The story goes in jazz circles that when legendary pianist and composer Dave Brubeck was formulating the cool tones and avant-garde time signatures that would eventually comprise his quartet’s famous Time Out album, he came upon a group Turkish street musicians.

His interest piqued by the strange timing in which the musicians were playing, Brubeck asked them where they got the rhythm. One replied, “This rhythm is to us what the blues is to you.” Brubeck took this and composed Blue Rondo à la Turk, now a genre standard.

The sentiment is echoed whenever one is asked about reggae – “This rhythm is to us what the blues is to you.” But speaking to Jacob Hemphill of Washington reggae crew SOJA, it becomes clear that the impact of reggae and its figures extends far beyond notes and time signatures.

“Reggae ties us all together,” Hemphill tells Tone Deaf, ahead of SOJA’s performance at Byron Bay Bluesfest 2015 as part of brother-in-arms Michael Franti’s Soulshine mini-festival, which will include a string of sideshows in Sydney and Melbourne.

To help us delve further into the world of reggae, we asked Hemphill to act as our very own guide to this Jamaican answer to the blues.

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Band Everyone Should Listen To

Bob Marley and The Wailers

“I know it’s cliché, but that guy, we go around the world, and everywhere I go you think the face of freedom is going to be Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King, it’s not, it’s Bob Marley. Say what you want about his style of reggae, but to me there is not a musician who has ever existed who has touched more people’s lives around the world and made people feel like they were part of one big human family as much as Bob Marley did.

“[Without him], none of us would know what reggae was, you know? He made it something that you needed, because people get this feeling in life when you look around and you go I’m depressed, I don’t have money… and so even though you have all these feelings inside that there’s something wrong with this, there’s nothing supporting that, and Bob Marley put it to a song. For me, that was the greatest gift that somebody could’ve given this world and that’s my guy.

“But the thing about Bob Marley that I can’t say about any other artist, and I mean it, is that he never wrote a bad song. I love Bob Dylan and I love Paul Simon and I love Sade… but I can’t say that about them, that they never wrote a bad song. And Bob, man, every one of them is just as good as the one you heard last. It’s 10 songs of perfection and then you put on the next record, 10 more songs of perfection, and he did one every year for 10 years and then he said goodbye.”

Album Everyone Should Own

Israel Vibration – The Same Song

“I’m gonna try to be a little under the radar without being too under the radar. So, Israel Vibration had a record called The Same Song, and that was the first record they ever did and they had all of The Wailers playing on it and they had some of Peter Tosh’s band working on it. The Same Song is one of the best reggae albums I’ve ever heard.”

Don Carlos – Just A Passing Glance

“Don Carlos did a record called Just A Passing Glance that was the first record that Jim Fox from RAS Records ever mixed and that is one of the best… it’s Don Carlos at his best and that’s one of the best records I’ve ever heard.”

Peter Tosh – Equal Rights

“Peter Tosh, Equal Rights, but a lot of people know about that, but you can go back and listen to that record a thousand times. Bonnie Wailer, Black Heart Man, is definitely [in the] top ten reggae records of all time, that was Bonnie Wailer’s best stuff.”

Peter Tosh – Mystic Man

“Another Peter Tosh record, Mystic Man, that’s the second one he did with The Rolling Stones, ‘cause Keith Richards and him are boys and Keith has a place in Jamaica and he’s always doing like reggae-ish stuff.”

’90s Roots Reggae Revival

“And then all the stuff they were doing ‘90s is like some of the best shit, when reggae was coming back after the whole dancehall thing and everything just stopped. Reggae was making that comeback, so the big five records from then were Sizzla, Praise Ye Jah; Luciano, Where There Is Life; Anthony B, So Many Things To Say; one of the Capleton ones before he started getting all crazy with the gay people thing, and then Buju Banton, ‘Til Shiloh.”

One Song Everyone Should Hear

Cherry Roots – ‘Maui Boy’

“There’s a song that I always thought would get big and it never did and I think it’s because something tragic happened to the girl. There was a girl named Cherry, in Hawaii, the first time I ever did a tour outside of the continental United States, and she had a song called ‘Maui Boy’.

“And it’s just a typical Hawaiian love song, you know? It’s Jawaiian music and it’s about a brown-eyed boy who surfs. But there’s something about that song that is just the most haunting melody I have ever heard, and no one’s ever heard this song.”

Nahko and Medicine For The People – ‘Warrior People’

“A song that everybody should hear… honestly, Nahko’s reggae song is pretty legit. Nahko and Medicine For The People, ‘I will learn to be peaceful, but I keep my knife at my side / I will pray for compassion, whoa-oh / Holla if you feeling me / Feeling me, feeling me, feeling me, yeah’. He’s got a nice thing going, but he’s thinking outside the box.

“See, reggae was incredible when they were inventing it. When everybody stopped inventing it and copying the shit that had already been invented is when reggae got fucked. And anyone who’s a critic of my band has the same criticism to say, ‘You’re changing the music to make it more widespread.’

“And they think I’m doing it for some money thing, it’s not about money, and we are changing the music to make it more widespread, and that’s what The Wailers did, and that’s what Peter Tosh was doing, and that’s what Jimmy Cliff was doing, and that’s what all those guys were doing.”

Best Live Acts

Shaggy

“Yeah [laughs] us and Nahko come to mind when I think of good live bands. Who is really crazy live? Honestly, man, the Fear Nuttin Band, nobody’s ever heard of those guys, but they put on an incredible show. You know who’s good live? Shaggy.

“I know you wouldn’t expect me to say that, dude, Shaggy is an incredible musician. Shaggy builds entire schools in Jamaica for free. Dude, Shaggy’s the man. I’ve never met the guy, but I was reading an article about him. He is an interesting dude. That dude gives away piles of money to kids he’s never met and he builds them schools. He’s got a great show.”

UB40

“Honestly, UB40 is back together. Dude, Ali Campbell singing with UB40, that’s the ticket to see right now, because you don’t know how many times you’re gonna see that again. So if you can see some UB40, see it.”

Favourite Upcoming Acts

New Roots Revival

“I like the whole roots revival coming out of Jamaica. You’ve got Chronix, you’ve got Jesse Royal, you’ve got Protoje, who we just got to play with in Florida. I like what they’re doing. I think Rootz Underground is doing a lot of good stuff.

“There’s a lot of… ‘cause see, what happened is Black Entertainment Television came around and made everyone in Jamaica think, ‘Fuck the band, I’m gonna get a microphone, get a beat, and now I’m so and so.’ So it kind of became like pro wrestling. I mean, at least to us, because I thought reggae is the deepest music in the world and then it turned into like the shallowest music I had ever heard.

“So, now all these bands are coming back again, which is what we were always emulating, the reggae band. We weren’t really into like, Dennis Brown, or something, we were into all the bands, that’s who we wanted to be like. And I think a lot of kids emulate what they see on that stage.”

The Essential Label

RAS Records

“See, that answer could go any way depending on how you look at it. To me, personally, in my life, RAS Records is the most influential label ever. Even though Island housed the artist that I thought and still think is the greatest musician in the world, which is Bob Marley.

“RAS Records, a guy named Dr. Dread and his engineer, a guy named Jim Fox, who’s a good friend of mine, they were amid the whole dancehall thing, which… there was some good dancehall artists, dude, Super Cat is tight as shit, there was some tight stuff going on, but then it turned into like all the gang and raping and killing gay people and then everybody kind of stopped paying attention.

“So, RAS Records was bringing roots back and there was a guy in D.C. just paying for the records to be made. He would call up these old bands, find them, go find the guy, and get them together and cut this record and that’s how RAS Records was started. And they exposed me to Peter Broggs and Israel Vibration and Culture and Burning Spear, Inner Circle, and probably a hundred other artists whose CDs I own that say RAS on the back.”

Michael Franti’s Soulshine Festival feat. Michael Franti & Spearhead, SOJA, Trevor Hall

Tickets on sale 9am AEDT Friday, 14th November

Thursday, 2nd April 2015
Festival Hall, Melbourne
Tickets: Ticketmaster

Sunday, 5th April 2015
Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW
Tickets: Ticketek

Monday, 6th April 2015
Bluesfest, Byron Bay
Tickets: Bluesfest

Michael Franti & Spearhead Australian Tour Dates

Wednesday, 8th April 2015
Panthers, Newcastle NSW
Tickets: Moshtix

Thursday, 9th April 2015
C.ex Coffs, Coffs Harbour NSW
Tickets: C.ex

Friday, 10th April 2015
The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD
Tickets: Ticketmaster

Saturday, 11th April 2015
Tanks, Cairns QLD
Tickets: Ticketlink

Sunday, 12th April 2015
Tanks, Cairns QLD
Tickets: Ticketlink

Thursday, 16th April 2015
The Playhouse, Darwin Entertainment Centre NT
Tickets: Darwin Entertainment Centre

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