Midnight Raver

Last updated
Midnight Raver
Midnight-raver-logo-official-2014.png
Midnight Raver Official Logo
Available in English
Owner 10,000 Chariots LLC
Created byMichael Watson, Roger Steffens
Editors Michael Watson, Doug Wendt, Joseph Jurgensen, Glen Lockley, Peter Van Arnhem, Fred reGGaeLover
URL legendaryreggae.com
Launched19 October 2011
Current statusactive

Midnight Raver was a website dedicated solely to the promotion and preservation of roots reggae, culture and dub. Contributors include authors and journalists, historians, record producers, broadcasters, lecturers, archivists, collectors and publishers.

Contents

Midnight Raver was an online resource for reggae news, historical perspective, and commentary and has been featured and sourced in The Guardian, [1] BuzzFeed, [2] Jamaica Observer, [3] Billboard Magazine, [4] Investors Business Daily, [5] JamaicansMusic, [6] PeterTosh.com, [7] BobMarley.com, [8] Pitchfork [9] and other websites and publications of note. The website is also sourced in author Paul Sullivan's book ReMixology: Tracing the Dub Diaspora (2013). [10]

Along with feature articles, live performance audio and video, and vintage press archives, Midnight Raver also featured interviews with reggae artists like Ziggy Marley, Bunny Wailer, Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, Luciano, Adrian Sherwood, Bob Andy, Aston Barrett, Don Carlos, Flabba Holt, David Hinds of Steel Pulse plus many more.

In addition, Midnight Raver hosted exclusive streaming content from a variety of contributors including radio broadcasters Doug "Midnight Dread" Wendt and Dermot Hussey. Midnight Raver hosted the Midnight Dread Special, a weekly podcast featuring the original broadcasts of the Midnight Dread Radio Show which aired from 1979 to 1985 on KTIM and KQAK FM in San Rafael, California. Midnight Dread, 2015 recipient of the Rex Foundation's Ralph J. Gleason Award, hosted the very first reggae radio show in the US in 1974 with THE REGGAE EXPLOSION on KTIM San Rafael. Midnight Raver also hosted The Riff, the weekly podcast of Musgrave Award-winning Jamaican broadcaster/producer and Sirius/XM radio host Dermot Hussey. The Riff, produced by Dermot Hussey, features the latest in reggae, world, and jazz with interviews and commentary from artists and industry. The Riff also airs weekly on NewsTalk 93 FM in Jamaica.

On July 15, 2014, Midnight Raver launched a CrowdRise fundraising campaign to raise money for the restoration and replacement of African hand drums and other Jamaican cultural and historic artifacts that were lost in a house fire in Jamaica on July 2, 2014. [11] The drums and other percussion instruments belonged to the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, the group of drummers founded by Count Ossie and which played on the internationally renowned hit "Oh Carolina," the infectious ska number recorded by the Folkes Brothers in 1958.

On August 14, 2014, Shanachie Records announced through Midnight Raver their plans to release a Willi Williams/Yabby You project titled "Unification: From Channel One To King Tubbys With Willi Williams And Yabby You,' which includes tracks recorded in the late seventies and never released. According to label chief Randall Grass, the album was recorded between 1978 and 1980 at both fabled Channel One studio and King Tubby’s studio, utilizing a diverse group of top-shelf Jamaican musicians, including Sly & Robbie and the Revolutionaries, Soul Syndicate, The Gladiators, Jackie Mittoo, Bobby Ellis, Cedric “IM” Brooks and Bobby Kalphat.

