[FA Worldmusic] Block Party in Kingston, Jamaica

[Marco Werman]

I just came back from ten days in Kingston, Jamaica where I was
collecting program material on the Alpha Boys School, an orphanage that
was founded in the 19th century by the Catholic Sisters of Mercy (to be
aired on Frontline/WORLD later this Spring).  Hard to believe for me,
but it was my first time on the island.  I got an amazing overview of
where Jamaican music is at in 2008.

But I write to share a sublime musical experience I had in the Kingston
working-class neighborhood of Rae Town.  As you may know, Sound
System-style street parties (with massive banks of loudspeakers that are
more comfortingly bassy than ear-splittingly treble) happen pretty much
every night of the week around Kingston, starting with Uptown Mondays at
a shopping plaza in New Kingston with current dancehall hits, and going
right through the week.

The neighborhood of Rae Town has, for the past 20 plus years there,
thrown a Sunday night dance and party.  The local paper the Gleaner
describes it as an oldies night, and the people reflect that, sort of.
There are 70 year-olds, all the way down to much younger people.
Classes mix:  doctors and lawyers from uptown mingle with an array of
characters out of Fellini.  The crowd shows up around midnight.  The
people slowly line up along both sides of the main street running
through Rae Town, almost like a dance showdown, and everyone begins a
slow groove to the music.  Grillers with jerk chicken, fish and pork are
common, as are sellers of ganja who wander around with small bouquets of
the herb still on the stem.  As the crowd builds, so does the music.

It's the music that really drew me in that night:  mostly old school
reggae and dub and anything ska:  "Fiddler on the Roof" ska by the Soul
Brothers, "Norwegian Wood" ska by Jackie Mittoo, you name it.  There was
also a seductive selection of oldies like Dionne Warwick's "Wishin and
Hopin," Sam Cooke's "Cupid" and "A Change Is Gonna Come" (a kind of plea
to the hood that crime and poverty can be licked), Dionne Warwick's et
al "That's What Friends Are For" (a neighborhood anthem, in which the DJ
dropped the sound right before the chorus, leaving the entire block
singing out loud), Maxine Brown's "Oh No Not My Baby."  And the walls of
speakers sent all this great music vibrating through my bones and making
me feel inspired and happy, and isn't that what music's supposed to do?
It was the best party I've ever been to.  I find dancehall monotonous
with a capital M.  And maybe Rae Town put me in a time warp, a flashback
to the great old days of this music that is disconnected in many ways to
the fast and furious business of dancehall.  But what a great scene and
sound that was last Sunday in Rae Town.  It's wonderful to be reminded
that the Loudest Island in the World isn't just about the size of the
sound system.  It's also about some of the coolest music ever made and
the whole world of sound that boomeranged into it.

Marco Werman

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