An era dies with Isaacs - Publisher says music misses catalogue singers

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

When Gregory Isaacs died on October 25, disc jockeys and sound system operators dug deep into their archives to salute one of the finest exponents of lovers-rock reggae.

But was the 'Cool Ruler' the last of reggae's catalogue singers? Are any of the current performers producing music that will be covered by another generation or reissued by record companies?

Floyd Seivright, a singer/songwriter and music publisher, does not think so. He believes most of the music coming out of Jamaica today has little shelf life.

"I think they (artistes) are more into hype than anything, they are not interested in making serious music," said Seivright. "Some of them like Gyptian think outside the box, but he's in the minority."

Steve James, a disc jockey who hosts the weekly Real Rock programme on Bess FM, agrees with Seivright. He said the age of the reggae catalogue singer all but ended with the passing of Isaacs and Sugar Minott who died in July.

"Their catalogues were vast, people are going to be listening to their music for years to come, which is not something we can say about a lot of the artistes today," James said.

Isaacs was typical of Jamaican grassroots artistes from the 1960s and 1970s.

He recorded profusely for various producers, which resulted in the release of over 100 albums.

His career was similar to his contemporaries who included Dennis Brown, Horace Andy, Sugar Minott, Freddie McGregor and Errol Dunkley. Black Uhuru, the Mighty Diamonds and Culture, other products of the 1970s roots-reggae explosion, also logged countless hours in the studio.

work reissued

During the last 15 years, the work of these artistes have been reissued by major and independent record companies with considerable success. The reissue market is critical to catalogue sales and can be lucrative for songwriters.

In 1998, Isaacs and Brown earned tremendously from the covering of their songs by British singer Mick Hucknall. His versions of Night Nurse and Ghetto Girl for Sly and Robbie's Friends album were minor hits in Britain.

After a high in the 1970s, Andy's career hit the skids by the early 1990s.

Later that decade when a popular British band named Massive Attack discovered his catalogue and asked him to tour and record with them, Andy's fortunes changed dramatically.

Three years ago, New York's Shanachie Records marked the 30th anniversary of Culture's Two Sevens Clash album, by reissuing the landmark set. The greatest tribute to reggae from the 1960s and 1970s, however, may be British band UB40's Labour of Love albums on which songs by a variety of artistes are covered.

Interestingly, Jamaican popular music enjoyed its most commercial period during the 1990s and early 2000s when major American labels released platinum albums by Shabba Ranks, Cobra, Shaggy and Sean Paul.

Sony International and Virgin Records have released 'best of' albums from Shabba and Shaggy, but they have not had the sales impact of reissues from the roots-reggae period.

Floyd Seivright said he first saw the importance of music publishing while he lived in Britain and worked with Trojan and Virgin Records. In 1978, the Diamonds covered his song Sweet Lady for their Virgin album, giving him a good payday.

"That showed me that you don't have to be a brilliant singer to make it in the music business," he said.

Seivright's songs have been featured in several movies, television commercials and documentaries. Some of them can be heard on the compilation set, Jah Jah Why, which was released this month.

While he has recorded several albums, Seivright functions mainly as a publisher. His Tropic Entertainment company handles the publishing of Jamaican artistes such as Ernie Ranglin, Lennie Hibbert, Justin Hinds and British singer Bitty McLean.

He said Jamaican producers must get back to the basics of music production.

"The thing that drew people to our music were melodies and harmonies but that's no longer there," he said.

"Once we start doing that we should hear some quality."