Missed my calling. Could have always been a reggae keyboard player. My older brother Ronnie taught me how to play the 2 and the 4 and the clavinet parts and some ka-chunka piano variations. Sitting in a local coffeeshop, tonight he was playing a reggae playlist, it was awesome. reminded me of so much I forgot.
Toots and the Maytals singing Sweet and Dandy. Such an unexpected structure yet so infectious, A / B, that’s all.
Weirdest reggae thing I ever heard was Standing Firm by Jacob Miller. It isn’t in 5 but otherwise it is the famous Dave Brubeck song Take 5. Same melody precisely. Can’t explain why or how it could be but I imagine somehow they are unaware of the fact that they are singing a very famous melody albeit slower and in 4. And yet I sort of also don’t care because he has one of my favourite voices of all time. The crazy vibrato in his long notes are like a plug-in. Glorious.
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it’s way harder than it looks on paper…I reckon they call it ‘the bubble’ because the pocket is just as delicate, and can burst at any moment.