Jah Screw

The Time label… is it just your label, or is it with Ranking Joe? “Just on my own... Joe never take no part at all in this work.”

But you are still working with him?

“Yeah.”

How did you get involved with the music?

“You see I get involved with the music from the sixties. From I was a little boy. I used to love sound... sound systems. That's where it all started, dealing with the sound. In dem time you use to play a special record – you understand me? When I say 'special'. I mean I used to make my own music, me and Ranking Joe, use to make our own special music. Which can only be played by yourown sound. So anyone who listen to our sound is going to hear something special. You get me? Another sound don't play our stuff. In dem times, the people use to look forward to hearing good stuff. And new stuff and special. So I make it for our sound alone.”

How would you get the music? “I spend my own money on putting it together.” And this goes back to the sixties? You haven't been producing since the sixties have you?

“Yeah, just for the sound alone.” What artists did you work with? Or was it just rhythm tracks? “Yeah, dubs. Sometimes voice some artists, but only for the sound. Like Junior Delgado and a few of those guys. Cut the dub - sing over the dub just for the sound.”

And the first sound you worked with? “Echo Vibration, from Greenwich Farm. That's where I am from Greenwich Farm. But as time go along and the politics, you knowwhat I mean... Maybe you heard of EchoVibration on a small scale. It wasn't a sound like Stur-Gav or Ray Symbolic. It was a sound that play any stuff. Calypso, Reggae, Soul. That's where I start. I used to play in clubs. Till as time go by, late 68' I started to play Channel One sound.”

And then you work with Ranking Joe?

“We meet thru Ray Symbolic. It was in the mid 70's.”

Joe and Screw then joined Stur-Gav before returning to Ray Symbolic. What was your first released production?

“It was with Joe, 'African Ting'… then the album 'Shaolin Temple' by Ranking Joe on the Sharpe Axe label. Before that we were just making them and keeping them.”

What has happened to Sharpe Axe now? “It belonged to the both of us, but it’s Joe's now. Time change and I feel I got to change.”

Screw smiles and Jah Life laughs. Jah Life, who's been listening to our interview, shouts out 'Time'.” It dawns on me then that Screw is referring to his new label 'TIME' when he speaks of Time.

Is that the main reason for starting your own label?

“Well I would love to play a sound again, but due to the things that you’ve got to go thru on a sound I don't want to go back to it. I prefer to stick to the music fully. Me prefer to play a sound in New York now. Anytime me a go to New York, I'll play a sound. But I don't fancy Jamaica.”

What about over here? “I don't fancy that either.” Who would you play in New York? “Me would play African Love in New York. And Jah Life... a little scale, but no matter me still play it.”

Now you are producing and releasing music, that is a lot of responsibility?

“I can manage it. My real big aim is to have something like Greensleeves. I have a lot of stuff coming out. An Earl Cunningham, two album with Earl Sixteen. I have one named 'Superstar'.” Didn't you put that out with Joe on Jam Rock out of Miami a couple of years ago? “Yeah. It was called 'Superduper'. That's

right!”

What musicians are you working with on your productions, The Radics? “The Radics, and We The People, half and half.”

Where do you do your recording now? Still Channel One?

“Channel One, my favourite studio, I love the sound of Channel One.”The last time we spoke you was working on a dub album sound system style?

“They love my mix. I have a new dub album coming named 'Dub Cut'. A Various Artists album, and some disco.” The man said it! 'Under Me Sensi' by

Barrington Levy is some disco!!! At the time of the interview it was still a dub plate, that Jah Life enjoyed playing around with on his friends expensive HiFi. Again and again Jah Life hauled and pulled 'Under Me Sensi' to the delight of Screw and Barrington.

Who I was trying to persuade to give me an interview. “Next Year.” was the best I could get out of him that day. He was too busy doing what looked like the 'Shoulder Move'. Barrington was obviously pleased with his latest recording. It took longer with myself. Not until the tune had locked itself into the

number one position in the reggae chart, did its sparse rhythm and Dance Hall lyrics appeal to me. It was good to see Jah Screw with such a massive hit on his label that has put out so much great over the previous months. Including a Barry Brown album – 'Right Now' as well as discos from Earl Cunningham and Triston Palma's 'Get Ready You Are The Best', Carlton Livingston's 'Your Loving' and Earl Sixteen's 'Warning'. After 'Under Mi Sensi' disco came the Earl Cunningham album 'John Tom' which is another great work.

With 'Under Mi Sensi' still doing well in the early autumn, Time gave us the 7” released instrumental version of it called 'Nice' on (Beverleys) and it was followed in November by Barrington Levy's second release for Time 'Here I Come'. It was recorded at Easy Street with the Roots Radics. And what a perfect

follow up it was to 'Under Mi Sensi', Dennis Brown's 'Revolution' rhythm has never sounded better. In true Dance Hall style the rhythm has been give the stop/start

treatment over which Barrington has voiced lyrics on two subjects. The first concerns his relationship with the mother of his child. The second tells us all about how good Volcano Hi Power is. Both sets of lyrics are mixed together and then are sung as one. This idea (not new) together with the use of the stop/start rhythm takes the Dance Hall style one massive step forward. It would be truly ironic if Barrington and the Radics take us into a new era of the music. Perhaps a new

time for the music would be a better expression as this Time it’s Jah Screw at the controls. His latest work now includes an album with Johnny Osbourne called 'Reality'.in less then a year Jah Screw's Time label has already made quite an impact on the reggae scene. With his long experience in the music,

it is to be hoped that in the goodness of TIME, that impact will be greater.