My only beef with Reggae Music...
 

.....

So I come from a jazzy, jam band root of guitar playing into reggae music, but most of the musicians and bands I jam reggae with these days don't want to jam!

Reggae has such a wonderful combination of possessed, driving bass lines and simple but eloquent rhythm chord patterns which allow for some serious creative jamming! It is evident in The Congos, in Burning Spear , in early Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus guitar work, and yet, most artists I play with even get upset and say "Naphty, ease up on the solo over the verse." These foundation artists are the ones who inspire me to expand my own guitar work in this direction, but the brothers today just ain't hearin it!

Haven't these brothers ever heard of a lead riff?

it always disappoints me because when I jam with the few like minded brothers who know its potential, or even just warm up scales over my iPod, the leads are just flying its like jerry garcia!! and yet these brothers just don't have a taste for it, it sucks as a musician because it is so bitterly stifling and creatively hostile...

I am waiting for the perfect opportunity to start a roots reggae jam band, its is already in the works, me and a good brother were just mutually complaining about this the other day..

and already for you playa hatin naysayers I need it to be roots reggae and not just DUB because DUB is the vibes, but reggae spreads the message, and essentially I'd like to get a group together where we still heartically spread the message, but on a solid roots DUB foundation.

sounds like reggae is not for you. it is just a ska derivative anyway. don't be too upset.

My only beef with music is jam bands.

I agree. It is the worst.

i went to a folk-y festival last summer, and they had a few dub bands on. was rockin'

well done me

Being a guitarist in a reggae band is essentially just holding a really expensive electric cabasa in most cases.
It just isn't a glory instrument in that genre. It's a percussion instrument with a neck and six nearly-useless strings, rare exceptions notwithstanding.

you really haven't been paying any attention the past few years have you?

Its a little more than that, in fact keeping a riddim going with appropriate scratching and chanking is much harder than it looks, and if you follow the links or are in anyway familiar with reggae archives you will see there is quite a bit of expansive, innovative lead guitar work, its just that so many of the artists (at least those I have had the privilege to play with) are not as receptive to the potential..

DUB has these highlights embedded in its stylee, but I need to vocal power of reggae to spread the message, but also the simple jamming riddims to run through some creative guitar work.

yes! <reverb>ses... ses... ses</reverb>
I have been paying attention <reverb>tension... tension... tension</reverb>
It blows <reverb>lows... lows... lows</reverb>

I think for most people, these days reggae is more about rhythm and vocal stylings than guitar solos...

What you're thinking of in this case is delay or echo, not reverb.

Reverb would go more like this: Yeeeessssss, I have been paying attentiiiiionnn...it blowwwssss....

This thread is so culturally insensitive it makes me physically ill......

I feel you suchfriends.

as far as Reggae goes, I really like dub stuff. Which of course takes from jazz, as it was basically taking someone else's melody and adding yr own improv.

You are correct. Or I should say we are both correct as delay and reverb are used together to achieve the sound we are describing.

Then you are a politically correct fuckface most likely.
Let me guess... you feel oppressed (take a number).

I think some cultures are overly sensitive

It's always nice when a member of a forum that is overwhelmingly white, privileged, middle-class, under-30 men suggests that 'some cultures are overly sensitive' in the only thread I can remember in the last while dealing with someone who wasn't either a) Polly Harvey (and that was a misogynist's ball) or b) a band made up of white, privileged, middle-class, under-30 men.

Having said that, I'd like to know why the Watcher feels this thread insensitive.

LOL

thanks for saying that.

Because judging by the color of my skin shows exactly how I grew up and what music I like...with your logic, what's a black dude doing on a sonic youth message board? I thought only troubled white kids listened to that band...

My musical taste is as diverse as America is fucked up, btw. Sorry I hate jam bands.

I think it's pretty obvious........

the only thing that is obvious is that you are a bed wetter.

Yeah, I was being provocative, but it's not about judging people by skin colour but observing majority narratives. Or, some white middle-class cunts are not ethnically Caucasian.

Well, I can usually find 20 things to take offence to in any given situation. Enlighten me.

don't be scurred, its only roots rock reggae ;)



I know, I'm not into it, its a vanity stylee picked up by the bling rapper, floss your balls out kind of mentality that the dancehall artists brought into the JA scene and artists like Sizzla and Buju kept instigating. I love me some Sizzla to be sure, but it has made reggae a more artist oriented, vocal driven sound, and not to sweet harmonies of the rockers era, no its this tuff rude boy style, even in the roots scene. I'm trying to get a throwback thing going, and the Roots Radics last nite were rippin up the leads on the guitar keeping me inspired to know there is still an audience for that kind of reggae..

good friend of mine is a planning officer in croydon. He's just moved up north and the last application he worked on was for a new studio for the Mad Proffessor!
true story

I love the Professor, he was spinning at the DUB two years ago, a delightful treat here in LA to catch such turn able royalty

you heard Dubtometry right? The Prof's remix of DJ Spooky's Optometry? That shit is stellar.

mad professor was at a friends night and record shop recently

i guess he's really into collecting philly soul records