Jove Music: Tribute to Dennis Brown

The British Reggae Industry has come together to sing tribute to one of reggae's most prolific, inspirational, respected and loved artists - the legendary Dennis Brown - who sadly died on July 1st, 1999.
An impressive array of artists have given their time and expertise to produce a single called "Tribute to Dennis Brown". The project was conceived and co-ordinated by one of the UK's major reggae talents, Peter Hunnigale.
_{- thanks to Yvonne McGhie of Ennovv Promotions for this excerpt from
her press release}

TRIBUTE TO DENNIS BROWN by the British Reggae All Stars is out now.
Label: Tribute Records under the auspices of Discotex Records.
Formats:

CD single	cat no.: TRI-CDS01	bar code no.: 5-036848 000334
7" single	cat.no.: TRI-001

available from Dub Vendor, Ernie B and Ital-K (Miami)
distribution: Jet Star (fax 44 181 965 7008)
exports (trade only): Fat Shadow (fax: 44 181 830 2244)

STAND UP FOR DENNIS BROWN (Echoes, 7 August 1999)
by John Masouri - reprinted with permission

    The script could have come out of Hollywood, or its English equivalent at least. Just as the British reggae industry's troubles start being openly discussed in crisis terms, some three dozen of its finest exponents rally round to express their tributes to the late Dennis Brown. In doing so, they celebrate the largest gathering of its kind anywhere outside Jamaica, thus reaping our home-grown British talent generous helpings of respect and attention from all corners of the international reggae community.

    Such potential PR benefits were far from the minds of Peter Hunnigale and Stingray's Carl McLeod when they conceived the project shortly after news of Dennis' death began circulating several weeks ago. Both had worked with Dennis - Peter even duetting with him for Saxon one time, but more importantly, each recognised the vast influence Dennis had on reggae, and thought it only proper for the British reggae fraternity to pay its respects to a fellow artist who'd not only lived here for many years, but who had himself made a significant contribution toward the development of reggae music in this country.

    It took no time at all for such sentiments to find a rapid response among their peer group. By the end of the week Mafia & Fluxy, Bubblers from Ruff Cutt, Fluty, Jazwad, and a horn section comprosed of the Matics plus Winston "Sax" Rose had assembled at Jet Star's studio to lay the basic rhythm track for Here I Come, arguably the most well-loved DB track of all time, and a song that Dennis regularly opened his live shows with. Peter himself played rhythm guitar, as well as structuring the actual arrangement and lyrics, which form a medley of several other notable Dennis Brown hits, including No Man Is An Island and Sitting and Watching. Apart from using a drum machine this was pretty much a live session, just as the original had been some 25 years earlier.

    In the meantime the two organisers were contacting every British artist they could think of and telling them of their plans to commemorate Dennis on an industry tribute record. It's a measure of the esteem in which he was (and they are) held amongst reggae people that the turnout at Stingray's Big House studio on the afternoon of July 18th was "near enough 98%", according to Peter. "You can count on one hand the people who were missing, so you can imagine who was there" - Janet Kay, G-Vibes, Winston Reedy, Paulette Tajah, Sylvia Tella, Nereus Joseph, Don Campbell, Janet Lee Davis, Sweetie Irie, Sandeeno, Jazwad, John McLean, Peter Spence, Tippa Irie, Slim Linton, Louisa Marks, Neville Morrison, Victor Romero Evans, Johnny Orlando … everyone from right, left and centre. From Bitty McLean to Pato Banton, from London to Birmingham, old and young. Aswad even regrouped and came back in specially for the event, and Ibo Cooper from Third World came as well. It was tremendous.

    "It was a day for artists to eat food, have something to drink and make a tribute for Dennis Brown, and since we'd laid the rhythm track earlier, it was just a matter of recording the entire industry on this four or five minute record. Because the idea was for the artists to chill out during the day while we try and fulfil this amazing feat of recording 40-plus artists, so we put on a buffet and all had lunch outside whilst taking turns to go into the studio. We got there for about 11 o'clock in the morning, and we didn't actually finish recording until late that night, so it was a really enjoyable day."

    Anyone having visited Stingray's premises can easily imagine the scene. Their studio is housed in what at first sight appears to be a large shed at the bottom of the garden. Only once you go in side do you get the Tardis effect, since it's virtually a replica of Bobby Digital's set-up in Kingston, with the same impressive array of sound equipment and stripped pine furnishings. A narrow concrete path leads alongside the spacious lawn, allowing plenty of room for groups of people to congregate outside in the sunshine. All those contributing were there because they had felt personally touched by the Crown Prince's passing, and wanted to express their appreciation of his music in the company of their fellow professionals. But what of the logistical problems in actually recording all of these different voices?