The website was also involved in one of the best-reviewed reggae releases of 2015 - the Shanachie Yabby You retrospective box set titled Dread Prophecy: The Strange and Wonderful Story of Yabby You. Several of the site's contributors provided rare vinyl singles for digital transfer and inclusion on the album. The site was also heavily involved in the promotion of the set. [12]

In 2015, Midnight Raver and Tuff Gong Worldwide collaborated on the #Marley70 Blog Series to commemorate the 70th birthday of reggae musician Bob Marley. #Marley70 Blog Series, which was hosted at www.bobmarley.com, consisted of monthly feature articles which examine pivotal points in Bob Marley's career. There were feature articles about The Wailers' 1973 Burnin' tour through California; Bob Marley's 1975 Kingston concert featuring the Jackson 5; Bob Marley and the Wailers' 1979 trip to Japan, Australia, and New Zealand; the Wailers' first television appearance, on the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973, and more. Each feature included vintage press articles, concert reviews, published interviews, rare live audio, video, and photos along with exclusive interviews with Bob Marley's art director and former director of the Bob Marley Foundation in Jamaica, Neville Garrick. [13]

In an interview with Barrington Levy which was posted to the website on February 26, 2015, Levy announced that his forthcoming album would be released through Doctor Dread's new record label Doctor Dread Records. [14] The Grammy-nominated album AcousticaLevy was the first album to be released on the label and Doctor Dread's first album release since parting with RAS Records almost a decade ago.

Midnight Raver and the U.S. reggae movement

Midnight Raver has reported extensively on the growing U.S. reggae movement, publishing feature articles and interviews with U.S. reggae artists like Harrison Stafford (Groundation), Easy Star, Christos DC, SOJA, and many more. Midnight Raver has provided a significant platform for the Virgin Islands contingent of U.S. reggae artists, featuring album reviews, feature stories, and podcasts on Midnite, Zion I Kings, Niyorah, Pressure, Dezarie and more. In a review of Midnite's 2014 album Beauty for Ashes, Midnight Raver stated that reggae fans are now living in the "I-Grade era," citing the label's dominance and influence on reggae over the past two decades: [15]

"We are now living in the “I-Grade era” of the reggae timescale. For nearly two decades now, reggae fans have witnessed not only a geographical transmigration of the cultural and spiritual core of reggae from Jamaica to Europe and the U.S., but also a fundamental transformation in the sound and style of production. No one has done more to force this change than Laurent “Tippy I” Alfred, owner and purveyor of the signature I-Grade sound – a modern sound characterized by an authentic and profound spiritual intensity, overtly Rastafarian and Pan-Africanist thematic elements that give the music a deeply reverential and ceremonial feel, multi-layered percussive and horns-driven soundscapes, and a well-balanced mix where keys and hand-drumming are given equal billing with the bass and drum."

In its list of the Top 50 Reggae Albums of the 2K, Midnight Raver placed Midnite's Beauty for Ashes at No. 3 and Jubilees of Zion at No. 1. [16]

Related Research Articles

<i>Natty Dread</i> 1974 studio album by Bob Marley and the Wailers

Natty Dread is the seventh album by Bob Marley and the Wailers, released in 1974. Previously Marley had recorded with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer as the Wailers, and this was his first record without them.

<i>Exodus</i> (Bob Marley and the Wailers album) 1977 studio album by Bob Marley and the Wailers

Exodus is the ninth studio album by Jamaican reggae band Bob Marley and the Wailers, first released in June 1977 through Island Records, following Rastaman Vibration (1976). The album's production has been characterized as laid-back with pulsating bass beats and an emphasis on piano, trumpet and guitar. Unlike previous albums from the band, Exodus thematically moves away from cryptic story-telling; instead it revolves around themes of change, religious politics, and sexuality. The album is split into two halves: the first half revolves around religious politics, while the second half is focused on themes of making love and keeping faith.

<i>Catch a Fire</i> 1973 studio album by Bob Marley & The Wailers

Catch a Fire is the fifth studio album by the reggae band The Wailers, released in April 1973. It was their first album released by Island Records. After finishing a UK tour with Johnny Nash, they had started laying down tracks for JAD Records when a disputed CBS contract with Danny Sims created tensions. The band did not have enough money to return to Jamaica, so their road manager Brent Clarke approached producer Chris Blackwell, who agreed to advance The Wailers money for an album. They instead used this money to pay their fares back home, where they completed the recordings that constitute Catch a Fire. The album has nine songs, two of which were written and composed by Peter Tosh; the remaining seven were by Bob Marley. While Bunny Wailer is not credited as a writer, the group's writing style was a collective process. For the immediate follow-up album, Burnin', also released in 1973, he contributed four songs. After Marley returned with the tapes to London, Blackwell reworked the tracks at Island Studios, with contributions by Muscle Shoals session musician Wayne Perkins, who played guitar on three overdubbed tracks. The album had a limited original release under the name The Wailers in a sleeve depicting a Zippo lighter, designed by graphic artists Rod Dyer and Bob Weiner; subsequent releases had an alternative cover designed by John Bonis, featuring an Esther Anderson portrait of Marley smoking a "spliff", and crediting the band as Bob Marley and the Wailers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punky Reggae Party</span> 1977 single by Bob Marley

