 Many
reggae young bloods take up the task of soul guidance, but Morgan Heritage is
the widely acknowledged leader of the pack. Mad up of 5 out of the 29 children
fathered by reggae star Denroy Morgan - who scored a gold-certified single with
'81's "I'll Do Anything For You" - Heritage delivers the message with
a warm, inclusive spirituality that's as tangible as the band's muscular,
rope-stretched-taut chops and fresh lyrical inspiration. Exuding the strength of
unbreakable family ties and grounded in the firm foundation of roots reggae's
faith in music as a carrier wave of a higher consciousness, the "Royal
Family of Reggae" is reggae's greatest assurance that the music has not
lost its soul to the international pop machine. Yet on More Teachings, the
latest 71 Records/VP Records set from Mr. Mojo (22), Lukes (23), Peter (25),
Grandpa (26), and Una (27), the Morgan clan takes another giant step toward
Heritage's inevitable conquest of the international pop audience.
"We've heard the message before from the reggae legends," says Mr.
Mojo.
"It's the message of Rastafari, and we stipulate in that message that His
Majesty [Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I] is Christ returned. He's the Black
messiah sent to redeem his people in the Diaspora, letting them know the
fullness that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Yet our message is that same as
Martin Luther King's and others. Mankind has to hear the same thing over and
over again. So we come not with nothing new, but to remind people of who they
really are."
It is said that those blessed with twin roots are the strongest, and Denroy
Morgan's children were born in Brooklyn, where he relocated in '61, and raised
with their ears tuned to a world of music. They learned to play R&B, rock
& roll, as well as reggae.
"All the children were educated in Springfield, MA," says Una,
"Our grandmother moved first, then called our dad and told him to move
there for the better education system and nicer environment. We came back to
Brooklyn on weekends to practice in our father's recording studio." Yet
within America, Morgan and his brood created a tiny pocket of Jamaica. "We
were always aware of American culture," says lead singer Peter. "But
Springfield is close to the countryside, like Jamaica. We even had chickens
running around our yards in both places. Our parents spoke to us only in
Jamaican [patois] at home, but our dad would urge us to speak more American. We
didn't want to. Home had a Jamaican, Rastafarian atmosphere."
Flipping the script on the usual reggae story, Heritage was a virtual unknown in
Jamaica when an awed MCA A&R exec signed the group in Montego Bay, hot off
the Reggae Sunsplash '92 stage. Miracles, the group's debut album, was released
in '94.
"At the time, majors were signing reggae because the deejay [reggae
rapping] thing was getting pop play with Mad Cobra, Shabba Ranks, and Patra,"
says Peter. "We were viewed as a Jackson Five story within reggae. When
they first saw us, they knew our music was reggae, but after we were finally
signed, they started dealing with us politically, telling us they want 'this'
and `that' type of song for pop
 radio.
During the two years we were making the album, the music got more and more
diluted from its original form. We had recorded almost 30 songs with Sly and
Robby and other Jamaican producers before and after Sunsplash, but MCA only
wanted one Sly and Robbie song.
Miracles is not authentic reggae. It's an MCA record with Morgan Heritage only
as the artists performing."
Heritage was
released from its contract late in '94. The following year, Morgan and his
family returned to Jamaica, settling in bucolic St. Thomas parish. For the
children raised in Brooklyn, it was a true homecoming, and they began digging
deeper to discover their musical/cultural roots by working with such famed local
producers as Bobby "Digital" Dixon and Lloyd "King Jammy"
James.
"They have a history in reggae and breaking many dancehall and reggae
artists," says Peter. "It was like working with Sly and Robbie but on
a more grassroots rather than an international level. That's what really brought
us into the Jamaican marketplace."
Protect Us Jah, produced by Bobby Digital and released in '97, by Brickwall/VP,
includes hit singles "Set Yourself Free," "Let's Make Up,"
"Live Up," and the set's title song, which was the first Heritage tune
to make the reggae world sit up and take notice of the group. One Calling,
produced by Jammy and released by Greensleeves/VP, spun off smash hits "God
Is God, " Trodding To Zion," "Coming Home" and the title
track.
Those albums resonate with a new-found authenticity. "It's just the pulse
of the people," Peter observes. "You won't get hip hop if you're not
from NY, LA, or places in America where you can feel the vibe. You feel the
reggae vibe here on the island. You can produce reggae anywhere, but it's not
going to feel like Jamaica. Reggae is the heartbeat of these people, it comes
from their pulse, so you have to mingle with the people and know what they're
about."
After their two Jamaican-produced albums, Heritage branched out to work with
other top recording studio giants - Philip "Fattis" Burrell, Donovan
Germaine, Tony Rebel, and [sax legend] Dean Frazier.
