GCD 8926/27 Mutabaruka

The Mighty Diamonds

Live at Reggae Sunsplash

Buy this CD for $14.00

The Mighty Diamonds

1. The Root is There
2. Pass the Kutchie
3. Right Time
4. I Need A Roof
5. Have Mercy
6. Why Can't You & I Be Friends
7. Gemini and Saturn
8. Keep on Moving

Mutabaruka

9. Every Time I 'Ear the Soun'
10. The System
11. Butterpan
12. Watch Him Watch Me
13. Hard Times Love
14. White Man Country
15. Drug Kulcha

The most consistent and long-running vocal trio in Jamaican musical history, consisting of the judge (Judge), the jester (Bunny), and the prophet (Tabby, the lead singer). Possessing one of the most achingly pure voices on earth, Tabby croons mini morality plays, limning life on the island of suffering with the precision of a microscope. They are best known for the reggae classics "Pass the Koutchie," "Country Living," and "The Right Time."

Just above his forehead, poet Mutabaruka has a strip of white hair that bisects his jet black locks. That is the only white thing about this revolutionary writer whose "Every Time I 'Ear Dis Sound" burst through the mellow reggae of the early '80s like a bullet from an AK-47. Performing sans shoes and shirt, Muta's deep voiced uncompromising rants make his a unique, almost fearsome figure whose melding of poetry and dub music make him seem akin to an Old Testament prophet saying "Listen -- or else!"

-- Roger Steffens, All Music Guide

MUTABARUKA was born Allan Hope in Jamaica. Muta is a dub poet who combines social commentary with scathing personal analysis and endearing humour. Having published several volumes of poetry and having written for Swing magazine, Mutabaruka (his stage name is a Rwandan term for one who is always victorious) reserves his performances for his most effective tirades against hypocrisy, injustice, or more particularly, stupidity.

His favoured means of denouncing his enemies rests strongly with the latter, vilifying them and the contradictions of their positions by means of a languid, inviting slur. His debut album for Earl Chinna Smith's High Times label was a genre classic. Muta tore through a set that railed against oppression on all fronts, aided and abetted by Smithís imaginative rhythms and arrangements. Everytime A Ear De Soun, from the album, was also a hit as a single.

In the interim he has ensured his position as Jamaicaís most popular radical poet, with a series of inspiring albums. Despite such militancy, he retains his day job - running a health food store in Jamaica and broadcasting on Jamaica's Irie FM radio station The Cutting Edge. He also appeared in the film Sankofa.

Links:

Mutabaruka's Website: http://www.ireggae.com/muta.htm

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