Black Uhuru's all-too-brief years at Island/Mango produced some of the most astonishing sounds to come out of Jamaica. Militant, spiritual, loving and liberating, their six albums cut for Chris Blacwell's label from 1980-1983, were prototypes for a new generation.
Black Uhuru emerged at exactly the right moment. In the late 1970's, Jamaica was raging: outside imperialist threats, political violence, teetering economics, covert U.S. intervention and angry, politicized youth. Reggae music was no longer reflecting the change; Bob Marley and Peter Tosh were lone rebels. Just as the punk revolution had toppled the rock hierarchy, reggae was in need of its own uprising.
Giving voice to the street was Black Uhuru. Founded by Derrick 'Duckie' Simpson in the mid-1970's , Uhuru was just one of the many second-generation, Rasta-inspired vocal groups - until Simpson was drawn to the magical voice of Michael Rose. A rude bwoy from the crushingly violent Kingston slum known as Waterhouse, Rose, a struggling solo artist - he did the original 'Guess Who's Coming To Dinner' - would find in Uhuru a vehicle for his own edgy word-fall of songs. Then one day Simpson and Rose heard from an apartment above the recording studio, another haunting sound: the ethereal voice of South Carolina-born, Columbia-graduate, Rasta sister, Sandra 'Puma' Jones... (from the CD notes included)
All tracks feature 'The Riddim Twins' Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, Drums and Bass (shown below) and a crack band. Details of musicians on all tracks are shown in the scans provided - Listen to it a few times and the vocal and instrumental hooks will grab you ! Unlike Bob Marley's natural, organic recordings, Black Uhuru make full use of the studio to create the way Reggae music would evolve. - Gus
