Review
Publication date : Thursday, November 29th 2012 - 9 294 views
Ernest Ranglin, Robbie Lyn, Sly & Robbie @ Le Bellevilloise, Paris
A year after a solo appearance, Ernest Ranglin was back at La Bellevilloise (Paris), this time surrounded by Robbie Lyn and Sly & Robbie, under the banner of the Jamaican Legends. A night for music lovers, at the crossroads of jazz and reggae. Sunglasses on, Robbie Shakespeare steps up to the microphone: "It's cold outside, and hot inside," he says in English. He is the master of ceremonies tonight, but he doesn't linger: "I don't want to talk too much: we are going to start now."
 There are nights that every music lover, in the broadest sense, ought to attend. The French tour of this contingent of Jamaican legends was one of them. Just imagine: Ernest Ranglin, Robbie Lyn, and Sly & Robbie. What would it have been like had Monty Alexander, originally billed but eventually cancelled, been part of this legendary quartet? That is how the Jamaican Legends first took on former Wailer Tyrone Downie during their summer tour, and finally Robbie Lyn. This organ specialist has worked through the decades as a session musician. Playing with Sound Dimension or Peter Tosh's Word Sound & Power, he is also a faithful partner of Sly & Robbie. But despite an impeccable pedigree, he does not have the jazzman profile of Monty Alexander, leaving Ernest Ranglin to occupy the front of the stage alone.
Eighty since June, the latter is impressively energetic. During the soundcheck, he is the one acting as bandleader, setting the musicians in place and polishing the intros. And if Robbie Shakespeare takes the reins of the show, improvising as a singer, it is Ranglin who is the artistic director on stage, the job he did for all the greatest producers in Jamaica. The island's finest guitarist is still a child when he steps on stage, a broad smile on his face. Off we go on a jazzy journey through the island's fantastic repertoire.
Incredible groove
 The concert borrows heavily from Ernest Ranglin's classic album "Below the bassline" (a must for every pair of ears), which covers some of reggae's standards. The first tune to galvanise a rather calm audience is the essential King Tubby meets Rockers Uptown, the heavy rhythm written by Augustus Pablo. It is the first electric shock of the night, and there will be others. For example Satta Massagana, the Abyssinians' Rasta anthem, which Robbie Shakespeare takes charge of singing. With the "riddim twins" as the rhythm section, Ernest Ranglin and Robbie Lyn have the best playground imaginable. The timing is remarkably precise, and the quartet make a big impression. Enough to make you wish you were watching them in a jazz club with better-tuned acoustics.
The tunes follow one another without too many surprises: after Bob Marley's Lively up yourself comes the ska of Ball of Fire (notably played by the Skatalites), in which Ernest Ranglin works in the notes of the William Tell Overture (Rossini). Two of his own compositions earn warm applause and set the audience swaying: Below the bassline, and above all Surfin, with its incredible groove stamped Studio One. Coxsone Dodd's studio is honoured once more with Dawn Penn's You don't love me (No No No), before Sly & Robbie's Taxi riddim, as an encore, brings the concert to a close. Earlier, Robbie Shakespeare had introduced the band by giving each of them the title of Doctor. A joke, but a very serious one: these four have certainly earned their degrees.
Report written by Sébastien Jobart
Photos : FX Rougeot
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