Jah Shaka

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jah Shaka 2002 in New York

Jah Shaka (also known as the Zulu Warrior ; * around 1950 in Chapleton , Clarendon Parish , Jamaica ) is a London- based sound system operator, deejay , dub mixer, producer and musician. With his Jah Shaka sound system , he became a legendary figure on the British dub and reggae scene.

Life

Jah Shaka, who was born in Jamaica, came to England with his parents in 1956 and they moved to south-east London. He started making music in 1962 when he formed a band with school friends. He was close to the Rastafarian movement from an early age and felt inspired by people like Haile Selassie I. , Marcus Garvey , Malcolm X , Angela Davis and Steve Biko . In the late 1960s he joined the local Freddie Cloudburst sound system. In the early 1970s, he founded his own sound system. His stage name is made up of Jah , the Rasta short form of Yahweh , the name of God, and Shaka , the name of King Shaka , a warrior and Zulu king of the 18th and 19th centuries. In contrast to most other sound systems, Jah Shaka mostly takes on the most important tasks on his own, he is deejay and selector - sings, puts on records, dances ecstatically, mixes sounds and controls effects.

He quickly made a name for himself in the mid-1970s. A key moment was when he faced Lloyd Coxsone in a clash in 1976 , one of the hottest sound systems in England at the time. It ended with Coxsone realizing he'd lost and breaking off the dance. Later, well-known personalities from the London reggae scene, such as Earl Sixteen or Yabby You, appeared regularly at Jah Shakas Dances . Other careers began inspired by Shaka, such as that of the Disciples . Jah Shaka developed great musical influence, not least on British dub.

At the end of the 1970s Shaka started his own label, on which he published his own productions, such as the Commandments of Dub series since the early 1980s. Recordings by Horace Andy , Max Romeo and the Twinkle Brothers were also released there . Over the course of time, Jah Shaka also collaborated with well-known British artists such as Aswad and Mad Professor , but they appeared on other labels. He traveled several times to Jamaica and produced there in King Tubby 's legendary studio in Waterhouse or Music Works Studio of Gussie Clarke , worked among others with veterans like Willie Williams and Max Romeo, but also with young musicians like Icho Candy . A highlight of his career as a producer was his album Dub Symphony , released in 1990 by Iceland's subsidiary Mungo .

Jah Shaka actually stood outside the mainstream in the 1980s, when the trend in dancehall was towards digital sounds and slackness , while his sound system started with a single turntable next to the mixer and he stuck to his "Roots and Culture" program as a Rastafarian . In addition to socially critical issues, he has always mainly addressed spiritual issues from Rasta culture, accompanied by the thundering bass and monotonous, hypnotic sounds with which he puts his audience in trance-like states. His dances develop a mystical atmosphere that often seems to the audience more like religious or political events than normal party events. Jah Shaka's spiritual understanding of music is illustrated by a quote:

“I grew up in church as a teenager, which may be why our music is sometimes compared to gospel . After all, there are plenty of references to the Almighty to bring people closer to God. If we can save a soul per night by hanging up, we've done a good job. "

Shaka was seriously injured in a house fire in 2000 and was incapacitated for a long time. He then continued to perform regularly in Great Britain and occasionally elsewhere in Europe, the USA or Japan. He was often represented at larger festivals, for example the Summerjam in Cologne, the Uppsala Reggae Festival or the Rototom Sunsplash in Italy.

Jah Shaka supports various social projects in Jamaica and Ghana, such as schools, hospitals and youth football teams.

Discography

  • Commandments of Dub, Vol. 1 - 10 (1982 to 1991)
  • Jah Shaka Meets Mad Professor in Ariwa Studio (1984)
  • Message from Africa (1985)
  • Jah Dub Creator (Commandments of Dub, Vol. 5) (1985)
  • Jah Shaka Meets Aswad in Addis Ababa Studio (1985)
  • Disciples (1988)
  • Dub Symphony (1990)
  • Africa Drum Beats (Commandments Of Dub 10) (1991)
  • New Testaments of Dub 1 - 2 (1992)
  • Dub Salute, Vol. 1 - 5 (1994 to 1996)
  • New Decade of Dub (with Mad Professor) (1996)
  • Authentic Dubwise (2002)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c David Katz: Jah Shaka - Spiritual Sound Warrior, see under web links
  2. ^ Rainer Bratfisch, Reggae-Lexikon , 1999, ISBN 3-89602-207-5

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Jah Shaka
ALTERNATIVE NAMES The Zulu Warrior
BRIEF DESCRIPTION London-based sound system operator, deejay, dub mixer and producer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Chapleton , Clarendon Parish , Jamaica