yardie's reggae collection
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PABLO
MOSES (b. 1953 - )
PAVE THE WAY + DUBS * * * - * * 
1981 - On the corner/Nocturne
- studio - discs:2Pablo Moses (born Pablo Henry in 1953 in Manchester Parish, elsewhere I found 1948...) along with Little Roy and Fred Locks is an artist totally committed to Rastafari. His beliefs appear in every tune he recorded and he always stayed focused on social issues. This is his third set and thanks to Nocturne this two discs edition contains the counterpart of the main album: "Pave The Way Dub". Moses started his career in 1975 recording the hit "I Man A Grasshopper" at the legendary Lee "Scratch" Perry's Black Ark Studio with Geoffrey Chung as producer. The set contains nine songs but what remains musically strong are only a couple of tunes: the dreader than dread deep "Dig On", the rocking "Last Straw", "I See It Everyday" and "Sister". The rest is less impressive maybe with the exception of the Black Uhuru resembling "Africa Is For Me". What is given as granted is the high level of the conscious lyrics. The follow up "Pave The Way Dub" set is less interesting. But maybe that is due to my general low enthusiasm in some Dub versions which do not add any particular new flavour to the originals. "Pave The Way" was produced, arranged, engineered and mixed by the late Geoffrey Chung. The great Clive Hunt arranged the horns. The set was recorded at Dynamic Studios.
REVOLUTIONARY DREAM * * * * * 
1976 - Shanachie - studio - discs:1It only takes a couple of listenings to understand why "Revolutionary Dream" is considered by many a classic. This is a strong set indeed. Pablo Moses (born Pablo Henry) started singing with other fellows as a group but they did not get the right response. After realising that his birth name did not have any connections with his African heritage, he changed it to Pablo Moses. In 1975 Pablo met Mikey Chung who introduced him to his brother Geoffrey, producer and arranger. After hearing Pablo's "I Man A Grasshopper", Geoffrey understood that he had something interesting and brought him to Lee Perry's Black Ark Studio. Here "Scratch" recorded and mixed this small debut gem with Chung producing it (the song is featured here). During this session Mikey Chung was on rhythm guitar, Michael Murray (from the In Crowd band) on lead guitar, Clive Hunt and Junior Dan on bass and Robbie Lyn and Geoffrey on keyboards. The song was a success and further material was recorded. With the exception of "We Should Be In Angola", recorded at Aquarius Studio, the rest was recorded at Joe Gibbs Studio with Geoffrey Chung producing and Errol T engineering. The main characteristic of these arrangements is provided by the elegant keyboards and the sophisticated horns section's sounds controlled by the great Tommy McCook. The horns are from Vin Gordon, Deadly Headley, and Tommy (pay attention of his beautiful flute); the trumpets are from Dirty Harry and Frank Aird. Pablo Moses emerges with his distinctive voice but most importantly with his heavy, meditative, militant and social themes based lyrics. The whole quality of this Roots set is very high with some higher points: "Where Am I", the debut single "I Man A Grasshopper", the slow "Blood Money", "I Love I Bring" with its winding synthesizers and the top class percussions from Bongo Herman and the cry of "Give I Fe I Name". The diamonds and pearls can be found in "Come Mek We Run". This 9:34 long composition is a masterpiece. Close your eyes and listen to the horns as they build a background which slowly takes the main role with Tommy McCook's flute delivering a special and sophisticated jazz flavour. Later the synthesizer plus the horn get in for a highly and even more dinamic texture. The track ends with a full mixture of sounds that create a musical realm that should last at least thirty minutes: this is Jazz / Reggae or Reggae / Jazz. Whatever we call it "Come Mek We Run" is a ten stars track! This is a five stars set straight from top. Strong meditative Roots songs. 1. Revolutionary Dream |