/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC: Reggae Super Producers Take Taxi to Christmas Release

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Howard Campbell

KINGSTON, Sep 16 2003 (IPS) - For more than two decades, the names Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare have appeared in the credit section alongside some of the biggest names in the music business, from Bob Dylan to No Doubt.

But when reggae’s super producers release a four-CD anthology of their work in December, it is the music they made for their Taxi company that will be showcased.

The multi-song set is yet to be titled, but Dunbar says it is likely to contain 80 numbers and will be released first in Europe by Tabou1 Records, a Paris-based company that specialises in distributing roots-reggae on that continent.

Dunbar, 51, is the drummer of the evergreen duo, who have been making music together since the early 1970s. After helping to re-activate the Taxi label Dunbar started in 1972, Shakespeare, a bass player who had worked with Bob Marley and The Wailers, joined up in the mid-1970s.

Things turned for them in 1978 when Shakespeare, now 50, brought in his good friend, singer Gregory Isaacs, to record a few songs for the fledgling company. That session yielded six songs, including "Soon Forward," the first No. 1 song for Taxi.

It was one of the hottest songs in Jamaica in the summer of 1978 and remains one of Isaacs’ biggest hits.

For the next five years, Taxi productions were rarely off Jamaican charts.

Dunbar says he and Shakespeare shopped the multi-CD project to more established companies, including Island Records, but administrators felt the hardcore reggae sound would not be as commercially vibrant as the music the duo made with Grace Jones and U..S. Rhythm And Blues singer Gwen Guthrie in the 1980s.

"This is like the last generation of live music coming out of Jamaica and a lot of people are craving for this sound. There is also an upsurge in interest in dancehall music across the world and people want to know about its roots," said Dunbar.

Thanks to Jamaican deejays like Shaggy and Sean Paul, the dancehall beat that has been such a force in local clubs for the past decade has taken the United States by storm.

Shaggy’s 2001 ‘Hot Shots’ album sold over 10 million units, while Sean Paul’s ‘Dutty Rock’, released last year, has clocked sales of over two million units to date.

Not to be outdone, Sly and Robbie have been a part of dancehall’s U.S. resurgence. They produced two songs from U.S. punk-Ska band No Doubt’s Grammy-winning album, ‘Rocksteady’. Those cuts, "Hey Baby" and "Underneath It All" both made the Billboard pop charts.

Performers such as Jimmy Riley, The Tamlins and The Viceroys may not ring a bell to those unfamiliar with grassroots reggae, but they are among the acts whose songs will appear on the Taxi box set.

After Isaacs hit with "Soon Forward," Sly and Robbie recruited The Tamlins, their former colleagues in Peter Tosh’s Word, Sound and Power band. They also began working with Riley, who had been a member of the mildly successful group, The Uniques.

"Baltimore", a cover of a song originally done by U.S. singer-songwriter Randy Newman, was The Tamlins’ first major hit and was one of the biggest songs for 1979. Riley’s "Love and Devotion", released the same year, was just as big.

But Dunbar and Shakespeare’s biggest coup that year was working with a roots-reggae trio out of the Kingston ghetto of Waterhouse named Black Uhuru.

The group had missed out on the reggae explosion of the mid-1970s, but with Sly and Robbie as producers they broke out in 1979 with a slew of classic sides that included "Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner", "General Penitentiary" and "Shine Eye Gal".

Black Uhuru’s militant sound impressed Island Records founder, Chris Blackwell, who had helped launch Bob Marley’s career in the 1970s. For the next five years, the group recorded exclusively with Sly and Robbie at Blackwell’s studio at Compass Point in The Bahamas; ‘Anthem’, one of the products of those sessions, won the first Best Reggae Album Grammy Award in 1985.

Working at Compass Point opened new doors for Dunbar and Shakespeare. They collaborated with big names like Dylan, Jones, Joe Cocker, Mick Jagger and Cyndi Lauper; but in 1993, they scored with an obscure deejay-singer team named Chaka Demus and Pliers.. Their "All She Wrote" album, a mixture of Ska and dancehall, yielded five songs that made the British national charts.

Although it was distributed by the Island affiliate, Mango Records, "All She Wrote" was a Taxi production.

Dunbar and Shakespeare also won a Grammy for Best Reggae Album with their pop-based "Friends" album in 1999. That set was distributed by Elektra Records.

Because the upcoming anthology will be hardcore reggae and total Taxi, the ride will be even more special for Sly and Robbie.