    "The main thing was to get the artists in the right places, so what we started to do at the beginning of the day was to work by the artists that turned up early," explains Carl. "We started off recording with people like Richie Davis, Lloyd Brown, Peter Spence, Sylvia Tella … each artist took a line, so it was Lloyd Brown who started it, then it went to Richie Davis, and so on. We had Aswad in early; also Peter Hunnigale, John McLean, Trevor Hartley, Don Campbell, Nereus Joseph, Winston Reedy, Robbie Valentine, Levi Roots, Neville Morrison, Bitty Mc Lean and Victor Romero Evans. Then we had a little deejay section consisting of Tippa Irie, Sweetie Irie, Chukki Starr, Lorna G, and Pato Banton. There was a real cross-section of different artists, and it could have been a problem recording every voice so that you could identify each one, cause I'd say we got about 38 to 40 artists on there. So we did the harmony section first, and what we did was to group a lot of the singers in twos and threes and fours and then record them together. We'd do that section of the harmony, get them out and then get another set in, and this was happening all throughout the day. That way everyone who there ended up doing something on the track.

    "We're going to try and get it mixed next week. I do like the vibes on it, and the singers all come over really good. Even Ibo's part, cause he did a little piece on it as well. He wasn't so much singing, but he was in those blocks of harmonies, and he came out with some brilliant ad libs, cause they felt so different amongst all the other textures of voices that were going on in the song. It was Ibo who blessed the track at the end of the evening, and he told some amazing stories about Dennis when he was really young."

    It took an orchestrated, sustained campaign by Island Records to confer public immortality upon Bob Marley after his death, lest we forget. Yet Marley's talents - if not the levels of exposure they attained - were shared by a number of other leading reggae artists who have been allowed to slip into comparative obscurity since Marley's elevation into an icon. It would be a crime if the memory of Dennis Emmanuel Brown should wither in similar circumstances. He wasn't signed to a major label, and so it will take a unified effort from his friends, fellow artists and supporters to do something similar on his behalf. That process began here in London that weekend, and it's the first of several other events planned for the future.

    "What we've done, we've documented the whole thing from when we laid the rhythm at Jet Star, through to the final recordings, cause we got BVTV to come and film all that footage, " says Peter. "We also had a photographer (former Echoes contributor Karl Finn) on site, and he's got pictures of each and every individual artist coming through. So anyway it might be an idea to have this footage made up into video form now, and have it running throughout the launch party for the single, because we'll be having another industry event where we all meet up at Subterrania with Rodigan at the helm and stuff, and try and see if we can lean into the national side and get people like Boy George and Finlay Quaye to attend. It would have been nice for some of them people to have been there at the recording, but I think it would have overshadowed our reasons for doing the tribute in the first place. I mean, we did this from our own perspective, and we didn't want them (the mainstream media) missing out on people who have contributed a good deal more. We didn't want the camera brushing past Don Campbell and not giving him an interview, or passing by Trevor Hartley and not knowing who these people are. Because we have to start building our own industry now, as the majority of the people in it want to bring about change. That's what the other day's event was about. It's like the new initiative. I know that was the programme before, but the black British artists are always looking to someone else to pull something else along for them, and it probably would have been better if we hadn't had certain key people to look to in the past, or have to depend on. Because no one company or individual can lead the industry, and now we're trying to create a chance for ourselves. We want to try and create our own industry."

    Considering that Peter's new single Going Out Of My Head is a song he wrote, sang, arranged, played on and produced, and in his own studio at that, he's something of a one man industry himself, although he's still left with distribution and promotion difficulties to worry about. Ultimately the rejuvenation of British reggae music depends upon people like him and Stingray, both of whom favour the self-reliant approach and have worked hard to ensure their creative independence. This in turn has enabled them to retain a greater degree of control over their music, even if they're often hampered by financial restrictions.

    "You see, before we used to always rush our stuff," admits Carl. "Because when you're using other people's studio time you just want to get it done, and sometimes when you reach the end of a mix, you realise that now it's ready to be mixed, y'understand? And financing and all that kind of thing is hard, but when you've got your own studio, you can take your time and get it right, and that's what I'm really thankful for. So anything from Stingray's right now, like this Peter Spence album we've got coming, I know it's gonna be doing things on the road. Cause we've found it now. We've found it, and we're going to hold onto it."

