Post by kaya on Apr 30, 2009 20:11:59 GMT -5
Inspiration for Rasta Got Soul come from different avenues
By Basil Walters, Observer staff reporter
Monday, April 27, 2009
It was an album launch like no other. Perhaps the first on the campus of the University of the West Indies. Such was the official introduction by Buju Banton of his latest set, Rasta Got Soul at the UWI Undercroft Senate Building on Wednesday.
To contextualise Rasta Got Soul, Buju Banton in his enlightening discourse took his audience on a journey through his career path, culminating with the experiences of his first major European tour
Apart from the fact that it was being unvailed at this major seat of learning, it boasted other distinctions, in that it started promptly and it took the form of a lecture symposium. It also cast Buju Banton into a role he had not erstwhile seen.
For more than a spellbinding hour and a few riveting minutes, the Gargamel was in command performance, not in his customary role as an extraordinary singjay,
but as an erudite, articulate, informed, stimulating, thought-provoking lecturer of the highest order.
During his stint, for the first time at the podium, and as he often does on the stage, he had the well-attended event of academians, students and fans hanging on to his every word. And at the end of it all, he was mobbed.
The large gathering at the album launch organised by the Department of Literatures in English was prepared for what was to come by recently retired lecturer Cecil Gutzmore. As guest speaker, Gutzmore set the tone by calling attention to Buju's rich literary creativity. "This man is a significant songwriter, and so his lyrics are literary," he noted.
Before that Gutzmore recalled one of Buju's earliest recordings called Come Fi Run Things. "Come fi run things for years and decades and centuries. That is a quote from young Buju Banton indicating where he was going to go," Gutzmore stated.
He also said that Buju is the master of two distinct and related genres in reggae music - dancehall and a roots/Rasta-influenced music. In a sort of introduction to Buju, Gutzmore concluded, "And what we have today is the latest instalment of a continuing and developing journey. And I beg you to
pay close attention to it, to enjoy it, to understand it, to analyse it..."
In an atmosphere of great expectation and anticipation, an overwhelming applause greeted Buju Banton who climaxed what was a rather memorable album launch/ lecture by stressing how the inspiration for Rasta Got Soul had come from different avenues.
"...We get to realise the state of the music. Let us talk reality here at the university. How long do we expect Burning Spear, Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals, all these great ones to go on and carry this banner. Where are the other young ones who have been inspired to make the next generation of musical lovers come alive."
But the more profound utterances were to come when the Gargamel added, "I nuh sey a me. but I a try fi make a good contribution... because from this music I received everything, and I never have to hold a gun inna mi hand and tell a man hands up. So how can I really give back to this music. Can I continue to be a dancehall artiste and refuse growth that is evident to everybody, to even myself? Or should I move on and show the maturity within the music. I choose the later," he chuckled to more applause.
To contextualise Rasta Got Soul, Buju Banton in his enlightening discourse took his audience on a journey through his career path, culminating with the experiences of his first major European tour which was inspirational in his recording of the album Til Shiloh.
"We came back a Jamaica and worked on a record. The record was called Til Shiloh.
"That record embodied a lot of the feeling that I felt through Europe. Many people wouldn't know. But then again, one thing always surprise me about travelling as a young man is how the people of the world gravitate towards the music from Jamaica, yet Jamaicans don't even begin to understand their own culture. We are the first to turn our nose up on what we create, yet people of the world love it so much."
It would appear that Buju's inspiration to record Rasta Got Soul, was driven by the response of his European fan base to Til Shiloh and Inna Heights. "Til Shiloh was released. Yet the reception was great, it was widely promoted. But somehow mi still never satisfied, because me still think that there's so much to be said and at this time what was happening to me also, personally I was splitting into two persons musically. One wants to satisfy a dancehall criteria and I have to live up to a reggae view as I touched some people with something... I give them a taste of it and they wanted more. And they are willing to neglect anything else that they heard in the past just to have more of what I had them taste. So my next album was Inner Heights."
Returning to the album being released, Rasta Got Soul, Buju Banton stressed, "This record is geared to a mature audience. You don't have to be bright. But it can make you intellectually capable of communicating with I and I just by listening. And that is what we aim to do. uplift and educate our people, yuh understand."
