Doing Our Thing: More Soul From Jamdown 1970 - 1982 Cree Although the influence of forties and fifties rhythm & blues on early Jamaican recorded music has been well researched over the last few decades, it is sometimes overlooked that as soul music became prominent in America, reggae was evolving in Jamaica and taking on a lot of soul influence. This set examines some of that process, every track connected w.th American soul in some way. Although the reggae rhythm is apparent, some of these are fair y straight cov-ers of American material, others are island adaptations and re-workings, and some are a couple of times removed. For the latter, listen to melodica player Augustus Pablo's deep 'Too Late', an instrumental based on the rhythm track of a Jamaican cover of the soul h t 'Too Late To Turn Back Ncw' — and once you know that, you can definitely hear t. The b ues is in there too — do you remember the 1970 No.I reggae h't 'Double Barrel? Well, Dave is pre-sent here as Dave Barker — he has always been a very fine soul singer, but one of his three track-, here is 'Life Of A Mi lionaire', better known to readers as the 20s blues, 'Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out', though Dave draws mainly on Sam Cooke's version. Cree is part of the Bear Family set up so you - now that the pa::1.ag.rig of this intriguing set is wonderful.
Norman Darwen
