Roots Archives Forum

MAKASOUND ON OCTOBER, will reissue the Ortodox album of the rastafarians, it has been confirmed to me by the makasound 's staff

i have never heard this album
i see it around but have never picked it up.
how is this release?

This is a must have...IMO this is a very good album..

peace

A must have indeed. Great album!

the best vintage roots album that ever surfaced in the 80's.i really wonder whether by now the bad blood between members has gone.

This already had a reissue (at least on CD) about 3 years ago - Jubilee Palace label out of LA. But would make sense for Makasound seeing as they put out that Mikey Ras Starr album (which is a good one to check if you like Orthodox since Mikey Ras Starr was their driving force).

They also had some kind of connection / overlapping membership with the Light of Saba - although I don't remember the details.

yes indeed
haile maskell was the bass player and one of the singers in "light of saba'that is where 'hold on jah jah children' and 'words of wisdom'appeared fopr the first time

I found it many times before. Band is great, songwriting superb, but the singing is ehhhh. They do a nice rendidtion of Saba's "Word of Wisdom"

And how many albums they recorded though? I have "Santa Fe" but for "Orthodox". It's live from the same 1981 year..

from the horses mouth, herb daly as posted on snwmf board last week:

Well, since Maskel's latest compilation cd Fire and Rain was recently released on Makasound (under his pre-'farians name "Mikey Ras Starr") he might've sold them the "rights" to the recording. Those "rights" are a big questionmark, since the original executive producer of the album fled the country to avoid IRS prosecution. Any original 2" tapes and master tapes are probably in his possession, wherever he is.
It's an interesting commentary that three members of the original band, independent of and unbeknownst to each other, each took a shrinkwrapped new copy of the Orthodox LP into a studio, had it 'cleaned up' electronically, and burned cds to sell. I understand that, between the cost of reprocessing, burning and manufacturing cds, artwork etc, none of them made their money back. If they had collaborated in this, they would've only paid to do it once, been able to do it at a quality studio, and could also have worked with a reputable distributor, rather than a random bunch of hustlers out to make a buck. They would've almost certainly made a profit if they had stuck together and hadn't been gravelicious and gone around behind each other's back. There's a lesson to us all in there somewhere.


and later:

Thing is, the second LP, tentatively called Alpha & Omega, would have made Orthodox look soft by comparison. It had, among some great originals, a wikked instrumental reggae version of "Man in the Street". Mix was much tighter too. The riddim tracks were down and ready to voice when a disagreement about money (surprise, surprise) between the exec. prod. & the band brought the sessions to an abrupt halt. This impasse was unresolved when the money man suddenly made himself scarce. He must've taken those master tapes too; the studio owner doesn't have them, and I can't imagine anyone associated with the band would have those tracks (which held some pretty nice 'scratch' reference vocals) and not try to release them all these years. All I have from those sessions is a couple of old hissy cassettes; one has the scratch vocals and one has nothing but riddim tracks. mk you may have a copy of the latter that Bruce sent you, but maybe not.


my comment: as far as i know they only released the one album. if you have a live set its probably a ROIO aka bootleg.

one love
jah bill