One Bright Morning

William 'Bunny Rugs' Clarke, the extraordinary musician, intellectual, ambassador, Rasta MessenJah, and member of Third World ended his earthly phase on February 2, 2014. In July 2013, I saw Sly and Robbie perform at Irving Plaza in NYC. It was to be a birthday gift to self. I wondered whether they would use horns because that would be the cake and the icing. They did have a horn: a trombone. And they had Bunny Rugs.

Visions of my own transition to the ancestral realm are always accompanied by an assortment of alternatively screaming, and screeching horns. Brass; particularly trumpets, but trombones too, and saxophones of all sizes wail joyfully, happy at my departure. 

The dress is fatigues. The rhythm is buffet style, but Reggae is central and with a steelband for support.

I've always been drawn to music with woodwind instruments especially brass ones. Maybe Its my way of checking how close is that one bright morning. Or its for the sound and that feeling it creates. I argue, in my head, whether the best of reggae, or any music, could be played without horns.

The argument goes something like this: forget all the evidence to the contrary, the best reggae music cannot be played without horns and preferably a full horn section: trombone, trumpet and saxophone, at least one each. When done properly, It feels like heaven, though no one has returned, from heaven, to confirm this feeling.

Evidence in support of my contention includes Taurus Riley. He keeps Dean Fraser busy; as does Luciano. Though Fraser is not a full horn section, he can sound like one. Burning Spear is perhaps the best example of this format. The bands that back the biggest international stars like Beres Hammond, try to maintain the tradition of that big sound.

Its a tradition that goes back like the drum itself, through all civilizations, to the Blues, Gospel, Jazz, James Brown, Soul and Calypso, to Caribbean Blues: Reggae. Instruments that used air thrust from our lungs, wind instruments, were always around.

Evidence against my contention are bands like Steel Pulse, Bunny Rugs' Third World, his former band, Inner Circle, and the newer schools. Music makers have always used whatever available instruments to make art: sometimes invented new ones. That is how steelband developed and became just as compelling as any other instrument.

The more recent offerings use horns less often and when they do, it is an electronic keyboard. It was satisfying to see Bruno Mars' attempt to channel James Brown at the last Super Bowl.

Of course, the biggest piece of evidence against my argument is Tuff Gong himself, Robert Marley, and his family too, particularly Damian Marley with his brilliant forays into Hip Hop. But importantly, though the Wailers may not have had a permanent horn player in the band, they knew the power of the horn. And often toured with at least one.

Early Wailers, on the Wailing Wailers recordings, recorded with the Ska-Talites:a band known for its horn section. Later, Marley would supplant the horn section, and quite effectively, with the I- Threes and only after those two wailing horns had left: Bunny and Peter. If you don't believe me, take the I-Threes out of Marley’s music and hear the difference.

Joshua's Army @ Jericho 

I started to develop this thesis from listening to Jazz and studying its origins in Africa, and before the Bible, before Gideon and Joshua. Horns can break walls down, down to the foundation, and help defeat whole armies. 

I strengthened my position after Sunsplash at the Bob Marley Recreation Center in Mobay. I believe it was 1989. As if understanding my battle, both Steel Pulse and Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers performed with full horn sections. Fans know that neither of these two groups use(d) live horns:at least not outside of Jamaica. Pulse was based in Britain and the Melody Makers made its living abroad. It was as if they too agreed with me in Mobay. 

That night as Pulse started to rave, I was as close to heaven as a sinner ever could. Death had to be close, I wouldn't have minded, because no sound, no band, could surpass that performance.

Fela Kuti a modern day Gideon
living through his children Femi
and Seun

I was wrong. The sky had begun to lighten as the Melody Makers came on stage. I saw the horn section set up. Following Pulse, any time, was a bad idea. I thought that I had witnessed the best performance ever. Then the Melody Makers began and the horn section lifted me off my feet. I believe I died. I can't be sure.

It may not have been the same day. But Gregory Isaacs resurrected me with a marathon performance, with horns, and 3 encores. It was heaven's music, but I must have been returned: released to continue the work. Or as Marley suggested one has to have one's fill right here on earth.

I left that event smug in the confidence that, not for the first time, I had won another argument against myself, if temporarily. I lingered that day at the nearby cook shop on Barnett Street, near the market, among the stragglers, hyped-up, unable to go to bed, discussing what we had just experienced. It was one bright morning:10:30 am by then.

With this ongoing argument in mind, I caught the Ska-talites a week before Sly and Robbie. Not only did they have horns, but a trumpet, two saxophones and two trombones. I came close to dying again. The only thing that probably saved me was that the Ska-talites is Ska and not Reggae and I was in New Jersey.I also wanted to live to see what Sly and Robbie would offer my month long birthday party. 

During the course of the performance, the reason for the death of live horns became clear. It was too expensive. A touring twelve member band like Ska-talites was not economically practical. The rise of Dancehall is evidence of that economic reality. It is cheaper to travel and perform with a small band, without horns, or no band. Rap and Hip Hop, generally, avoid live instruments altogether.

