I just got back from a few heady days at the Rototom Sunsplash festival in Italy. It had been too long since I had my fill of live reggae and I'm a happy camper now after hearing and seeing Bunny Wailer, U-Roy, Sly and Robbie, and a few others. I wanted to share a few impressions from the shows, and it's a good opportunity to bump up this thread.
I watched all the shows from a few rows from the stage where I could hear the PA and a bit of the stage mix.
Bunny Wailer was good to see, but I found the show a bit lackluster- he didn't have the outrageous dancers who usually take the stage for part of the show, and he whipped through short versions of his classic songs from Blackheart man, IMO his finest work, in favour of his later dancehall stuff, a lot of which leaves me a bit cold. He did a lot of Wailers stuff, and when they really gelled on a few of them they were mind blowing.
He does talk an awful lot of nonsense between songs, but that's neither here nor there.
Unfortunately the bassist wasn't up to the quality of the rest of the band, and he made a complete trainwreck of at least one song (he didn't know the changes) and didn't add much to the others- it's a bit rich of me criticizing someone else at pro level, I know, but there is a big difference between playing the notes and playing the bass, and I really felt he was only doing the former. He stuck out more than he would have in a lesser band, as the rhythm guitarist, and the horns especially were mind blowing, and the drummer was superb, too.
U-Roy was a delight, as always, such a great entertainer and a real character, just a non-stop joy to see such an experienced and cool guy whose love of performing is so evident. Good band and solid rhythm section, got some great old time bass tones and it was feel good time all-over. The two back up singers should have been shot after the show, it was obvious they hadn't even learned all the songs (we are talking about songs who any reggae fan would know by osmosis already) and their harmonizing was shaky at best and flat out painful at worst. Complete lack of respect for the music and for Daddy U-Roy if you ask me. I don't know how people can get on stage in front of thousands of fans if you don't have your sh-t together...
Sly and Robbie, with Bitty Mclean, was a trip. Sly and Robbie were billed to play a set alone, and then to play with Bitty, but everything was running late, so they all came on at once. Personally I would have been happy to see more of the Riddim Twins and less of Bitty; he has a nice voice but is lacking a bit in stage presence and he is too light sounding live for the steamroller riddims they were putting down. Sly was too far back in the mix, unfortunately, so you didn't really hear the interplay between him and Robbie, nor the insane complexity and drive of his playing, but we could sure hear the bass fine.
It was a supersonic bass attack and the pure power and imagination he plays with was something special to behold. At times I was just rooted to the spot for a whole song, completely in awe of the technical virtuosity of his playing, and the amount of pure tone being generated.
I'm still not sure how anyone can play with a tone like his at such incredible speeds and still keep every single note completely distinct. It shouldn't be possible but he is a phenomenon. Mostly thumbstyle with up and down strokes, but also fingerstyle or with his forefinger and thump pressed together to act like a huge pick, mostly for chording. I'm not usually impressed by chops per se but this was something to behold. You don't hear him playing like this on recordings because it's too over the top for most songs, but live it was a blast. All this on a passive black Fender Jazz.
Anyway, thanks for putting up with this rambling post, I just wanted to share some of my thoughts with you fellow reggae fans. I learned a lot from a few days of swimming in the low end and came back home with a huge dose of inspiration and a clearer sense of what I want to achieve as a bassist.
Just for fun I've linked a few vids from shows from last week I would have like to have seen but couldn't due to a dumb-ass thing called work:
The Congos, the greatest living vocal group and a true connection to the heart and soul of reggae- these guys are coming from a different, deeper place:
I wanted to link a few more from this last week but youtube is undergoing maintenance and I can't search at the moment.
I watched all the shows from a few rows from the stage where I could hear the PA and a bit of the stage mix.
Bunny Wailer was good to see, but I found the show a bit lackluster- he didn't have the outrageous dancers who usually take the stage for part of the show, and he whipped through short versions of his classic songs from Blackheart man, IMO his finest work, in favour of his later dancehall stuff, a lot of which leaves me a bit cold. He did a lot of Wailers stuff, and when they really gelled on a few of them they were mind blowing.
He does talk an awful lot of nonsense between songs, but that's neither here nor there.
Unfortunately the bassist wasn't up to the quality of the rest of the band, and he made a complete trainwreck of at least one song (he didn't know the changes) and didn't add much to the others- it's a bit rich of me criticizing someone else at pro level, I know, but there is a big difference between playing the notes and playing the bass, and I really felt he was only doing the former. He stuck out more than he would have in a lesser band, as the rhythm guitarist, and the horns especially were mind blowing, and the drummer was superb, too.
U-Roy was a delight, as always, such a great entertainer and a real character, just a non-stop joy to see such an experienced and cool guy whose love of performing is so evident. Good band and solid rhythm section, got some great old time bass tones and it was feel good time all-over. The two back up singers should have been shot after the show, it was obvious they hadn't even learned all the songs (we are talking about songs who any reggae fan would know by osmosis already) and their harmonizing was shaky at best and flat out painful at worst. Complete lack of respect for the music and for Daddy U-Roy if you ask me. I don't know how people can get on stage in front of thousands of fans if you don't have your sh-t together...
Sly and Robbie, with Bitty Mclean, was a trip. Sly and Robbie were billed to play a set alone, and then to play with Bitty, but everything was running late, so they all came on at once. Personally I would have been happy to see more of the Riddim Twins and less of Bitty; he has a nice voice but is lacking a bit in stage presence and he is too light sounding live for the steamroller riddims they were putting down. Sly was too far back in the mix, unfortunately, so you didn't really hear the interplay between him and Robbie, nor the insane complexity and drive of his playing, but we could sure hear the bass fine.
It was a supersonic bass attack and the pure power and imagination he plays with was something special to behold. At times I was just rooted to the spot for a whole song, completely in awe of the technical virtuosity of his playing, and the amount of pure tone being generated.
I'm still not sure how anyone can play with a tone like his at such incredible speeds and still keep every single note completely distinct. It shouldn't be possible but he is a phenomenon. Mostly thumbstyle with up and down strokes, but also fingerstyle or with his forefinger and thump pressed together to act like a huge pick, mostly for chording. I'm not usually impressed by chops per se but this was something to behold. You don't hear him playing like this on recordings because it's too over the top for most songs, but live it was a blast. All this on a passive black Fender Jazz.
Anyway, thanks for putting up with this rambling post, I just wanted to share some of my thoughts with you fellow reggae fans. I learned a lot from a few days of swimming in the low end and came back home with a huge dose of inspiration and a clearer sense of what I want to achieve as a bassist.
Just for fun I've linked a few vids from shows from last week I would have like to have seen but couldn't due to a dumb-ass thing called work:
The Congos, the greatest living vocal group and a true connection to the heart and soul of reggae- these guys are coming from a different, deeper place:
I wanted to link a few more from this last week but youtube is undergoing maintenance and I can't search at the moment.
I think only one has live bass. They were scratch tracks that I was planning on recording with a full band, but haven't gotten around to it.