"Punky Reggae Party" is a song by Bob Marley, recorded and released in 1977. Not appearing on any studio album, it was released in 1977 as a 12-inch single in Jamaica only on the Tuff Gong and Lee Perry's Black Art labels, as a B-side to the "Jamming" single on Chris Blackwell's Island Records label in some countries and was later released as a live single on Babylon by Bus. Subsequently, it appeared on a number of compilations and "Best of" albums as well as the Deluxe Edition of Exodus and the 2002 CD reissue of Legend.

Steel Pulse are a roots reggae band from the Erdington area of Birmingham, England. They originally formed at Handsworth Wood Boys School, and were composed of David Hinds, Basil Gabbidon, and Ronald McQueen (bass); along with Basil's brother Colin briefly on drums and Mykaell Riley. Steel Pulse were the first non-Jamaican act to win the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.

<i>Rastaman Vibration</i> 1976 studio album by Bob Marley and the Wailers

Rastaman Vibration is the eighth studio album by Jamaican reggae band Bob Marley and the Wailers, released in April 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Marley and the Wailers</span> Jamaican reggae band

Bob Marley and the Wailers were a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae band. The founding members, in 1963, were Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacob Miller (musician)</span> Jamaican reggae artist (1952–1980)

Jacob Miller was a Jamaican reggae artist and Rastafari from Mandeville, Jamaica. His first recording session was with the famous Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd in the late 1960s. While pursuing a solo career, he became the lead singer for Inner Circle, a famous roots reggae band. Miller recorded and toured with Inner Circle before he died in a car crash in early 1980 at age 27.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rita Marley</span> Cuban-Jamaican singer; widow of Bob Marley

Alfarita Constantia Marley is a Cuban-born Jamaican singer, songwriter and entrepreneur. She is the widow of reggae legend Bob Marley. Along with Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt, Marley was a member of the reggae vocal group the I Threes, the backing vocalists for Bob Marley and the Wailers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sly Dunbar</span> Drummer

Lowell Fillmore "Sly" Dunbar is a Jamaican drummer, best known as one half of the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and reggae production duo Sly and Robbie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midnite (band)</span>

Midnite was a roots reggae band from St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, which started playing in 1989.

<i>Talkin Blues</i> 1991 live album by Bob Marley & The Wailers

Talkin' Blues is a live album by Bob Marley & The Wailers, released in 1991. It contains live studio recordings from 1973 and 1975 intercut with interview segments of Bob Marley. The majority of tracks are taken from the recordings Bob Marley & The Wailers did on 31 October 1973, at The Record Plant in Sausalito, California, for San Francisco radio station KSAN. They include "You Can't Blame the Youth", sung by Peter Tosh, and "Get Up, Stand Up" with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh alternatingly taking lead vocals. The remaining tracks are taken from recordings made before the release of 1974's Natty Dread album, a performance at The Lyceum Theatre in London and interview segments from Jamaican radio in 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl "Chinna" Smith</span> Musical artist

Earl "Chinna" Smith, a.k.a. Earl Flute and Melchezidek the High Priest, is a Jamaican guitarist active since the late 1960s. He is most well known for his work with the Soul Syndicate band and as guitarist for Bob Marley & the Wailers, among others, and has recorded with many reggae artists, appearing on more than 500 albums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Marley</span> Jamaican reggae musician (1945–1981)

Robert Nesta Marley was a Jamaican reggae singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of the genre, Marley fused elements of reggae, ska, and rocksteady in his music and was renowned for his distinctive vocal and songwriting style. Marley's contribution to music increased the visibility of Jamaican music worldwide and made him a global figure in popular culture. Over the course of his career, Marley became known as a Rastafarian icon, and he infused his music with a sense of spirituality. He is also considered a global symbol of Jamaican music and culture and identity, and was controversial in his outspoken support for democratic social reforms. He also supported legalisation of cannabis, and advocated for Pan-Africanism. In 1976, Marley survived an assassination attempt in his home, which was thought to be politically motivated.

