Where Have All The Musicians Gone From New Reggae Releases?

[donstrumental]

To Answer the original question,this might sound a little controversial but the musical content on the majority of new releases isn't worth talking about.

Today i happened to have the pleasure of a conversation with the Great Robbie Shakespeare and this thread made me ask him the question "what is going on with todays musicians?"

In a nutshell his answer stated that reggae is all about the original bassline,every session he had to find an original bassline"

He is 100% correct,how many new tunes can you recognise by the bassline.Sing the b-line to Answer or Hot Milk or unmetered Taxi and you will know exactly what the riddim will be.

All musicians on this forum this is what we need to strive for to make a change to whats going on.

Respect

[leggo rocker]

I agree with Rootsman. Live music with real musical instruments is spine tingling stuff. The sound of the drum, the blare of the brass, it's all top class.

[Guest]

computer actually nah kill the music it only kill the drummer, if yu listen jammys or xterminator you can hear all instruments played over a digital beat but all organs/guitars/pianos are played by the same musicians like sly/robbie/fire house band and etc.

now my point is not every production has to be a full live track to me, horseman play wickid drums is true, he played drums on capletons "leaders let people down" and the whole riddim is a high grade production

but

to me it is not important to play all live tune because i grew up with drum computer sounds sameway,

but

i cant stand "computer only" productions meaning no live piano or instrument, not played by a human hand sounds dead.

for my riddims i love to set up a strong constant beat and shape the version with pure live instruments recorded as 1 take a instrument meaning no delay while recording. so you have littl mistakes guranteed which live up da whole sound.

why a contant beat? bcause as a selector i must say it is hard to mix those riddims like jah jah city because you can not mix it proper as di bpm is changing around 4 up & down. this can spoil the vibes.

[ras_gaks]

some time around d end of last year (2007) kenya lost one of its few reggae artist who had to have a backing band at any show. I guess he also recorded with a band.
he was electrify on stage, crippled-like d I.V's but could do wonderous jigs wid his walkin stick!!

he had 1hr radio show at africa's only 24/7 reggae station, where he played strictly live music-with live band backing of course.

he was known as 'The Mighty King Kong'
...cont...

[ras_gaks]

... cont
we got other great artists too...

if you have any questions, you can PM me.


bless.

[stepping razor]

I use a Roland TR-808 drum machine thats analogue and then put real instruments in real time live one take. if i made a mistake i would not edit it i would do the track again till it was right and not recorded on computers or digital. same style as the best beat box tunes of 86-89.so i would have the whole instrumental tune finished within an hour.and that gives it a fresh and live sound and feel to it.
By the time they have fiddled about on the computer sorting out the settings, even before they put anything down, im already nearing the end of finishing my second tune.
I much prefer the hands on aproach rather than fiddling about getting different pages and changing volumes and settings into another thing to change something else. its far to slow and have missed the vibe you was feeling when you started the tune.
my second tune would be finished in 2 hours.i can only work at one session for up to 3 or 4 hours then i need a break at an hour a tune.
on the computer you would just about get the drums down in 4 hours. how slow is that and how slow computers are compaired with the hands on approach instant.
Peace edit on spelling
Peace

[Greg]

The year 2000+ reggae music is computer programers not musicians.
We musicians can do it a lot better than a computer and we dont want to be recorded in digital on a computer.
Where has the art of a trade with training as a professional musician gone. lazyness and no soul.
Pick up an instrument then call yourselfs musicians.
Computers have killed real music.

Peace

couldnt agree with you more

[leggo rocker]

This art is in danger of being lost along with many others. Like painting, joinery, glass making, stonemason, and lots of things that take time to learn and then time to do. Time that few people are ready to invest nowadays in this 'press a button and get' age.

[fadel diagne]

hi there
mostly leggo rocker and rootsman.
the detrimentalimpact of digital is a subject i have been so riding to death that i ended up being called narrow-minded,backward,extremist by people who always take modernismas an excuse.i always have a mind to put up and promote shows by vetran vintage jamaican artists whowould like tocome backinto the business or whose music people are longing to hear again,but people willalways tellyou that a morgan heritage,a sizzla,or richie spice would sell more.
we will always'andnomatter the circumstances)refer tothe landmark70's or 60's releases as the albumsthat should feature on a desertisland list.noto be honestit's high time that we go beyong talking and see what we can do to save the surviving vintage artists from destitution and give them the due recognition.
had i lived in the uk for instance i would have tried to work toward re-uniting some bands whose split was really unexplained.a case inpoint is dambala which was discussed a while ago.i was told that black slate came backagain but with which memebers.ihave had no feedback so far.
yes i do believe that the digital has been much more detrimental to reggae
fdel

[musik-maker]

While I agree with some of the views put forward, I strongly disagree that computer is killing the live musician. I play instruments and I also use a computer at home where I cannot accomodate a band.

What I have seen is the slow but steady decline in venues for live artists to appear at. Especially here in the UK. And when they do get to perform they have been reduced to being the warm up act to the ediat dj who just wants to talk about gun and all the other negatives.

It's too easy to blame technology, I don't know of one computer who decided to kill off anyone, do you?

It's us/we the musicians that are allowing the studios to kill us off. Not everything is about money, what's wrong with doing a free ting in your town centre or park? Guaranteed at least one person will be inspired to pick up and learn an instrument, and that's one more than we had the day before!

They will never totally kill off the live musician, they can only hope to make the numbers smaller, and they will succeed if we let them.

To create the demand for live performance, you have to win the people back. To win the people back you have to get out there and perform, take the sound/message far and wide.

I don't care how many random algorithms a computer can use, it can never capture/reproduce the same feel as hearing a live musician/band.

You guys give the computer far too much credit.