5 Sunday Interviews: Sylvan Morris, Sanchez, Nas, Junior Gong, Jimmy Cliff & Gentleman

© Shaun Roberts

With my whole body feeling like I was beaten up badly from playing some easy street court basketball for the first time this year, I have taken it very easy today so far.

After finishing some administrative stuff for seen. and finally filling out my membership application form for Help Jamaica! (something that you should definitely do, too), I browsed the web and stumbled upon a bunch of interesting interviews I’d like to share:

1) Sylvan Morris (via Babylon Falling) on his life as a recording studio engineer in Kingston, Jamaica:

… I never stop dancing. In other words, if I stop, they stop. If I’m around the board and the music start play, I start feel it and I start dance, and they observe me carefully! More times I actually hear them playing to my dance because they observe me through the glass. And the more I move, you hear a man lick a ting [play something]. You understand? So they are actually playing to the feel of what I am feeling. And if they see me stop dancing you just hear them say, “Hold on there man! Hold on there man! Brother Morris not feeling the tune! What you don’t like?” …

2) Sanchez (via Boomshots) on his latest album, the Tiger Woods moment on there, and his approach to cover versions:

… but if you notice, that song that I’m doing across to… us people, is a song that we know and play very well. So it’s only fair to put a reggae rhythm around it and call It our own. Y’understand? Cause even a simple song like “Loneliness” that’s an original done by Jermaine. A lot of people never even know that song was done by Jermaine Jackson yunno—they think I did it. [...] For real. Cause of we, we make people know them tune.

3) Nas & Jr. Gong (via Burden Clothing) on their upcoming (one month and one week to go!) »Distant Relatives« album, how their collaboration came about, and the influence of their parents on their music.

No.

4) Jimmy Cliff (via The Fader) on him entering the Rock’n'Roll hall of fame and touring the US again after a 5-year break:

I am happy for me, happy for Jamaica.

5) Gentleman (via Bunch TV) on his new LP »Diversity«, working together with the Firehouse band, Don Corleone, and Sugar Minott, and meeting his fellow German reggae artist Patrice at some traffic light in the middle of Kingston, Jamaica:

… Ich hab ihn damals in Deutschland nicht erreicht. Wir sind in Jamaica, in Kingston – dieser Millionen-Metropole – und ich sitz im Auto hinten auf dem Weg zum Studio. Mach’ meine Scheibe runter an der Ampel und guck nach rechts und guck nach hinten und da macht auch jemand seine Scheibe runter. Und das war Patrice…

 1 comment