Source: Jamaica Observer.Com
By Basil Walters, Observer staff reporter
Monday, April 27, 2009
It was an album launch like no other. Perhaps the first on the campus of the University of the West Indies. Such was the official introduction by Buju Banton of his latest set, Rasta Got Soul at the UWI Undercroft Senate Building on Wednesday.
To contextualise Rasta Got Soul, Buju Banton in his enlightening discourse took his audience on a journey through his career path, culminating with the experiences of his first major European tour
Apart from the fact that it was being unvailed at this major seat of learning, it boasted other distinctions, in that it started promptly and it took the form of a lecture symposium. It also cast Buju Banton into a role he had not erstwhile seen.
For more than a spellbinding hour and a few riveting minutes, the Gargamel was in command performance, not in his customary role as an extraordinary singjay,
but as an erudite, articulate, informed, stimulating, thought-provoking lecturer of the highest order.
During his stint, for the first time at the podium, and as he often does on the stage, he had the well-attended event of academians, students and fans hanging on to his every word. And at the end of it all, he was mobbed.
The large gathering at the album launch organised by the Department of Literatures in English was prepared for what was to come by recently retired lecturer Cecil Gutzmore. As guest speaker, Gutzmore set the tone by calling attention to Buju's rich literary creativity. "This man is a significant songwriter, and so his lyrics are literary," he noted.
Before that Gutzmore recalled one of Buju's earliest recordings called Come Fi Run Things. "Come fi run things for years and decades and centuries. That is a quote from young Buju Banton indicating where he was going to go," Gutzmore stated.
He also said that Buju is the master of two distinct and related genres in reggae music - dancehall and a roots/Rasta-influenced music. In a sort of introduction to Buju, Gutzmore concluded, "And what we have today is the latest instalment of a continuing and developing journey. And I beg you to
pay close attention to it, to enjoy it, to understand it, to analyse it..."
In an atmosphere of great expectation and anticipation, an overwhelming applause greeted Buju Banton who climaxed what was a rather memorable album launch/ lecture by stressing how the inspiration for Rasta Got Soul had come from different avenues.
"...We get to realise the state of the music. Let us talk reality here at the university. How long do we expect Burning Spear, Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals, all these great ones to go on and carry this banner. Where are the other young ones who have been inspired to make the next generation of musical lovers come alive."
But the more profound utterances were to come when the Gargamel added, "I nuh sey a me. but I a try fi make a good contribution... because from this music I received everything, and I never have to hold a gun inna mi hand and tell a man hands up. So how can I really give back to this music. Can I continue to be a dancehall artiste and refuse growth that is evident to everybody, to even myself? Or should I move on and show the maturity within the music. I choose the later," he chuckled to more applause.
To contextualise Rasta Got Soul, Buju Banton in his enlightening discourse took his audience on a journey through his career path, culminating with the experiences of his first major European tour which was inspirational in his recording of the album Til Shiloh.
"We came back a Jamaica and worked on a record. The record was called Til Shiloh.
"That record embodied a lot of the feeling that I felt through Europe. Many people wouldn't know. But then again, one thing always surprise me about travelling as a young man is how the people of the world gravitate towards the music from Jamaica, yet Jamaicans don't even begin to understand their own culture. We are the first to turn our nose up on what we create, yet people of the world love it so much."
It would appear that Buju's inspiration to record Rasta Got Soul, was driven by the response of his European fan base to Til Shiloh and Inna Heights. "Til Shiloh was released. Yet the reception was great, it was widely promoted. But somehow mi still never satisfied, because me still think that there's so much to be said and at this time what was happening to me also, personally I was splitting into two persons musically. One wants to satisfy a dancehall criteria and I have to live up to a reggae view as I touched some people with something... I give them a taste of it and they wanted more. And they are willing to neglect anything else that they heard in the past just to have more of what I had them taste. So my next album was Inner Heights."
Returning to the album being released, Rasta Got Soul, Buju Banton stressed, "This record is geared to a mature audience. You don't have to be bright. But it can make you intellectually capable of communicating with I and I just by listening. And that is what we aim to do. uplift and educate our people, yuh understand."
Source: Jamaica Observer.Com