One of the very greatest reggae artists to come out of these isles, a true dub legend. Rest In Power.
Jah Shaka RIP
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Musings on the byways of popular culture
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One of the very greatest reggae artists to come out of these isles, a true dub legend. Rest In Power.
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That is desperately sad news.
I’m not sure it’s possible to convey on a blog just what a giant Shaka was, & how many people were moved & influenced by his work.
He was the best possible ambassador for the whole ‘Sound System thing’, playing all over the world & never straying from the peace & understanding through music line.
I first saw him as a teenager in S London in what were transcendent events that shaped my whole musical outlook. I reconnected again in the late 80s/ 90s & saw him several times at the Rocket in Holloway Rd, by which time the rave scene was well established & many DJs he’d influenced were getting massive, but his punch was undiluted & I’ve *never* experienced bass like that, before or since- it was like a benevolent sonic weapon.
As D Baker Esq would put it, in a civilised nation, we’d name parks & boulevards in his name.
RIP the Spiritual Dub Warrior.
lovely post
I used to see him and his sound system in the early 80s on Clapham Common on Sunday afternoons. Lambeth council used to put on free events with Caribbean, African and Latin music. Fabulous way to spend a Sunday afternoon and a great learning experience.
A nice taster, best on headphones or through nice speakers.
The bass is super warm & very much an analogue thing – it’s all about the valves!
I’ve got a lot of dub albums, but there’s a distinctly Jah Shaka-shaped gap on the shelves. Looking around to see how best to fill it, I discover that most of his works (and there are lots of them) are stupid-price, which is a real shame. Any idea why this is so?
I can only guess that the pressing runs or CD production runs have been pretty limited, thus causing the infuriating ‘scarcity / monstrous price inflation’ syndrome that is never worse than with ‘cult’ figures, which I guess Shaka qualifies as.
He’s certainly in an odd ‘bracket’ , pretty well known, very well travelled but also retaining a bit of an underground rep, as he obviously never had a hit & Dub is utterly impenetrable to some.
No doubt the Guardian will get round to an obit, but no mention so far, despite today having a Don Letts feature & a Jill Furmanovsky (sp?) portrait of Bob M. in the Culture section.
I have the Message from Africa” LP by the Shaka All Stars, which is half vocal tracks, half dubs.
I think you’d like it, Vulpes, but, looking on Discogs, it seems to be commanding some rather high prices …
https://www.discogs.com/master/522135-Shaka-All-Stars-Message-From-Africa
The album that Shaka did with Aswad back in 1985 is also pretty good:
https://www.discogs.com/master/99200-Jah-Shaka-Meets-Aswad-In-Addis-Ababa-Studio
Thanks folks – I also guessed that scarcity was likely just down to small runs for each issue.
As to the sorts of prices being asked either on Amazon or Discogs, they reflect the same scarcity issues – and the avarice of those who have digitised to disk storage and are off-loading their collections as a result. Market forces, innit? But I’m never ever going to pay them at those levels!
Eventually, once the legals are sorted, I’d guess many of his works will find themselves back on the market in the form of boxed sets – all the ‘Commandments’, all of the ‘Meets’ and so on. At that point, if I’m still alive, I will probably invest.
Is that an eel I see, slithering by over there?
Ah, the trials of the hard copy fundamentalist. Not being familiar with this artiste, I’ve been enjoying catching up on his work on S*****y. (The albums with Mad Professor are also on Bandcamp)..
See: https://theafterword.co.uk/tracks-to-test-your-hi-fi/