Shabba and Buju – two of the best

By Matthew Woolford

One of the many things that I have learnt from attending the Montreal Jazz Festival 2024 was how to ‘listen’ to music. At this world- and first-class event, I saw performances from, among others:

• Cory Wong, whose guitar-play and 10-piece band completely blew me away.
• Freddie Gibbs, who demonstrated the maturity that Hip Hop music has achieved after 50 plus years, and
• Robert Glasper whose virtuosity showed me why he is a Grammy Award winner.

Each artiste that touched those stages, in my opinion, demonstrated vocal clarity and range, instrumental curiosity tinged with an appetite for exploration, and the ability to appropriately incorporate the use of modern technology into their performances in a manner that enhanced and did not distract or conceal gaps in musicianship.

These experiences have improved the way I now enjoy music. I no longer ‘just listen’ for sound but also for storytelling, phrasing, and the confessions of honesty with which all great and accomplished artists seem to be obsessed.

It has also helped me to be more open and less judgemental, appreciating that everybody in this world has a signature story to tell, and while it may not be mine, I may still empathise and learn from it.

One of the artistes I have since reflected upon is Shabba Ranks. I have always liked Shabba but now have the clarity to see justification in the claim by many of his not just being an ambassador for Reggae and Caribbean music, but also a musical heir apparent to Bob Marley.

Shabba, in my opinion, has always presented himself and his work with a confidence that could only have come from walking through the fires of self-knowledge, self-acceptance and self-forgiveness, and emerging the better for it on the other side. This may be why he often introduces himself as “Big, Dutty, Stinking Shabba Ranks”.

According to an article by Steve Huey and published on Allmusic.com:

“During his heyday, Shabba Ranks was arguably the most popular dancehall toaster in the world. He was a massive crossover success in the US, thanks to an openly commercial hybrid of reggae and hip-hop, and also to prominent duet partners like Maxi Priest, Johnny Gill, and KRS-One. All of this brought him several hit singles and albums on the R&B charts in the early ’90s and made him the first dancehall artist to win a Grammy… Ranks’ early success also helped pave the way for even bigger crossovers by artists like Shaggy and Sean Paul.

Shabba Ranks was born Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon on January 17, 1966, in Sturgetown, Jamaica. When he was eight years old, his family moved to the Kingston ghetto of Trenchtown, where Bob Marley had grown up.”

Another artiste I have since reflected upon is Buju Banton. I have always liked Buju, but now have greater appreciation, not just his versatility, but also for his complexity and consciousness as both a man and an artiste.

The following is from an interview by Patricia Meschino on September 18, 2023, for the Recording Academy of the United States (posted on Grammy.com), and entitled, Buju Banton’s Untold Stories: The Dancehall Legend Shares Tales Behind 10 Of His Biggest Songs:

“His latest album, Born For Greatness, melds reggae and dancehall with elements of R&B, jazz flourishes, crunching rock guitars, even a spirited gospel-tinged closer. “I don’t want anyone to put I in a bubble and say I should only make music like this or like that,” Banton tells Grammy.com. “Let me be free to create and express the way I feel because I am sure there is someone out there who feels the same way.

Banton has been expressing himself since he was young. Born Mark Myrie, the youngest of 15 children born to a street vendor mother in a poor area of West Kingston, Banton is a descendant of the Maroons, Africans who defeated Jamaica’s British colonizers then retreated to the island’s mountainous interior, where they established communities of free Black people. Buju is a Maroon word for breadfruit and banton refers to a revered storyteller, a name Mark adopted in tribute to the deejay Burro Banton, whom he admired as a child.”

I am aware of the criticism that both men have faced over the years for messages deemed as promoting “slackness” (lewdness) and violence (at times). However, I prefer to see their misgivings as drops in the buckets of otherwise outstanding musical careers and contributions that have brought joy and happiness to people within the Caribbean Basin and around the world.

I still remember when ‘Ting-A-Ling’ came out in the early 1990s and everyone in Trinidad and Tobago, it seemed, was singing, and playing this song, with joy.

And that is what great artistes do, they remind us of the joy and optimism that still exist in this world.