APRIL 2023 ISSUE
A sneaky peek of just some of what is in the April 2023 issue – OUT NOW!
Eric Bibb
Let’s talk hats. Eric Bibb’s, in particular. Gleaming white with a broad brim and rising crown, the fedora floats on his head like a mini flying saucer, taking up space on the zoom screen so as to make it the centre of attention. But a millinery discussion is something the singer and guitarist more than welcomes. It is his specialist subject.
“Y’know, I collect guitar shops and I collect hat shops, just as I collect recordings,” he says instantly, as I then point out that the history of black music, from Bessie Smith to Jason Moran via Fats Waller, is full of figures with fine headgear…
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BITTY McLEAN
“Bitty is a very understanding person, because he knows the business and what it’s all about. He understands when it’s rising and when it’s lying low, and so he’s able to balance himself throughout everything. I would say that he’s very clever, because whenever he hears the right thing, then he knows it. He’s a very different kind of artist because he keeps his stuff exclusive and doesn’t just rush to voice any riddim or be part of the same juggling as everybody else.”
You can hear the pride in Sly Dunbar’s voice when he talks about Bitty McLean, who’s now made four albums with Sly and Robbie in the past 16 years. The latest is Forward and whilst Robbie Shakespeare sadly passed away before the project was completed, the production is unmistakably that of Jamaica’s premier rhythm section…
BOBBY HARDEN
The so-called ‘vintage soul’ artists always come with their own backstory. Whether it be a day job as a Rikers Island prison guard [Sharon Jones], a spell on the streets followed by a career as trained chef [Charles Bradley] or a business in real estate and with plans to open a restaurant [Lee Fields], there are invariably well-trodden and meandering paths which have led them to their latter-day period of stardom.
It’s the same with Bobby Harden, once of Youngstown, Ohio, a small city about halfway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Recent developments – including the May 12 release of his album Bridge Of Love – suggest the now 64-year-old is about to make it in his own right, though the veteran soulman has at various times in his life studied for accountancy, been a busboy at Macy’s and then a computer and data storage guy with Occidental Petroleum, before his music finally began to pay at least some of the rent.
EASY STAR ALL STARS
The word ‘cult’ is over-used and especially within a niche market like reggae, which harbours its share of fanatics and offbeat characters. It usually refers to something unusual that’s championed by an ardent, often vociferous fanbase who’ll defend it to the last. That’s how Easy Star All Stars’ series of tribute projects started when they released their reggae interpretation of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon in 2003. That album was initially viewed as a novelty, but 20 years later, it’s now widely regarded as a classic.
Easy Star have produced four more titles like that since then. To date they’ve reworked bestselling albums by Radiohead [Radiodread], The Beatles [Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band] and Michael Jackson [Thrillah], but few of us guessed that David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust would be next…
