Augustus Pablo – Jah Dread

Original Rockers

Producer: Augustus Pablo for Rockers Productions

Arranger: Augustus Pablo

Mixing engineer: King Tubby, Phillip Smart, Prince Jammy

Recording studios: Channel One, Dynamic Sounds

Mixing studios: King Tubby’s

Recorded: 1972-75

LP: Rockers DSR 0310 (1977), Greensleeves GREL 8 (1979), Shanachie LP 002 (1979)

CD: Shanachie SH 44008 (1991), Greensleeves GREWCD 8 (2001, digitally re-mastered with two bonus tracks)

Musicians :

Augustus Pablo: organ, piano, clavinet, glockenspiel, melodica

Aston “Family Man” Barrett: bass

Carlton “Carlie” Barrett: drums

Earl “Chinna” Smith: guitar

Richard “Dirty Harry” Hall: saxophone

Bobby Ellis: trumpet

Vincent “Don D Junior” Gordon: trombone

vocals: Dillinger & Clive on “Brace a Boy”, Pablo & Paul K. on “Rockers Dub”;
Hugh Mundell on “Park Lane Special”; Pablo on “Jah Dread”

Notes :

From the book “Reggae. The Rough Guide. 100 essential CDs”

“Original Rockers2 may be a very short CD – its ten tracks run just over 29 minutes – but the music that it contains is quite outstanding.

First issued on vinyl in 1979, it brings together rare sides that appeared as 7-inch singles on Pablo’s own labels between 1972 and 1975; to obtain original first pressings now would probably cost in excess of 500 pounds.

Born Horace Swaby in Kingston (1953 – 1999), Augustus Pablo made his debut on a series of singles for Herman Chin Loy’s Aquarius label in 1969 and 1970. Cuts like the moody minor-key “East Of The River Nile” provided clues to his future direction.

He joined up with producer Clive Chin (formerly Pablo’s fellow pupil at Kingston College), cutting 1972’s big hit “Java” as a melodica instrumental when the vocalist scheduled to sing on the rhythm couldn’t make the session. Pablo then started his own labels, Hot Stuff and Rockers, the latter named after the sound system owned by his brother Garth.

His debut album, “This is Augustus Pablo” in 1973, was issued by Clive Chin and mixed by Errol “ET” Thompson, but from late 1972 onwards, all Pablo’s own tunes were recorded at Dynamic (later Channel One), and mixed at King Tubby’s. Pablo’s timing was perfect; Tubby was just establishing his kingdom of dub in his kitchen at 18 Dromilly Avenue, Waterhouse.

Pablo played all the keyboards – organ, piano, clavinet, glockenspiel and his famous melodica and used the Wailers’ rhythm section of “Family Man” Barrett on bass and his brother Carlton on drums. Over their foundation, Earl “Chinna” Smith played guitar, with horns by “Dirty Harry” Hall, Vin Gordon, and Bobby Ellis.

Whether Pablo originals or Studio One recuts, the instrumentals they made share their minor key and evocative mood with the ska and rock steady models that were their inspiration.

A couple of tracks here feature deejaying, including a version of the Heptones’ classic “Love Won’t Come Easy” (“Rockers Dub”), on which Pablo and Paul K supply the interjections, and a great early Dillinger called “Brace A Boy”, plus the b-side for good measure – a glockenspiel version known as “AP Special”.

There are two excellent out-and-out dubs, full of the Tubby style – dramatic horns sprayed through long delay, cavernous reverb, clattering guitar chops; “Jah Dread”, a different mix of Jacob Miller’s “Who Say Jah No Dread”, and “Park Lane Special”, the original b-side dub to Hugh Mundell’s “Africa Must Be Free”.

Instrumentals include “Thunderclap”, a brooding clavinet rendition, one-finger style, of the “Ain’t No Sunshine” rhythm also used by Dr Alimantado an “Best Dressed Chicken In Town”.

“Cassava Piece” is named after a lane in Kingston; it’s the melodica version of the rhythm later used for Jacob Miller’s epic “Baby I Love You So”/”King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown”.

The cut called “Tubby’s Dub Song” here is actually the other side of the record, “Pablo’s Theme Song”, another melodica instrumental; the correct dub cut has since been reissued by Pressure Sounds.

If melodica instrumentals don’t sound very enticing, prepare to be surprised. Between 1972 and 1977, Augustus Pablo was at his best; aided by some barbwire-taut rhythms and supremely dynamic mixes, Pablo blew his bittersweet melodies through his little Hohner keyboard, making it sing the songs of King Alpha, and thereby created a string of minor masterpieces.

Steve Barrow & Peter Dalton

http://www.elrockers.org/disco/records/original_rockers.html