Ska-Talites at Mexicali Cafe, Teaneck, NJ
(c)rootsandculture

Ska is that music that came out of a peculiar mix of Calypso, Mento, a strong Jazz flavor and the Pop of that period: the mid to late 1950s dawn of Jamaica's recording industry. It was really resort music blended and adapted to local tastes and times. It is the mix of brass from early military bands and attempts to reach wider audiences. This blend is still evident in the Ska-talites as the horn players clung to their roots of jazz and traveled up an down the scales frequently and freely while the rhythm usually stood at attention: rigid, firm and any variation would result in something other than Ska, maybe Jazz

It is a commentary on the larger society and the shrinking resources available to our children.

If you were going to use horns, it was cheaper to use them at home. Marley would not have forgotten his Ska beginnings. Check the renowned Peace Concert of 1978(1). There he has two saxophones, a trumpet and trombone: perfect for raising heaven and some hell. 

That peace would have been impossible without brass. Marley knew that. 

Electronic sounds now reproduce horns and even voices. It is not a value judgment or an attack on current music. I look forward to what is served given the constraints. But it seems inevitable with increasing access to electricity, the electrification of instruments, and the Sound System that wind instruments would become less popular.

But there is hope as the Ska-talites horn section looked young. The trumpeter acquitted himself well with some very mature and sensitive improvisations. They had all been influenced by the very young senior citizen, Lester Sterling, its leader and one of the two remaining members from the band's 1960s heyday that had backed a young Marley. The other is vocalist Doreen Shaffer. I left feeling that horns were in young enough hands and may soon find its way back. I was ready to take on Sly and Robbie the following week.

Advertisement for the show did not indicate any guests or who would be in the band. So I was curious. They came on stage with 'Nambo' Robinson from the old Taxi Gang. Robinson is an excellent trombone player and can sing too, but not at the same time. I kept thinking that maybe someone didn't show up. And they played as though they were expecting someone.

Nambo, Sly and Robbie

After an hour, they introduced a guest. From where I stood it sounded like they said Bunny Rugs and it looked like him. I wasn't sure. I came close to meeting him a few times. Third World had also performed at that 1989 Sunsplash. And in 1976, sitting in the Strand Cinema in Georgetown, Guyana, Third World members came and sat in the row behind me. I believe Rugs was with them. I also heard he had been to Guyana with Inner Circle(2) for the first Carifesta(3) in 1972. Later, I would see Rugs from time to time in NYC. He always seemed to love a good laugh and was robust and effusive in his interactions.

He took the microphone and for sure it was him:his voice full-bodied as ever. But it was a different Bunny Rugs too: introspective almost uncertain, at first. He started like he was feeling for the right groove, or maybe waiting for Sly and Robbie to find his. You sensed that he had learned how to do him and he was going give all he knew. By the third song he would sing and then recite the lyric. I felt lighter on my feet. When he got to Revolution, the Dennis Brown classic, I was already screaming the words loudly. 

If you wanna live a, live a, live a, live a, live, live forever You got to love a, love a, love a, love a, love, love each other 

All week, I had been listening to Brown's version for inspiration.

Say you gotta live, live, live, live on, live on forever And love, love, love, love, love, love one another

As Rugs went on, it began to sound like church. He started to preach and sing, almost in the baptist way but not, but something happened. He had burst free. His head tilted upward and the sermon poured forte. The cadence was like no other you had heard before. He was in direct communion.

That feeling came over me again. It was that same feeling from that night in Montego Bay when I thought I could die. I have had that feeling since, not often, but its the sweetest feeling. Its not always music, though always musical. Rhythmic. A trombone was playing but it didn't matter.

Both Sly and Robbie knew something extraordinary was happening. Its that rare feeling when everything merges, equality seems possible, illness retreats,  pain subsides. You let go. Death could be close. You shout its name

I resolved the argument as a tie. The human voice is a horn. Rugs' is a wailing horn. It may not be brass, gold maybe, but a wind instrument driven by winged lungs. We don't need brass horns for good Reggae or any music. They are too expensive anyway. Heaven could be expensive. 

That one night Rugs offered heaven on earth. Looking back, he and Third World always had that ability to free you. If and when I hear his voice again, live, I hope he'll be preaching and shouting that joyful noise with brass too, screaming and screeching. 'Cause we never know which bright morning, we'll fly away. Foreva. Freeeeeeeee!

Notes
(1)Heartland Reggae a film featuring the famous 1978 Peace Concert
I own no part of this video and cannot transfer or otherwise grant rights to its copy.
(2) Bunny Rugs had been a member of many bands including Inner Circle which had become one of the most popular bands in Jamaica of that period. I Was not able to confirm whether he visited Guyana with Inner Circle. Wikipedia indicates he was already living in NYC by 1972.   
(3) Carifesta is a Caribbean-wide arts festival that was first held in Guyana in 1972 and sporadically since.