WHERE JAMAICA AND AFRICA MIX; RANGLIN FINDS `LOST RIDDIM' WITH MUSICIANS OF SENEGAL.Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Music Writer To cut his latest album, pioneering Jamaican jazz guitarist Jazz guitarists are guitar players who play jazz music using an approach to playing chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines which is called jazz guitar playing. The guitar has a long history in jazz music, both as an ensemble instrument performing chordal accompaniment, and as Ernest Ranglin Ernest Ranglin (born June 19, 1932 in Manchester, Jamaica) is a guitarist whose session work at Studio One helped give birth to the ska genre in the late 1950s. Ranglin played on many classic Jamaican recordings, and he performed with artists such as Jimmy Cliff, Monty was drawn to Senegal. It's a country Ranglin had visited once before in 1976 as part of Jimmy Cliff's band. In the meantime Adv. 1. in the meantime - during the intervening time; "meanwhile I will not think about the problem"; "meantime he was attentive to his other interests"; "in the meantime the police were notified" meantime, meanwhile , although he'd traveled the world and studied various musical forms, Ranglin yearned to return to Africa to record with local musicians. During that first visit two decades ago, the guitarist met an aspiring singer named Baaba Maal, now an international Afro-pop star and Ranglin's labelmate. The two collaborated on ``In Search of the Lost Riddim A riddim is a rhythm pattern consisting basically of a drum pattern and a prominent bassline. This Patois or Jamaican-English term originates from the English word "rhythm. ,'' recently released by Palm Pictures, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell's new label. Ranglin's latest effort - his third album in as many years - blends the percussive per·cus·sive adj. Of, relating to, or characterized by percussion. per·cus  sive·ly adv. sounds of West Africa West AfricaA region of western Africa between the Sahara Desert and the Gulf of Guinea. It was largely controlled by colonial powers until the 20th century. West African adj. & n. with Caribbean and pop influences. ``I wanted to align African culture with what we have in the West,'' Ranglin explained. ``We've lost our roots. I tried to get as close as I could to the source and then introduce what I learned to this side of the world.'' Ranglin helped shape the course of Jamaican pop music. Inspired by the great jazz guitarist Charlie Christian Charlie Christian (Charles Henry Christian) (29 July 1916 – 2 March 1942) was an American swing and bebop jazz guitarist. Christian was an important early performer on the electric guitar, and is cited as a key figure in the development of bebop, cool and modern jazz. , Ranglin worked in Kingston's hotel bands of the '50s. These big bands taught him to orchestrate and arrange music, and the constant touring introduced him to musicians of various styles. Often credited as inventor of reggae's ka-chicka rhythm sound, Ranglin played with members of the Skatalites before becoming musical director of Duke Reid's influential Treasure Isle label in 1965. During the next five years, his choppy rhythms helped lead to the development of rock-steady and reggae out of ska, which was short for skavoovee, a popular catch-phrase at the time. Ranglin, awarded the Jamaican Order of Distinction in 1973, played on cuts by Bob Marley, Prince Buster Cecil Bustamente Campbell (born May 28, 1938), better known as Prince Buster, is a musician from Kingston, Jamaica and regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of ska and rocksteady music. , Lee Perry and Millie Small, for whom he arranged the worldwide smash ``My Boy Lollipop.'' The guitarist says he and other session hands had no inkling they were making pop history. ``We had no idea to tell you the truth,'' Ranglin, 66, said the other day. ``We were just doing what comes naturally. We hoped for the best but didn't know it would come out as great as it did.'' After cutting a series of hard-to-find solo albums in the '60s, '70s and early '80s, Ranglin emerged in 1996 with the well-received ``Below the Bassline'' (Island Jamaica), a collection of original instrumental grooves combined with jazzy jazz·y adj. jazz·i·er, jazz·i·est 1. Resembling jazz in form or nature; rhythmical. 2. Slang Showy; flashy: a jazzy car. covers of reggae classics by Augustus Pablo, Toots toots n. Slang Babe; sweetie. [Perhaps short for tootsie.] & the Maytals and Burning Spear. A lyrical and inventive soloist, Ranglin sounds at times like a Caribbean version of funk-jazz guitarist Phil Upchurch or a far less mainstream George Benson. Last year, Ranglin released ``Memories of Barber Mack'' (Island Jamaica), titled for a legendary local saxophonist and consisting of 10 Ranglin originals along with interpretations of a couple of reggae classics. As for the making of ``In Search of the Lost Riddim,'' Ranglin recalls arriving in Senegal's capital city Dakar and having to wait for the sessions to slowly come together. ``It took some time for things to happen,'' said the guitarist, who has homes in Florida and Jamaica. ``But I worked with some fantastic musicians, and the studios are as modern as anywhere.'' Like many reggae aficionados raised on the real thing, Ranglin is discouraged by dancehall dance·hall n. 1. or dance hall A building or part of a building with facilities for dancing. 2. See ragga. dancehall Noun a style of dance-oriented reggae and other types of '90s Jamaican pop in which drummers are replaced by machines and the famous rock-steady pulse of reggae is reduced to a keyboard squeal. ``I don't believe in (electronic music) because nothing beats live music played by people,'' he said. ``That's where you discover a person's natural talent and rhythm. You can't play a drum machine and make it sound natural. I can see using a keyboard for the sound of strings. It's difficult to get a string section in most countries. ``But I don't believe in the rest. I need to hear natural instruments. What happened to drums, bass, saxophone and guitar? Things at home are going too far.'' CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Guitarist Ernest Ranglin taps African, Caribbean and pop sounds on ``In Search of the Lost Riddim.'' |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion