You need this mobile sound system in your life. It’s a giant boom box with a motor and steering wheel. It’s like a tank of reggae love. Do you think it was built on a riding lawn mower or a golf cart? Either way this is another shining example of Jamaican innovation and DIY creativity.
This is why Kingston and I connect. Making something out of nothing + a little something.
Seen outside Roots FM as I was swinging by the station one more time before I left for Seattle.
Fun little aside: as Anthony Red Rose and I were waiting in the lobby I asked he and Lenni I-Music how many soundsystems there are in Jamaica. Everyone within an earshot burst out laughing. They both asked a question to answer my question,
“How many stars in the sky?”
If you even a single damn about Bob Marley you NEED to see this video I wasn’t able to post until I got back from Jamaica. This is what happened on Bob’s birthday as the sun rose at this birth place in Nine Mile.
This is what I wrote for East Portland Blog about this transcendent moment. You know when Bob talked about the Natural Mystic. I experienced it on many occasions. This video is I captured is so powerful you can too:
This video is Earl Chinna Smith and his Nyabinghi Orchestra playing to the sunrise for their dear friend Bob Marley at his birthplace in a remote Jamaican village called Nine Mile, on February 6, 2018, the 73rd anniversary of Marley’s birth.
It’s surreal that I am friends with these folks. Mr. Oliver Simms channels the ancestors in a dance that defies explanation. The people of Jamaica are separated from Africa by hundreds of years. But on this Island crucible, that is at once paradise and a prison, it’s moments like these that you realize the days of the Atlantic Slave Trade is still in the long form song of History, less than a beat away.
A Rough Guide to the legend of Earl Chinna Smith:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_%22Chinna%22_Smith
I woke up this morning in Everett. I had been dreaming about Jamaica. I wondered if it was all just dream.
Anthony Red Rose called me today to check in with me after the journey. He laughed when I told him that. He said,
“It was a good dream.”
I walked through Forest Park, with the tiniest snowflakes I have ever seen falling and disappearing before they touched the ground. The park was empty. In my mind I began writing the real lyrics for ‘West Indian Rock’, a magnificent song Owen Bassie played on and produced with Wrong Move on keys and Kirk on drums at The Mixing Lab in Kingston. Top guys.
I improvised words when we cut the song and as I strummed along to each take. I had a lot of things to say but I didn’t quite know what to say, and I want it to be a ‘combination’ as they call it with my pal, singer Lenni I-Music. His lyrical vision will be a fascinating contrast to mine.
A few couplets that came to me on the walk in the woods,
“a man stares at you like Jesse James,
In his good eye you wonder if you got on the wrong train”“They came here for fortune and fame,
But they turned it into a video game”*That last line is a nod to the domination of the telecommunications company Digicel that has the whole island clamoring for credits, which everyone seems to be constantly running out of, as they pay by the second to access free platforms and just to hear each other’s voice. Wi-Fi is like a well.
A Confederate General named Sanders stares at you around every corner like Big Brother, telepathically whispering to you,
“KFC is better than Jerk Chicken, only 1000 Jamaican dollars…I’m the Colonel.”
A semi with his face wizzes by only reveal another sign with his face one block behind it.
It was an awesome dream. A swashbuckling Caribbean adventure in modern Jamaica. A satellite of American dystopia with only the very best beats. An Emerald emerging from the deep blue sea.
Davin’s new song has been released and is fast becoming a dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many musical ventures and is one of the driving forces behind the Staxx Brothers. He has just returned from three weeks of networking and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica.
