BUNNY LEE

Reactions  (0)

Review written by Maxime Nordez on Sunday, April 03rd 2005 - 9 960 views Jet Star pays tribute to one of Jamaica's most prolific producers: Bunny 'Striker' Lee. With this 4-CD box set, we are offered a true history lesson in reggae. 101 tracks from Bunny Lee's own collection. The four volumes trace the career of Edward O'Sullivan Lee, nicknamed Bunny because of his portliness. He was one of the first producers to realise the potential of one riddim albums and versions. Many original versions are accompanied here by their DJ versions. So we find U Roy toasting Johnny Clarke's Rock with me Baby, Dennis Alcapone on Delroy Wilson's Better must Come, I Roy on Ken Boothe's version of Satta Massagana and Jah Stitch on Horace Andy's Just Say Who. The tracks follow one another and remind us that Striker produced dozens of major roots reggae artists. To put this box set together, Bunny Lee himself defined the tracklisting and remastered these thirty-year-old versions. Most of the tracks were recorded between 1965 and 1975. True witnesses of their time, the tracks often recall the primary influence of American music and the tradition of rhythm'n'blues covers. So it is a joy to listen to Mighty Organ (by the duo Lascelle Perkins & Hortense Ellis), which borrows the intro of the classic Knock on Wood, or the cover of The Duke of Earl in Cornell Campbell's style. Among these historic tracks, Bunny Lee has of course included Mr Chatterbox, one of the rare recordings by Bob Marley & The Wailers for the producer. This version is followed by a track by The Soulettes, You're my desire, still heavily influenced by Motown. History The box set contains a few precious instrumental versions. Notably those by the illustrious saxophonists Tommy Mc Cook (Last Flight to Reggae City) and Val Bennett (The Russians are coming), and the organist Glen Adams, who provides the instrumental version of Max Romeo's Wet Dream. Each of the tracks here marked the evolution of reggae. From the flying cymbal style of None shall escape the judgement (J.Clarke) to the first dub effects of Roots of Dub (King Tubby), by way of the beginnings of lovers rock (Lovers Rock Medley part1 by Sugar Minott), this anthology proves that Bunny Lee wrote a considerable part of the history of Jamaican music. A truth that shines out on listening to this compilation. Despite more than five hours of music, one cannot help wanting to listen to the whole thing again at the end of the 4th volume. The box set comes with a fairly comprehensive booklet (in English) that ends with a dedication by Bunny Lee to the great late Jamaican engineers: King Tubby and Errol Thompson.

No comment