    Measured against those early albums by Sammy Levi, their Big House productions are now wonderful affairs, and have achieved a consistency wholly in keeping with their claims. Their choice of artists and material is generally superb, and their rhythm tracks full of subtle, highly musical touches. Many of them now feature 'live' guitar, for example.

    "I love the guitar. You make sure you tell them that Stingray is a guitar man!" he laughs. "I use guitar on most of our tracks. I can't help it. Sometimes I try my best to keep guitarists off there but I just keep getting carried away with the sound of it! But just listen out for the next shots man, cause we've got some big tunes coming for the massive for the rest of this year."

    Not least a Dennis Brown tribute featuring the biggest line-up of home-grown talent in the history of British reggae music.

BRITISH REGGAE TRIBUTE TO DENNIS BROWN SUBTERRANIA, WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 1st.
by John Masouri

    This momentous event was organised by Peter Hunnigale with a twofold purpose in mind. First and foremost, it was the British reggae industry's tribute to the late Dennis Brown, although with the industry now having fallen on hard times, it was also hoped that such a gathering could instill confidence in its participants, and perhaps even act as a springboard towards further group collaborations. Whilst evidence of this second objective will take time to manifest, the first was realised in spectacular fashion. Never before had such an extensive line-up of British reggae talent assembled together under the one roof, or rallied to one cause with such an outpouring of communal good will. Virtually everyone you could name in British reggae was there, including a good few Jamaican expatriates. .

    The evening started with Papa Face, Saxon and Lloyd Coxsone spinning Dennis Brown tunes; the latter dropping several dubplates recorded during the late seventies. Akabu were the first act on stage; their youngest member Madeline soloing as Valerie and Vyris added sweet, acapella harmonies. Paulette Tajah followed them with Silhouettes, and then Mike Anthony, who got an especially warm reception. Winsome's performance was so vibrant, it's a shame she wasn't given longer. Tippa Irie then tore up the place with an adaptation of I Miss You; a song originally inspired by the death of his sister Miss Irie. Tippa put his heart, his soul and every ounce of experience into his slot, leaving Louisa Marks to end the first section with If I Follow My Heart.

    At this point the Welcome band were replaced by Mafia & Fluxy, who were joined on stage by fellow Instigators Red Eye and Toyin Adekale. Seeing the two Heywood brothers playing live drums and bass was a thrill in itself, and they certainly brought out the best in Levi Roots [with his latest single Rasta Jubilee] and Trevor Hartley, who unleashed that famous vibrato with real passion. Toyin even sang an old Instigators hit, but it was Aswad's Brinsley Forde - now a solo act - who stole this segment with a rousing interpretation of Promised Land, a tune Aswad produced with Dennis on his return from Ethiopia in the very early eighties. Of Aswad's Drummie and Tony there was no sign, although both feature on the forthcoming tribute single.

    During the third and final band change - which saw Ruff Cutt assume the driving position - there was one of those magical interludes that no-one present will ever forget, and that was happily captured on film. To keep the vibes going, Peter Hunnigale himself took up the mic and motioning to Klearview Harmonix to join him, sang an acapella version of African Tears with such feeling, it was like being in church. It's a glorious song; one worthy of classic status, and that indirectly said so much about the occasion itself. A few minutes later and there was Roger Robin on stage, providing yet another reminder of the depth of talent to be found in this country. That artists like him still await wider recognition is fair indication of the struggles British reggae has faced throughout the years, but there's room for hope, as Chukki Starr demonstrated. And in the absence of Glamma Kid, it was somehow fitting that Don Ricardo was the last act to appear, since he's now British reggae's brightest hope for mainstream acceptance. The way he delivered his No.1 First To Know bore all the hallmarks of future stardom, and so long as the door isn't bolted behind him, there's a wealth of gifted individuals capable of joining him.

    There must have been sixty of them gathered on the stage for the grand finale. Peter, Tippa, Brinsley, Lloyd Brown and General Levy all contributing solos as the rest sang a never to be repeated, mass acapella of Here I Come. The studio version will feature a slightly different line-up and have the added advantage of a rhythm track, but on this hearing, will send lasting reverberations throughout the international reggae community, and just as an expression of regard for Dennis, whose two daughters were also presented on stage. Thanks to those who took part in the making of the record and this very special evening's entertainment, we can feel pride in our British reggae industry once more. It gives us something to build on, and with this amount of dedication to draw upon, there's no telling what can be achieved in the future.