Re: Anyone heard of "Gregory Isaacs Meets Jah Mel" LP?
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:50 pm
With the original producer here on the board I may quote yourself with a few lines of your book. Just to illustrate how the 'Watchful Eyes' album came into existence.
"In the summer of 1983 Mikey, Jahmel, Dave and I took off for Jamaica to do the recording. We had planned on using the Roots Radics Band to do the backing on the recording, but when I got to Jamaica they were on tour. I started thinking of other musicians to play on the session, but it was not easy finding musicians if you were not a regular on the circuit. So I decided to go to an old friend of mine, Prince Jammy, who was a young record producer at the time, to see if he could get me some session musicians.
...
I told him my purpose for being in Jamaica and that I was looking to find musicians to do a session.We kicked a few names around and then he told me to check the Wailers.
...
I left Jammy and headed for Hope Road, where Family Man was living. He lived on the same property where Bob Marley had his studio. I met Family Man, who greeted me very warmly, and I told him why I was there. He asked me who was I recording and I told him it was a new artist named Jahmel. He agreed to do the session and we decided on a price.
I had studio time at Harry J Studio for three days. I had made the tentative booking while in Rochester and was glad that I had things all ready to go. We had an 11 a.m. studio appointment and everyone was there on time. The Wailers Band consisted of Family Man on bass, Carlton Barrett (Carlie) on drums, Earl Wire Lindo, piano, Ian Nathaniel, guitar, Leroy Gitts Hamilton and the engineer was Sylvan Morris.
We got into the studio and gave the musicians a quick preview of all the songs. Family Man said we should all listen again to the song we were going to record first and after about one minute into the song he started arranging the music with his musicians, who were the ultimate pros. The session flowed like a rolling stream; we had everything laid out and we were able to lay five tracks in one day.
...
The next day was a carbon copy of the previous day. Things ran so smoothly and the sound engineer was a man with plenty of Studio experience to his credit.
...
We spent the next two days voicing 10 songs that went as smoothly as silk. Jahmel knew the songs in his sleep and had rehearsed them many times over. Judah Eskenda Tafari, a talented artist with a sugar-sweet voice, did backing vocals on 'Left with a Broken Heart' and 'Eruption'. We listened to the recordings and decided that we were going to add a few more things to spice up the rhythm.
I was looking for a horn section and I called Gussie Clarke, a friend of mine who was producer for Motion Records. I asked him if he could find me a horn section. He told me he would get in touch with Dean Fraser, a saxophone player, and Nambo Robinson, who played trombone. I had also contacted Bongo Herman to play percussion on some of the songs.
The next day things went very well. The horn section laid their tracks down and left and Bongo, who I considered one of the best percussionists in the Reggae business, came with his bag of toys and did his masterful work. With everything in place and the music up to our liking, engineer Sylvan Morris did the final mix. This LP had a very nice roots sound to it and we loved how it all turned out. It was a quality product."
Quotes taken from "My Reggae Journey" by Roydale Anderson, recommended for further reading.
What can we say but 'Thank You Andy' for giving us some magnificent musical moments with this great album.
"In the summer of 1983 Mikey, Jahmel, Dave and I took off for Jamaica to do the recording. We had planned on using the Roots Radics Band to do the backing on the recording, but when I got to Jamaica they were on tour. I started thinking of other musicians to play on the session, but it was not easy finding musicians if you were not a regular on the circuit. So I decided to go to an old friend of mine, Prince Jammy, who was a young record producer at the time, to see if he could get me some session musicians.
...
I told him my purpose for being in Jamaica and that I was looking to find musicians to do a session.We kicked a few names around and then he told me to check the Wailers.
...
I left Jammy and headed for Hope Road, where Family Man was living. He lived on the same property where Bob Marley had his studio. I met Family Man, who greeted me very warmly, and I told him why I was there. He asked me who was I recording and I told him it was a new artist named Jahmel. He agreed to do the session and we decided on a price.
I had studio time at Harry J Studio for three days. I had made the tentative booking while in Rochester and was glad that I had things all ready to go. We had an 11 a.m. studio appointment and everyone was there on time. The Wailers Band consisted of Family Man on bass, Carlton Barrett (Carlie) on drums, Earl Wire Lindo, piano, Ian Nathaniel, guitar, Leroy Gitts Hamilton and the engineer was Sylvan Morris.
We got into the studio and gave the musicians a quick preview of all the songs. Family Man said we should all listen again to the song we were going to record first and after about one minute into the song he started arranging the music with his musicians, who were the ultimate pros. The session flowed like a rolling stream; we had everything laid out and we were able to lay five tracks in one day.
...
The next day was a carbon copy of the previous day. Things ran so smoothly and the sound engineer was a man with plenty of Studio experience to his credit.
...
We spent the next two days voicing 10 songs that went as smoothly as silk. Jahmel knew the songs in his sleep and had rehearsed them many times over. Judah Eskenda Tafari, a talented artist with a sugar-sweet voice, did backing vocals on 'Left with a Broken Heart' and 'Eruption'. We listened to the recordings and decided that we were going to add a few more things to spice up the rhythm.
I was looking for a horn section and I called Gussie Clarke, a friend of mine who was producer for Motion Records. I asked him if he could find me a horn section. He told me he would get in touch with Dean Fraser, a saxophone player, and Nambo Robinson, who played trombone. I had also contacted Bongo Herman to play percussion on some of the songs.
The next day things went very well. The horn section laid their tracks down and left and Bongo, who I considered one of the best percussionists in the Reggae business, came with his bag of toys and did his masterful work. With everything in place and the music up to our liking, engineer Sylvan Morris did the final mix. This LP had a very nice roots sound to it and we loved how it all turned out. It was a quality product."
Quotes taken from "My Reggae Journey" by Roydale Anderson, recommended for further reading.
What can we say but 'Thank You Andy' for giving us some magnificent musical moments with this great album.