Island timeless

Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae recalls
an era with an album, a documentary and
a big reunion concert

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT:
Raxlen (l) with Hux Brown and Ernest Ranglin

by ERIN MACLEOD

“Those were the days when we as artists, when we went in the studio to record, all those songs were done in such innocence and purity,” says Marcia Griffiths, legendary Jamaican recording artist. “We didn’t think about money and I think that’s one of the reasons why these songs will live forever.”

Griffiths is talking about the era of rocksteady, a genre of Jamaican music influenced by U.S. R&B and soul, and the link between ska and reggae. It’s this era that is showcased in Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae, a film, album and concert project due to make its world debut right here at the Montreal Jazz Fest. The film will be screened from July 4–12 at the Musée d’art contemporain, while Griffiths will perform alongside pioneers of the sound Ken Boothe, Stranger Cole, Judy Mowatt, Hopeton Lewis, Leroy Sibbles and the Tamlins in a rocksteady reunion on July 7.

The Rocksteady project was developed through a partnership between director Stascha Bader and Montreal’s Moss Raxlen. “I was thinking,” says Raxlen, “back in 2005, 2006, that there should definitely be something done with this music, like Buena Vista [Social Club]. From there, I started talking to different people. Around the same time, the director got in touch with me through mutual friends, knowing that I was interested and that I was connected with a lot of people in Jamaica.”

What ended up being created is a film that not only brings together artists, but tells the story of an era. “The whole thing was showing not only the music,” explains Raxlen, “but the cultural and social aspects that were in transition as well. There was a flux happening with the music, but as well as with Jamaica.” As a result, the film explores Jamaican independence, the visit of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie to the country and the Rastafari movement.

“It’s a really specific time. It was something really unique that got created. It is so timeless. It makes sense to look at where this all started—when there was a huge explosion of creative ideas.”

STEADY AS SHE GOES: Marcia Griffiths

Look back, step forward

Griffiths agrees. “Today, music is like a hustle—everybody wants to make some money and they want to be in the limelight, but [rocksteady] is pure and sincere and clean. We were at the studio early in the morning and we were so happy to go in and record. There was so much love. It’s the love that is put in the music and all the positiveness that was generated. We would go in the studio when Ken Boothe was doing a song and run behind the microphone and be harmonizing for his song, and Ken would harmonize for my songs.”

Raxlen, who acted as music producer for the project, was able to get a glimpse of this experience. “Working with those guys was a breeze because anything I would ask them to do, they did. Lynn [Taitt] did the horn arrangements for half a dozen of the songs, but actual arrangements was me and Ernest [Ranglin] working together a lot. Ernest did a lot of work. I was free to do the arrangements as I wanted to, and working with those guys was really fun. I had worked with some individual people like that before, but never a whole studio. It was a wonderful experience.”

And those in the studio noticed Raxlen’s love of the music. As Griffiths says, “I have never seen a foreigner really come in to take on something that is not from his culture and really try to show it so people can have the opportunity to see where the music is coming from. It is amazing that this person studied and researched and really wanted to develop all of this!”

But this isn’t just about idealizing the past, it’s also about thinking through what the past means to the present. “People keep talking about how it was a paradise in the ’50s and ’60s,” says Raxlen. “When I go to Jamaica, you can sense what was there before and what it is now. There’s a longing within the older people in the community to have that come back around.

“I don’t think it’s a real positive thing to be wishing and wanting to have something that’s in the past. But there is something that could be learned from the past and something about music—what do you want music to be, what do you want your life to be?”