae began expanding into the sounds of Drum & Bass and he proved adept at adapting his unique style to an ever-expanding audience which has made him a fixture in the revived UK Dub and Roots scene.

DJ Q-Mastah is part of the Sound Liberation Front crew that promote bass-heavy sound system culture throughout NYC and beyond. This Friday will be the launch of Dub Stuy Records and also the unveiling of Sound Liberation Front'sTower of Sound (a custom built 10,000W Sound System) that will be used to blast the sounds of Brother Culture live alongside members of Dutty Artz, Dub Is A Weapon and others at the Paper Box in Brooklyn.

Check the archive and the video above - vibes!

10.04.12 - Delroy Wilson & Love Songs

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Delroy Wilson

This show goes out to the late great Delroy Wilson, born October 5th 1948. His albums were some of the first ones in my record collection and his voice will always be a special remembrance of those times for me. He recorded his first tune in 1961 for Coxsone Dodd at the age of thirteen and had many of his hits on the Studio One label, but also enjoyed plenty of success throughout the 70s with other legendary producers such as Lloyd Charmers, Keith Hudson, Joe Gibbs, Niney and Harry J. You can check out the killer video above of him doing a take of "Dancing Mood" in Bunny Lee's studio with Jammy at the controls. Since I often play Delroy Wilson tunes on the show, I tried to focus on ones that I may not have played recently or as often as the others, though I did want to play some of his top songs as well. Inspired by his song "True Believer In Love" I also wanted to showcase love songs and lovers rock by some other artists like John Holt, Slim Smith and even Beres Hammond and Super Cat.

09.27.12 - Rhythm n Blues, Rocksteady n Ska

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Prince Buster

Having recently picked up a new (old) 45 of Dave Barker's "Set Me Free", it got me into listening to his other songs and led me into an RnB and rocksteady n ska type of mood. Dave Barker is a beautiful singer that was born in Kingston, JA. Having started out doing some recordings for Harry J and Coxsone while working at the Studio One pressing plant, he then joined Winston Riley for a bit singing with The Techniques but hit the most success partnered up with Ansel Collins for their big track "Double Barrel". I have also included a song or two by Prince Buster, Ken Parker, Laurel Aitken and The Skatalites. There are also some lovely songs by Rita Marley in here and of course (as I do love them) some great cover songs as well. You can check the playlist above, though for some reason the EVR playlists run out of room for me and so then some songs at the end will be listed at the top, fyi...

09.20.12 - Dubwise / Roots Radics Selections

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Emch, Style Scott, QM

A convenient continuation of the previous week's Keith Hudson show, this show features other dub pioneers such as King Tubby, Lee Scratch Perry, Scientist and more. The Dub Champions Festival that has just happened this weekend was inspiration to get me listening to more dub than I have in a long time. Which, obviously, is a good thing.

The Dub Champions Festival (www.DubChampions.com) was put on by Subatomic Sound, and lucky for us Emch from Subatomic was in a studio not too far from the EVR studio and managed to drop by towards the end of the show to talk a bit about the festival. An even luckier surprise was that he had Style Scott of the mega-band Roots Radics with him! What a very nice and cool guy, I would love to have him on again to talk about some more history with us. Hope you got to check them all out this weekend, Roots Radics played "Rids the World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires" with none other than Scientist himself! And Johnny Osbourne! Killer show. I missed the Lee Perry one (caught him with Emch last time though) and I am sure that was great too. Big ups to Subatomic Sound for helping bring more dub events to NYC.

09.13.12 - Keith Hudson Tribute

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This show is dedicated to and inspired by the great producer and artist Keith Hudson aka "The Dark Prince of Reggae", known for his influence on dub music.  Most of the songs on the show are sung by or produced by him, though I did include some other songs by artists he has worked with or that I thought went with the sound of the Hudson tunes. I apologize for some technical difficulties early on in the show, apparently the needles were a bit worn, and once we figured that out and replaced them, everything was alright...

I recommend reading up about Keith Hudson if you do not know a lot about him, his career is filled with so much work that I was unaware of. Here is a link to his wikipedia page here and also a discussion on a blog to whether or not "Pick A Dub" is officially the first dub album or not here. Apparently Ian Curtis of the English band Joy Division was a huge fan and I end the show with his favorite Keith Hudson song "Turn The Heater On", followed by a tribute cover from New Order that was made for Curtis. I love seeing the influences of Jamaican music throughout music all over the world, and I can only imagine how far-reaching Keith Hudson's have been.

09.06.12 - Alton Ellis Tribute Show

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Alton Ellis

Alton Ellis (1938-2008) was a musician best known as the innovator of rocksteady music. He began recording in the late 1950s and continued until his death in 2008, but he reached his period of greatest popularity in the late 1960s.

Ellis was born in Trenchtown, Jamaica, and learned to play the piano at a young age. In his teens, Alton and Eddie Perkins formed Alton & Eddie, and began recording for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One, scoring a hit in 1958 with “Muriel”. 

Ellis launched his solo career after Perkins left for the United States around 1965. He moved to Treasure Isle and began recording with the back-up trio The Flames. His first hit for Treasure Isle was “Dance Crasher”, a plea for peace, and he followed it up with “Get Ready - Rock Steady”.

Ellis’ most well-known song is probably “Girl, I’ve Got A Date”, or “I’m Still In Love With You”, a song that has been versioned many times by artists such as Sean Paul, Althea & Donna (As ‘Uptown Top Ranking’).