Carlton "Santa" Davis is a musician from Jamaica, primarily known for his drumming with bands such as Bob Marley & The Wailers, The Aggrovators, Soul Syndicate and Roots Radics. He has worked with reggae artists such as Jimmy Cliff, Black Uhuru, Burning Spear, Big Youth, The Wailers, Peter Tosh, Andrew Tosh, Wailing Souls, Ini Kamoze, Big Mountain, Michael Rose, and Ziggy Marley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yabby You</span> Musical artist

Vivian Neville Jackson, better known as Yabby You, was a reggae vocalist and producer, who came to prominence in the early 1970s through his uncompromising self-produced work.

Lee Jaffe is an American artist, photographer, filmmaker, musician, and producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Kinsey</span> American guitarist and singer (1953–2024)

Donald Kinsey was an American guitarist and singer, best known as a member of the Word Sound and Power Band, the reggae backing group for Peter Tosh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bunny Wailer</span> Jamaican musician (1947–2021)

Neville O'Riley Livingston, known professionally as Bunny Wailer, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and percussionist. He was an original member of reggae group The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he is considered one of the longtime standard-bearers of reggae music. He was also known as Jah B, Bunny O'Riley, and Bunny Livingston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Tosh</span> Jamaican reggae musician (1944–1987)

Winston Hubert McIntosh, OM, professionally known as Peter Tosh, was a Jamaican reggae musician. Along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, he was one of the core members of the band the Wailers (1963–1976), after which he established himself as a successful solo artist and a promoter of Rastafari. He was murdered in 1987 during a home invasion.

References

  1. ↑ Goldman, Vivien. "Culture Clash: Bob Marley, Joe Strummer and the punky reggae party". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  2. ↑ Carissimo, Justin. "18 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Bob Marley That Have Nothing To Do With Marijuana". Buzzfeed. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  3. ↑ "Tosh bio released". jamaicaobserver.com. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  4. ↑ Meschino, Patricia. "VP Records Relaunches Classic Reggae Label Blood and Fire". www.billboard.com. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  5. ↑ Alexander, Amy. "Bob Marley Became The Reggae King Through Hard Work". www.investors.com. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  6. ↑ Kennedy, Biko. "Must Visit Reggae Blog: The Midnight Raver". www.jamaicansmusic.com. Jamaicansmusic.com Inc. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  7. ↑ "Youth Consciousness Festival 1982". www.petertosh.com. Official Peter Tosh. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  8. ↑ "Tour History". www.bobmarley.com. Tuff Gong Worldwide. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  9. ↑ "The Dread Prophecy of Yabby You". Pitchfork. Conde Nast. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  10. ↑ Sullivan, Paul (2013). ReMixology: Tracing the Dub Diaspora. Chicago, IL: Reaktion Books - Reverb. ISBN   9781780231990 . Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  11. ↑ Walker, Karyl. "History destroyed: Mystic Revelation of Rastafari drums lost in fire". jamaicaobserver.com. Jamaica Observer. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  12. ↑ "'Dread Prophecy: The Strange and Wonderful Story of Yabby You'". Midnight Raver. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  13. ↑ "#Marley70 Blog Series". www.bobmarley.com. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  14. ↑ Raver, Midnight. "Midnight Raver meets Barrington Levy inna Kingston Town (EXCLUSIVE interview!)". Midnight Raver. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  15. ↑ Raver, Midnight. "MIDNITE'S 'Beauty for Ashes' proof that the reggae crown still resides in St. Croix". Midnight Raver. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  16. ↑ Raver, Midnight. "Raver Reviews: Raver's Top 50 Reggae Albums of the 2K". Midnight Raver. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.