Derrick May at his finest! 12-inch, Vinyl record

Derrick Harriott may sing Jamaican reggae, but he does so here with plenty of help from American soul – as half the record features songs from the US 60s scene, including some Motown and southern soul gems – all retooled nicely for the sound of young Kingston! Derrick produced the set himself, and gets the groove just right for that warmly crackling vocal style of his – getting help from Bobby Ellis and Boris Gardinier on the arrangements – in a lineup that features Earl Chinna Smith on guitar, Winston Wright on organ, and Val Bennett on tenor sax. Titles include "It's Alright", "I'm Not Begging", "You Really Got A Hold On Me", "Have Some Mercy", "Sitting ON Top", "Close To Me", "Standing In", and "Long Time". LP, Vinyl record album

Derrick Morgan's a superstar in Jamaican music, but this album's one of his most obscure – also one of his most righteous too, as you might guess from the gritty 70s image on the cover! The set's got a soulful flow that's in the late rocksteady mode, but also bubbles with some of the roots energy to come – a headier vibe that has Morgan's vocals cresting over the tunes in a way that almost echoes some of the shifts that Marvin Gaye was making at the time – even thought Derrick's vibe here is completely his own! Morgan arranged and produced – and titles include "Festival 10", "Me Na Run", "Bring In The Guns", "One Morning In May", "Father Killam", "Send A Little Rain", "Never See My Baby", "Hold Your Jack", and "Still Around". LP, Vinyl record album

One of our favorites in the colossal reissue and compilation series put together by Pressure Sounds. Deep soulful roots cuts, all produced by Derrick Harriott, one of the finest producers of Jamaican music, with a feel that is at times reminiscent of some of the best soul cuts coming out of Motown or Curtis Mayfield's productions. Most of the tracks here are DJ cuts, with some of the best, like Big Youth & U Roy chatting over the bubbling rhythms, and a couple of nice harmony tracks featuring the Ethiopians, plus some instrumentals with Augustus Pablo blowing some nice melodica lines. Derrick even takes a vocal turn himself on the massive 12" version of "Slave". Also included are Dennis Brown's "Concentration", an version of "Dock of the Bay" by Big Youth & the Ethiopians "Good Ambition". 16 tracks in all. CD

Excellent! An astounding 4CD set covering 15 years worth of fine Jamaican music, stopping at all the relevant points for novices, but digging deeply enough to unearth some nice hard to get bits for the initiated. The first disc in the set, Train To Skaville, represents an 8 year block during the formative years of the 60s, starting out with some Mento cuts, then a couple of nice Jamaican R& B numbers on through a nice batch of Ska. Disc 2, Do The Reggay, focus on the transition to Rocksteady and early reggae from 1968 to 1970, as the tempos started to get a little more laidback, and the dawn of the 70s gets highlighted with disc 3, Black & White: Reggae Rising. Disc 4, The Time Has Come, brings it all together collecting a tremendous batch of roots rock. 90 tracks in all, the set includes Derrick Morgan "Fat Man", Stranger Cole "Rough & Tough", Don Drummond & Tommy McCook "Music Is My Occupation", Roland Alphonso & The Soul Brothers "Phoenix City", Desmond Dekker & The Aces "Rudy Got Soul", Keith & Tex "Stop That Train", Toots & The Maytals "Do The Reggay", Lee Perry People Funny Boy", the Untouchables "Tighten Up", the Pioneers "Longshot Kick The Bucket", Gregory Isaacs "Don't Let Me Suffer", Harry J Allstars "The Liquidator", Niney "Blood & Fire", Ken Parker "Groovin Out On Life", Bob Marley & The Wailers "Small Axe", Horace Andy "I Fell Good All Over", Junior Byles "A Place Called Africa", Zap Pow "This Is Reggae Music", Slim Smith "The Time Has Come", Big Youth "S90 Skank", Burning Spear "Marcus Garvey", and way too many more to list here! CD

A really beautiful album from keyboardist Ray Angry – a set that not only sparkles from his own great work on Hammond, piano, and Fender Rhodes – but also from a killer quintet that includes Derrick Hodge on bass, Eric Harland on drums, Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, and Myron Waldon on a variety of saxes! If you're a fan of any of the players in the mix, you'll find plenty here to love – and in fact, it's almost as if the album gives each of them the hippest sort of setting that they've had in awhile, maybe even more than on their own albums as leaders – as there's this magical sense of flow that has the notes and rhythms cascading about in really fresh directions. Ray wrote most of the titles – and tunes include "Bjork City", "Number One Love", "Bleeding Heart", "Circles INside You", "Gamma Ray", "Jake-Ism", and "It Might Be Gold". LP, Vinyl record album