Free Joseph

Free Joseph – Speaking In Tongues – Far Island Vision

The flute is such a wonderful instrument – and yet is rarely heard in reggae music. One of its greatest successes was it use on the I Jah Man Levi debut album ' Haile I Hymn' set – but I'm still not sure who played the flute on that album.

Free Joseph hails from Dominica – and just like the brethren from the Virgin Islands – his into the deep roots sound.

It's the sound of the heavy sounds of the early to mid seventies. And although this album was recorded in New York City – you can that the people who made it know and love that sound from Jamaica!!

And they do a great job in re-creating it. Names like Derrick Bourne on bass – and Joseph Lambert on drums, Armstrong James on organ, and Jazzy Smith on guitars – are not names that most reggae people will know. Just in the same way that very few people knew who played on the sessions in the sixties and seventies in Jamaica. Even today most of them are a mystery.

Yet it's the sound they create that is important. It's sound that is big and heavy – perfect for the flute of Free Joseph to weave his wonderful melodies that reach back to Africa.

A truly remarkable album – and one that puts Free Joseph and his flute at the forefront of reggae instrumentalists.