"Reggae Bring Back Love," released during the heights of World Cup
Reggae
Boyz fever, shot the group to reggae's frontlines. It was included in the
Heritage's ground-breaking fourth set, Don't Haffi Dread, (VP Records, '99),
also helmed by Bobby Digital, and featuring the title boomshot, "Don't
Haffi Dread," a tune that captured hearts and minds all over the world by
stressing the importance of the "content of one's character" rather
than such superficial concerns as hair style. It broke the group
internationally. Not surprisingly, the lyrical theme that one doesnıt have
to wear the customary dreadlocks to embrace Rastafarianism - sparked off a
reggae controversy that continues to this day.
"We don't argue the point," says Peter. "But sometimes, if we do
spend the time reasoning, they have to say, `It's true.'"
After the move to Jamaica, Heritage also set out to fulfill a not so hidden
agenda: resolving petty rifts that divide the local music community by creating
imaginative collaborations with leading artists, including younger stars Luciano,
Buju Banton, Capleton, and veteran singers like Toots Hibbert and Edi Fitzroy..
The "Morgan Heritage and Friends" album series, which has yielded 2
sterling volumes so far, impresses as much for its searing tracks as for
bringing together artists usually not found on the same package. The group also
began building its own productions.
"We've developed our artistic, writing, production, and executive sides, by
representing our own companies," Peter notes. "We've accomplished a
lot in the past 5 years we've been in Jamaica, and we thank Jah."
Says Una, "The advantage is that is everything stays within the family
business - management, the writing, production. Even if there's a disagreement,
we're right there with each other. We believe that the Creator has blessed us
with this mission of music, and we believe our message is universal because
everyone understands and feels love in one form or another."
More Teachings is alive with Heritage's euphoric family feeling and new spins on
the hoary Rastafarian credo that it's all about love. Over the group's own
productions, the set's eighteen tracks apply that lesson to topics that range
from equality and family unity, to the healing powers of music, to the faith
that the underclass can indeed transform the worldıs Babylon system and work.
Featuring the group's densely textured harmonies, sinewy leads, and firmly
swinging beats, Heritage comes up with some of the most buoyant interpretations
of reggae's "one drop" philosophy in recent memory.
"This new album is a dream come true for us," says Peter. "It's a
conceptual album, unfolding like a storybook. Don't Haffi Dread is the preface,
and More Teachings is the entire book about the true teachings of Haile Selassie.
We tell people how to live, to know Christ as your Lord and Savior while still
knowing the divinity of Haile Selassie, that he's Christ in his kingly
character, the returned Messiah."
More Teachings sails off an infectious positivism with a rousing opening track,
"Ready Or Not," as Peter sounds a classic reggae warning to the
faithful - the time of Judgement is now. The title track suffers no illusions in
its truth-telling. It features Peter and Gramps, who spits classic Yankee-style
sense in a brief, suitably tough verse. The brothers trade lyrical accounts of
"Blackman history" once again over the driving riddims of "Know
Your Past."
"Questions," a gentle test of faith for the listener,takes it down to
the more relaxed but equally intense tempos of a night-long, hand drum-propelled
Nyabingi gathering. Those ancient, African vibrations also buoy the promise of
"H.I.M Come," and in "See Things Clear," Peter's shimmering
prophesy equals the impeccable vocal purity of the late and sorely lamented
reggae legend, Garnet Silk. Old Testament fire and thunder rain down on the
heathen in "So Much Confusion," while the bouncy riddims "Seen
The Sun" evoke a feel-good Marleyesque mood, and a lilting "Down By
The River" takes the listener back to reggae's Golden Seventies, by
springboarding off a classically sweet Studio One riff. And the whole family
joins together to remind listeners that "love is the same all around the
world," in "What We Need Is Love."
More Teachings is clearly the group's crowning achievement so far, but Heritage
has also been busy spreading the love, producing other artists, including Jah
Cure, Bushman, Jahmali, and their father, for the family's labels. 71 Records
releases More Teachings in tandem with VP Records, and Heritage Music Group [HMG]
released the two Family & Friends sets. The family also produced the Sept.,
2000, Heritage album, Gunz in the Ghetto, another compilation featuring Heritage
with other artists, including Bounty Killer on the title song. LMS, a trio of
younger Heritage siblings, is already firing reggae imaginations with
high-octane performances. The family's next venture, "East Man
Project," is a group of three St. Thomas-based artist - singer Prince Theo,
dub poet Adigun, and deejay Don Marshall. "Eventually they'll have their
own band," says Peter. "But we're backing them for now. Hopefully,
their album will be out by Fall, 2001." The East Man Project artists are
also featured in Heritage's extravagant stage production.
Reggae culture may have embraced Morgan Heritage as the best hope for the
continuing success of roots & culture reggae, but Heritage insists that
"we're only vessels being used by the Divine Creator," says Una. Adds
Mr. Mojo: "We're simply deliverers of a word. We're plainly and simply a
family chosen to bring glory and gratification to the King."
|
