Cedric Im Brooks v. the Monolith

For most, and for most that people are aware of Jamaican music equals Reggae. And most would allow for the fact that the current reggae doesn't sound much like classic '70s reggae, it at least follows a logical growth from historical reggae to the current JA sound and therefore can still be classifiable as "reggae." Not surprisingly this simplistic statement "JA music: Reggae :: Reggae: JA music" is far from true. The most well-known JA export yes, but all the music created? Far from it. There's jamaican jazz, rock, funk, soul, etc and I'm even sure there is JA rap and punk, the middle class youths have to seperate themselves somehow right? That's not even to mention the other inidigenous JA/carribean sounds: Mento, calypso, etc. Which esp. in the '70s was probably more prominent in actual clubs and performance than reggae, also true of disco in the '70s. There's a crucial scene in Rockers where the Rasta horsemouth and friend (another reggae luminary, I don't remember who) invade and take over a disco where their playing western disco to a a receptive jamaican middle class audience. Not surprising for a music made in the ghetto by the underclass and dominated by a cult-ish un-recognized, by larger world church standards, to be unrecognized for the importance and dominance and creative power that it was by the middle and upper classes. It was probably fuel for the creative fire and now that roots reggae and rasta are more recognized by the gov't, its not surprising that its more tepid now and that the sufferer youth have moved on to other musics that are not yet synthesized into the approved sanctioned state identity.

The key musicians on the classic reggae sides of the '70s also were not limited to reggae and most (being pro musicians) were well aware of musics being made outside the island. One of them being Cedric Im Brooks who as the story goes traveled to the US/Philly and was exposed to some of the out there jazz of Sun Ra and the other musics coming from around the world. And even though Reggae was the bread and butter he decided to start cutting out there musics at Studio One and decidely non-reggae music. On the two records I've heard, Flash Forward and United Africa there is a fair amount of reggae. All of Flash is Studio One reggae rhythms with Brooks sax doing the vocal work. United Africa has one long reggae track, an instrumental of the rasta anthem (also recorded, possibly written by the Abbysinians) Satta Massa Ganna but than it ventures all over. Afro-beat, other carribian rhythms, Jazz, etc. THIS IS NO REGGAE RECORD. and it's good, but it's not as out there as the notes would indicated. This is not cosmic free jazz. This is just cosmic re-thinking of what it is to be a dispora musician. Cosmic United African World Music. not so cosmic, but all godly rasta united.

-White Man