Side one is the stronger half of the album to me: the two Mowatt originals are pretty catchy and two much-loved Marley songs get very convincing make-overs, Mowatt's singing is deeply soul-influenced and the rhythms are tight and driving - what's not to like? The gospel-ish "Zion Chant" ends side one with a nice change of pace.
While the title track that opens side two is another strong Mowatt original, i find her remaining compositions not that great. I could for instance live without the poppy "Joseph", where Mowatt portraits Marley as a saint. "Down In The Valley" is another Marley songs, a strongly religious track that Mowatt and her background singers saturate with gospel music.
The nearness of soul and reggae has occasionally been a subject on the Hideaway and this album is another great example.
Judy Mowatt: Black Woman
Ashandan (JAM), 1978 / Shanachie (US) 43011, 1983
A1 Strength To Go Through (J. Mowatt) 3:53
A2 Concrete Jungle (Bob Marley) 5:23
A3 Slave Queen (J. Mowatt) 3:55
A4 Put It On (Bob Marley) 4:21
A5 Zion Chant (F. McGregor) 3:19
B1 Black Woman (J. Mowatt) 3:56
B2 Down In The Valley (Bob Marley) 3:15
B3 Joseph (J. Mowatt) 5:08
B4 Many Are Called (J. Mowatt) 4:10
B5 Sisters' Chant (J. Mowatt) 4:57
Recorded at Harry J's Recording Studio, Dynamic Sounds Studios, Channel One Recording Studio
Mixed at Aquarius Studio
Remixed at Tuff Gong Recording Studio
Arranged by F. McGregor (tracks: A3, A5), G. Chung (tracks: A2, B3, B5), J. Mowatt (tracks: A1, A5, B1, B4, B5)
Produced by Judy Mowatt
Lead Vocals – Judy Mowatt with
Guitar – Dalton Browne, Earl Smith, Issachar, Cat Coore, Tony Chin; Keyboards – Wire, Freddie McGregor, Geoffrey Chung, Harold Butler, Mikey Hewlette, Stelley, Tyrone Downie; Bass – Ewan Lewis Maskell (tracks: B3), Maskel I, Howard Spread Bedassié; Drums – Freddie McGregor, Leroy (Horsemouth) Wallace (tracks: A5, B5); Electronic Drums [Syndrum] – Freddie McGregor; Percussion – Everton Carrington, Scully, Orville Wood, Ras Inefire Tyoi; Backing Vocals – Anicea Banks, Dennis Thompson, Freddie McGregor, Joy Tulloch, Judy Mowatt, Pam Hall, Sharon Tucker
Alto Saxophone – Headley Bennett; Melodica – Harold Butler; Flute – Herbert Chang; Tenor Saxophone – Enroy Grant; Trumpet [1st] – Arnold Brackenridge; Trumpet [2nd] – Donald Greaves
5 comments:
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thanks Porco, already heard some of this ladies' albums, but this one not yet...looking forward giving her a spin [:-)
peace, E-mile
Very nice album. As you said, "What's not to like?". I'm very glad to have this and so many others you post that I'd never get exposed to without the Hideaway. Thanks LPR!
I thought you'd gone forever, porco!
Nice to see you back, but who and how the f*ck was your old site taken over by somebody else??
Good to see the tradition of mixing things up is still blog policy, and always a pleasure to see a bit of decent reggae posted. Did you know that Mowatt and a lot of other sizeable names in reggae had turned Christian? Last album I saw from ex-I Three Judy was a gospel set!!
JD,
google killed my old account. I guess after a time others can use orphaned urls. Don't know why anyone would want an url such as porcoshideaway though :-)
I think i read about Judy's turn to gospel on wikipedia. Not that strange considering how religious reggae often is.
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