Roots to the Bone was issued in 1995 by Island Records as a reissue of Rico Rodriguez' most important album, Man from Wareika, (minus two tracks: "Rasta" and "Gunga Din") with some 12" sides from the late 1970s.
Rico was musically very active during that time playing in Europe as well as in Japan. He just had releases with Jazz Jamaica and continued with his own recordings he had produced in Japan during 1994/1995. At the same time Trojan re-released his 1969 LPs, Blow Your Horn and Brixton Cat, while Island used its Reggae Refreshers series to present Rico on this album, Roots to the Bone.
The liner notes have been written by Steve Barrow as a brief history of Rico's career that lasted for half a century just as long as the development of Jamaican music as one "of the world's great popular musics". He concludes: "as one of its original creators, he has used his trombone to sing the songs of King Alpha as convincingly as any vocalist."
Track listing
All tracks written by Rico Rodriguez; except Track 1 written by Chuck Mangione, Track 4, written by Paul Desmond
"Children of Sanchez"
"Midnight in Ethiopia"
"Free Ganja"
"Take Five"
"Far East"
"No Politician"
"Firestick"
"This Day"
"Ramble"
"Lumumba"
"Africa"
"Man From Wareika"
"Over The Mountain"
"Dial Africa"
Credits
Produced by Karl Pitterson except track 1 produced by Dennis Bovell, track 2 by Rico, tracks 3,4 and 12 by Dick Cuthell, track 7 co-produced by Dick Cuthell Engineers: Dick Cuthell, Terry Barnham, Godwin Logie, Paul "Groucho" Smykle, Errol "T" Thompson, Karl Pitterson
Winston Rodney OD, better known by the stage name Burning Spear, is a Jamaican roots reggae singer-songwriter, vocalist, and musician. Burning Spear is a Rastafarian and one of the most influential and long-standing roots artists to emerge from the 1970s.
Horace Andy is a Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer, known for his distinctive vocals and hit songs such as "Government Land", as well as "Angel", "Spying Glass", and "Five Man Army" with English trip hop group Massive Attack. He is also famous for a cover version of "Ain't No Sunshine". Andy is often described as one of the most respected and influential singers in Jamaica.
Emmanuel "Rico" Rodriguez, also known as Rico, Reco or El Reco, was a Cuban-born Jamaican ska and reggae trombonist. He recorded with producers such as Karl Pitterson, Prince Buster, and Lloyd Daley. He was known as one of the first ska musicians. Beginning in the 1960s, he worked with The Members, The Specials, Jools Holland, and Paul Young.
"Ghost Town" is a song by the British two-tone band the Specials, released on 12 June 1981. The song spent three weeks at number one and 11 weeks in total in the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart.
Garvey's Ghost is the fourth album by the reggae artist Burning Spear, released in 1976 on Island Records, ILPS 9382. Each track is a dub version of its correspondent song on his third album, Marcus Garvey.
Bass Culture is an album by the Jamaica-born, British-based dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, released in 1980 on the Island Records label. It was produced by Linton Kwesi Johnson and Dennis Bovell. Bovell, Lloyd "Jah Bunny" Donaldson and Webster Johnson were members of Matumbi.
Count Ossie, born Oswald Williams, was a Jamaican Rastafari drummer and band leader.
Forces of Victory is the debut solo album by Jamaican dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. It was released in 1979 on Island Records.
LKJ in Dub is an album by the Jamaica-born, British-based dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, released in 1980 on Island Records. It was produced by Dennis Bovell. It contains dub versions of tracks from the two previous LKJ albums, Forces of Victory and Bass Culture.
Man from Wareika was the first album recording for Rico Rodriguez led by his own artistic imagination, and his first recording created for album release. It is notable for being the only roots reggae album to be released on Blue Note Records.
Jepther McClymont OD, better known as Luciano, is a Jamaican second-generation roots reggae singer.
Marcus' Children is a studio album by the Jamaican musician Burning Spear, originally released in 1978 as Social Living. It was produced by Karl Pitterson and Burning Spear.
Karl Pitterson is a Jamaican record producer and sound engineer.
True Democracy is a studio album by the British reggae band Steel Pulse. It was released on 1March 1982 through the band's own label Wise Man Doctrine Records.
Dick Cuthell is a British musician and record producer. He plays flugelhorn, cornet, and trumpet, amongst a range of other brass instruments, including tenor horn and valve trombone. Cuthell is best known for his work with The Specials and Rico Rodriguez. He also collaborated with bands such as Madness, Eurythmics, Fun Boy Three, XTC, Level 42 and The Pogues. In addition to a range of horns, Cuthell also plays bass, keyboards and percussion and is a composer and arranger.
Screaming Target is the debut album by Jamaican deejay Big Youth. It was recorded and originally released in 1972 on the Gussie and Jaguar labels in Jamaica. It was issued in the United Kingdom in 1973 by Trojan Records.
Ansel Collins is a Jamaican musician, composer, singer, songwriter and producer, best known for his work with Dave Barker as Dave and Ansel Collins.
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.
Reggae Got Soul is an album by the Jamaican reggae group Toots and the Maytals, released in July 1976 by Island Records.
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.
