Island swing

Jamaican music offers more than reggae

by Norman Weinstein

So absolute is the identification of Jamaica with reggae music that I've had trouble convincing friends for years that "Jamaican jazz" really exists. Never mind that Jamaican trumpeter Roy Burrowes toured with Duke Ellington, that trumpeter Dizzy Reece was celebrated by Miles Davis, and that trombonist Don Drummond eloquently performed with Sarah Vaughan. The bottom line was that one couldn't easily locate albums by these or any other Jamaican jazz geniuses -- a situation happily changed with the first two CDs on the new Island Jamaica Jazz label.

Below the Bassline, by guitarist Ernest Ranglin, and Yard Movement, by pianist Monty Alexander, are ideal introductions to Jamaican jazz, since they appeal to pop as well as jazz ears. The history of Jamaican jazz is a captivating story of how popular social dance music as well as African-based ritual dance rhythms were blended with US musics (Ellington's big-band swing, Dizzy Gillespie's Latinized bop, New Orleans R&B). This dance foundation also birthed a jazz with concise and clear soloing, with improvisations often grounded in popular radio songs or movie soundtrack themes. The high point of Alexander's disc, his version of the Exodus movie theme (the same one schlock multi-instrumentalist Eddie Harris turned into a hit), is quintessential Jamaican jazz fare.

Reggae's ascendancy in the '60s offered new opportunities for Jamaican jazzsters. In Alexander's capable hands, which were supported by a snappy sextet showcasing Ranglin, the movie theme gradually transforms itself into Bob Marley's "Exodus." The tension between the themes of Jewish and Rastafarian liberation resolve breathtakingly; Hollywood dreck actually becomes noble in this Jamaican context. And for all of Alexander's excessive, Tatum-like flourishes, which were often his downfall on earlier albums, what's most noticeable here is the pianist's talent for making reggae rhythms swing. Although none of the remaining seven tunes on Yard Movement (all Alexander originals) attains such heights, all are energetic romps full of Caribbean dance fever seasoned with jazz-piano pyrotechnics.

Guitarist Ernest Ranglin's album reflects less of a pop-music sensibility than Alexander's. In fact, Below the Bassline could be programmed on a radio show spotlighting the history of jazz guitar. Heavily influenced by Charlie Christian, Ranglin has a way of making his guitar sound as sax-oriented as any ax can. His rhythmic accents are consistently unexpected, his phrasing likewise. Even more polystylistically fluid than Alexander, he shifts gears among a variety of diverse styles with a skill and tastefulness that is astonishing. "54-46 (Was My Number)," the classic reggae song by Toots and the Maytals, is the high point here. Bookended by ruminative Ranglin jazz solos, the song gets transfigured into a funky jazz dance number. You hear skittering runs of eighth notes dancing above a rhythm section melding reggae and jazz.

Ranglin's revampings of such classic reggae fare as Augustus Pablo's "King Tubby Meets the Rockers" and Burning Spear's "Black Disciples" are lively demonstrations that a reggae groove need not shackle a jazzman's fertile imagination. Well backed by a sextet including a restrained Alexander and saxophonist Roland Alphonso of the Skatalites, Ranglin has created the most accomplished Jamaican jazz recording ever.

And on the subject of the Skatalites, the band credited with popularizing ska, the manic herky-jerky music that decelerated over the years into reggae, their new album on Shanachie, Greetings from Skamania, is a winner. It features sporadic but flavorful interludes of Jamaican jazz. Tenor-saxophonist Tommy McCook, now in his 60s and the leader of the band for decades, is a hornman with a keen improvisatory vision and a unique tone. His sunny sound echoes Jamaican speech patterns. Although not as jazzy as their last album, Hi-Bop Ska (Shanachie), this new offering is a worthy sampler of jazz-laced ska marked by an ever-fervent McCook and band members who can swing Caribbean-style.

A ska rhythm section performs within more fixed rhythmic perimeters than most jazz rhythm sections (rarely deviating from the same unrelenting driving patterns), but within these constraints capable jazz soloists can invent briefly propulsive solos. The six members of the New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble, on their homonymously titled disc on the Moon Ska label, not only prove themselves strong jazz soloists but audaciously transform jazz classics like Mingus's "Haitian Fight Song" and Eddie Harris's "Freedom Jazz Dance" into slyly arranged ska showcases. A similar tack is taken by the talented eight-man outfit known as Jazz Jamaica on their premiere disc, Skaravan (Rykodisc). It opens with a killer version of Charlie Parker's "Barbados," one that's more Caribbean-flavored than any of Parker's, bouncing like a buoy in Caribbean currents.