Roots Archives Forum

I have this Rockers Universite LP of 'Pick A Dub' whose back cover says: "Musicians: Soul Syndicates and Family Man & Carlton Barrett"

I am a bit confused 'cause Soul Syndicate was George Fullwood's and Santa Davis' band with Tony Chin and Earl 'Chinna' Smith. Well, it says 'Soul SyndicateS (=some members of the band?)

Every source says it's Barrett brothers, but assuming that those riddims are collected from different sessions as usual, do they really play on every track?

I don't have the BAF edition, maybe there is more info.

Naw, who cares, great album.

My personal opinion is that in the first two tracks ('pick a dub' and 'black heart') plus 'I'm alright', at least in the drums, carlie is not present and I would add also that family man is not playing the bass in those. Anyway, I must say that when you find carlie and santa playing in the same album, sometimes is very difficult to find differences between them (especially when no drumbeat is included during certain tracks) just because they had a very similar taste when playing (I've heard somewhere that santa was one of carlie's pupils). In these three tracks I would suggest that santa and fully are playing drums and bass, respectively, in 'pick a dub' pablo plays both melodica and keyboard, in 'black heart' and 'I'm alright' I would say that family man is playing the rhythm guitar. In the rest of the album tracks I'm 99% sure that carlie is playing drums and his brother the bass, although I have several doubts about the bass player in 'black right' and 'satia', although i tend to think that is aston because there are some changes in the line during both songs. This is just an opinion, I hope it can help. One of my favourites dub albums, I love Michael Talbot Affair and In the Rain. The melody and force of this last one is very close to Stop them jah.

Thankee, caution, for your definitive answer.

I must do some headphone listening, because you reminded me of Familyman's "jazzy" (not that there's anything wrong with that) playing style.

a point about this attribution dilemma. Seems to me that the foundation drummers, bass players and other musicians did it first - others - contemporaries, followers etc. copied and moved ahead. All so great. Each one teach one.
Enjoy the music.
I always find that Horsey sticks out a bit in a really good way because he seems to go ahead of the beat and really whacks them hard - but then again it could be another drummer in the same style!

We did a long interview with Santa fairly recently, and he confirmed playing on Hudson's "S-90" riddim (I forget the track name on the Atra LP, it's either the second or third on the first side IIRC).

Give me a day or two and I will try to dig out the relevant text to post here.

Yes Dave.
The whole interview would be nice!
( I guess it'll published in a magazine?)

Musician credits in Reggae tend to be not correct on most 70s releases (in the 60s no credits at all!).
I really cannot stand that, I'd like to know who played what. I wish it was like Jazz, where even the guy making the coffee is credited!)

Inyaki wrote:Yes Dave.
The whole interview would be nice!
( I guess it'll published in a magazine?)

Musician credits in Reggae tend to be not correct on most 70s releases (in the 60s no credits at all!).
I really cannot stand that, I'd like to know who played what. I wish it was like Jazz, where even the guy making the coffee is credited!)

@I
It'll get published somehwere, either in an upcoming book, or perhaps the web. I need to get a website, but before that, I need to do some organizing. The web seems to be the best mechanism for this kind of stuff.

I am with you on credits, there is a lot of misinformation about who played what and when. I like to hear how musicians develop, and introduce new sounds and techniques. It seems as though when this music was recorded, the thought was that it was disposable, and that no-one would care about such details in the future!

I met Sly at Bob 'ouse in 2000 - some tunes were playing and I was asking about how it was put together. What the tune was I can't remember but he said he was playing on it. But he was cocking his ear for Scully on the tamb - an then and then it was some other track. The tam never came in when he expected it. I was asking if the drum and tamb were joint effort or over dub or something...
All respect to the drummer men
Hard as hell to remember a pure riddim.

I read an old quote from Robbie Shakespeare saying that he had no time for the rock steady bass style - it was all about the new reggae style. Ha, ha. Make a career off redoing rocksteady...
We all say sill things

Interesting cause Robbie is a brilliant rock steady player even today, he drops those Treasure Isle basslines with Bitty McClean like if he created them!
I guess he means that when the "new" reggae style came in 68 bass players had to play in that style.

Session musicians and engineers are the unsung heroes of JA music.

Back to the topic. It wasn't unusual either to combine musicians from different outfits, especially when one was missing: Carlie on drums with Fully on bass, Familyman with Tinlegs or Santa, also Fams played guitar,piano and organ with Soul Syndicate.

The quote was from the early 70s so I wouldn't hold it against him. Just thought it was a funny thing in the overall context of the music.
A fine player. Rock solid