Djnyc Funk n' Soul, nyc dj

The birth of Ska and Roots Reggae in England

looks excellent!

Duke Vin, Count Suckle & the Birth of Ska in Britain - trailer from adam deeves on Vimeo.

Track of the Day - Morning Sun by Al Barry

This British Trojan Roots Reggae compilation is good. I love the song Morning Son by Al Barry.

Trinidadian Calypso in London 1950-1956

Always on the hunt to find great calypso music, the collection is excellent and a choice track is Lord Kitchener's London is The Place For Me

Bobb Deep - Queensbridge Meets Kingston

There are endless covers and remixes of Bob Marley tracks and it's rare that I find one worth spinning, the most recent was Fort Knox Five's remix of Duppy Conquerer. Bobb Deep's Queensbridge Meets Kingston album is good and I like the mixes of these tracks (not the lyrics though) and feel they have potential as remixes of remixes! Anyway, you can hear a sample of his Stir It Up remix and Could You Be Loved which is aptly titled Got It Twisted because the words are not really about love.

Jamaica Ska Kore Roots Reggae/ Rocksteady Compilation

Picking up where our top roots reggae tracks list left off, this is one of the first compilations I bought that get me into roots reggae/ rock steady music.  While I think like any genre you have to pick through it to find the choice tracks there are several on here worth mentioning.  Some of them appear on other compilations like this so I'll leave those out.  But my favorites from this one are Never You Change by The Maytals and Soul Ska by Byron Lee which is such a great song.   

Last night at Flute Bar Grammercy

Last night was excellent, we went very late until about 4 am. Alexandra was from Venezuela and Joel was from London so it was an amazing opportunity to play all kinds of music from Manu Chao to Wilfredo Vargas to Ray Barretto to Willie Colon, it helped that they had great taste in music.  Below our a few photos of Alex and Joel dancing on the bar at the after party while we were spinning.  Will post some more photos tomorrow. 

Here's a list of some of the tracks for below

Depois Do Carnaval -  Azymuth            
Tudo Que Voce Podia Ser  - Azymuth            
Hot N' Cold    Basement Jaxx            
Watch Out Now - Beatnuts            
I Know You Got Soul - Bobby Byrd                      
Viejo Socarron - Eddie Palmieri            
Águas De Março - Elis Regina E Tom Jobim            
Congo Man - Ernest Ranglin                     
Quitate Tu - Fania All-Stars            
Usted Abuso - Fania All-Stars            
Nappy Root    Funkadelic            
You Can't Miss What You Measure - Funkadelic
Barato Total - Gal Costa            
I Get Lifted - George McRae            
Happy Friends    The Greyboy Allstars            
Jungle Strut - The Greyboy Allstars                   
Lowdown Popcorn - James Brown            
It's A New Day - James Brown                              

It's Dancing Time - Mr Scruff & Quantic            
Suena Tu Bongo - Ocho            
La Cosa Se Pone Fuerte - Ocho            
Spottieottiedopaliscious - OutKast                     
The Heart's a Lonely Hunter - Thievery Corporation
Ran Kan Kan    Tito Puente            
Timbalero    Tito Puente
Che Che Cole - Willie Colon   

The Pioneers in Starbucks

We often arrange to meet people in a Starbucks in Manhattan if they are interested in us for an event. Last night while I was waiting for everyone to arrive I couldn't believe the music that was blaring out of the speakers.  A while back I posted our top 20 roots reggae tracks and 9 of those twenty songs I heard amidst the drone of the Starbucks machine noises busily draining the soul out of the neighborhood, or in this case block, since there are 3 others in the vicinity. 

It's a company that always struck me as faux finish, with the occasional environmental bone thrown to South America or some other location while they expand at Trump level greed proportions and charge $5 for coffee drinks.  But then to hear some of the most sacred roots reggae (to me anyway) tracks playing like the Pioneers Long Shot Kick De Bucket struck a chord. I ran over to the Starbucks Entertainment Rack and was expecting to see Toots on the cover of the CD and the Starbucks CEO on the back.  To my relief it was XM Radio's The Joint playing, where at least the djs there are music afficionados.

Djnyc's Top 20 Roots Reggae Tracks

These aren't in order other than alphabetical but here are some of our favorite roots reggae songs.  ***Listen here!

1. Put It On - Bob Marley 
2. Simmer Down - Bob Marley
3. One Love - Bob Marley & The Wailers
4. Shame & Scandal - Blues Busters
4. Marcus Garvey - Burning Spear
5. Creation Rebel - Burning Spear
6. Mistress Music - Burning Spear
7. Natty Never Get Weary - Culture
8. 007 Shanty Town - Desmond Dekker & The Aces
9. Book of Rules - The Heptones 
10. The Harder They Come - Jimmy Cliff
11. Love the Life You Live - Midnite 
12. Long Shot Kick de Bucket - The Pioneers
13. Starvation - The Pioneers
14. 54-46 Was My Number - Toots & The Maytals
15. Pomp and Pride - Toots & The Maytals
16. Reggae Got Soul - Toots & The Maytals 
17. Christmas Feeling Ska - Toots & The Maytals
18. Pressure Drop - Toots & The Maytals
19. (Take Me Home) Country Roads - Toots & The Maytals
20. Return of Django - The Upsetters

Island Records - Ska's The Limit Volume I (1959-1964)

This album has been in my rotation a long time, one of the Island Records compilations. I remember being in an old antique store in San Juan Puerto Rico and I saw some old records stashed next to various (useless) trinkets. I started talking to the owner and he said oh I have a few more records upstairs. So we went into the attic and there were about 25000 records all disorganized and jumbled together, the sun was going down and there were no lights in the attic. A record collector's nightmare, ahhh!   It turns out he was the owner of Downtown Records in Manhattan.  One of the gems I found was a dusty EP by Lord Creator called Independent Jamaica, a classic Calypso song about Jamaica which became an anthem for Jamaicans when they became independent from British rule in 1962. The other track is a classic ska/ rock steady song by Justin Hinds and The Dominoes called Carry, Go, Bring, Home. Tracks 5 and 16 on this compilation.