In 2006, Ellis was inducted into the International Reggae And World Music Awards (IRAWMA), Hall Of Fame. (- via Last.fm)

Alton Ellis' birthday was this past September 1st, and this show is a tribute to him. I started with some of his first tunes and took you through his ska, rocksteady, soul and roots. His musical innovations will never be forgotten.

08.30.12 - Bushman LIVE in the studio

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Busman LIVE in the EVR studio

For this show I was honored to welcome Bushman back to the studio. The first visit from him was a couple years ago on Deadly Dragon Sounds in promotion of "Bushman Sings The Bush Doctor", and now he is back with what I know is going to be a big album, "Conquering Lion".  I started out the show with one of my favorite tunes "Call The Hearse", and then play some of his other tunes amongst some favorite modern roots and things like that. Towards the end of the show I play some songs from the upcoming album such as "Somewhere", and we get to talk to the man himself about it!

08.23.12 - Tenor Saw, 80s Digital and More

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Tenor Saw

Clive “Tenor Saw” Bright was raised in the Payne Avenue district of West Kingston. His first single, “Roll Call” was recorded in 1984 for George Phang’s Powerhouse label, on the “Queen Majesty” rhythm. He moved on, with his friend Nitty Gritty, to work with Sugar Minott’s Youth Promotion sound system and label, having hits in Jamaica with “Lots of Sign”, “Pumpkin Belly”, “Run Come Call Me”, and “Fever”. His most successful single, however, was “Ring the Alarm”, voiced over the “Stalag” rhythm for Winston Riley’s Techniques label. The singles’ success saw Tenor Saw work with Prince Jammy, recording “Pumpkin Belly” on Jammy’s (then) new “Sleng Teng” rhythm. Further hits followed in 1986 with “Golden Hen” (on the Uptempo label), and Minott issued Tenor Saw’s debut album, Fever, that year. In common with most dancehall albums of the period, most of the rhythms were digital copies of older tunes from the 1960s and 1970s, usually produced originally by Coxsone Dodd or Duke Reid. Thus, “Shirley Jones” versions Keith “Slim” Smith’s “Rougher Yet”, and “Eeni Meeni Mini Mo” versions “Real Rock” from Studio One, while “Roll Call” versions The Techniques’ “Queen Majesty” from Duke Reid, while “Lots of Sign” versions “Tonight” by Keith & Tex, produced by Derrick Harriott. - (from Last.fm)

Thinking of Tenor Saw this week, then when I looked him up online I had noticed that he passed away in August of 1988. I decided to do a show on him, some of my favorite 80s digital productions from huge talents such as King Tubby and King Jammy, as well as artists from this era and a few songs about artists passing too soon, that Tenor Saw is mentioned in.

08.16.12 - Marcus Garvey Tribute Show

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Marcus Garvey

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., born August 17, 1887, was a Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. He founded the Black Star Line, part of the Back-to-Africa movement, which promoted the return of the African diaspora to their ancestral lands. This show is a tribute to him, filled with songs devoted to him and Africa out of the mouths and hearts of Jamaican artists and musicians.

08.09.12 - Shinehead LIVE in the studio

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Shinehead LIVE in the EVR studio

I can't express to you how lucky I feel to be able to have one of my favorite artists on the show, and to play records and have tons of fun with him while doing this. Shinehead is not just an amazing musician, he is also just a really cool human being. He brought a bunch of his vinyl ("Vinyl is final!" - Shinehead) and we took turns playing some of our favorite tunes and also had a friendly tune fi tune as well. I started out the show with a killer Shinehead dub plate of mine (big ups Byze One!) and then went into a few tunes of Sluggy Ranks, who sadly passed in a car accident this July 29th, 2012.

RIP to another big talent passing before his time.

08.02.12 - Jamaican 50th Independence Special

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This year marked the 50th anniversary of Jamaica's independence from the United Kingdom which was August 6th of 1962. In honor of this there were celebrations all over the world and I wanted to celebrate on the show by playing songs devoted to the island. The show starts with a beautiful rendition of the Jamaican National Anthem sung by the mega talented Shinehead! Happy Independence, Jamaica!

07.26.12 - Curtis Mayfield Tribute

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Curtis Mayfield

At least once a year, I love to do a Curtis Mayfield tribute show. Not only is he an obviously outstanding and influential musician, he is also responsible for my DJ name. The Impressions "Minstrel & Queen", which I started the show off with, is the song that influenced the Techniques to do "Queen Majesty" which then spawned the Queen Majesty riddim that is still being used for new tracks today. The whole show is an homage to Curtis Mayfiels and The Impressions, with actual Jamaican cover songs of theirs, as well as songs from other Jamaican male singers and harmony groups.

07.19.12 - Jamaica Rock Premiere

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Hey everyone, welcome to Jamaica Rock. Not only is it the name of the show on East Village Radio, it's the name of how I want to describe my choice in reggae music. I start the show off with a song from one of my favorite artists, Johnny Osbourne's "Rock With You". I was lucky to have him as a guest on Deadly Dragon Sounds, and hope to have him on this show as well. Thanks again to the Deadly Dragons for all of their hard work on the other show and all of the amazing guests that came through, you can still check out the archives and special guests HERE. I hope you continue rocking with me in this new show and time...