Jah Life or Junjo?

[ns]

Or Linval, or is it Scientist?
Who in fact produced the early 80's Ja sound?
I don't suppose there's a simple answer to this, but it seems getting more and more confusing (at least for me! ).

Oh, and who's 'Melon'?


"There was also a question in court as to the validity of the documents signed by Junju Lawes as he was illiterate and Greensleeves knew this, in fact both Jah Life and Scientist say that Greensleeves would not work with them, only through Junju as they could get away with fooling him as he could not read or write. Scientist and Jah Life claim that this is why Junju was named as producer on over 30 + albums that he took to Greensleeves instead of them."

"Jah Life states that at no time was Jammys in the studio with them, it was only The Scientist, Jah Life and Junju’s brother ‘Melon.’ "

(From www.myspace.com/jammyslies, one sided probably, and a very sad read)

[kalcidis]

Regarding the Junjo-case there's a Swedish interview with him from 1983 (I'll scan it tomorrow ... or at least translate it) where he speaks about his deal with Greensleeves. In the interview he states that Greensleeves leased the music from him and not own the rights for it. If I don't remember wrong some of the controversy in the Scientist case was regarding that specific part.

Don't know who Melon was (... except that he was Junjo's brother apparently).

Still I would think that Junjo produced the early 80's sound. At least the majority from Greesleeves. There is much material overlapping with Jah Life and Junjo though ... which is understandable since they worked so close together for a long time. Thinking of the Barrington debut albums among other 'tings.

[Freddy C]

What about Don Mais? Didn't his productions predate Junjo's?

[riffy]

There's some interesting and informative chat happening over @ the snwmf site regarding Scientist. He's educating and telling some history.

[timp]

If you want to talk about an 80's sound you'd have to say the Radics were largely responsible for that. The resources that Junjo or whoever else was paying made available would have affected the specifics of that but I don't think you can lay the credit for this to any one individual.

I'm a little dubious about the comments re Junjo and Greensleeves. Firstly that assumes Greensleeves ONLY worked with Junjo which isn't true and secondly is assumes that Junjo was a bit thick as well as illiterate. Given some of his other runnings and the way he met his end you have to speculate that a)he wasn't stupid and b)that if someone crossed him they may well regret it.

[ns]

freddyc said:

What about Don Mais? Didn't his productions predate Junjo's?

I agree Don Mais did predate Junjo, and is very important.

kalcidis said:

Regarding the Junjo-case there's a Swedish interview with him from 1983 (I'll scan it tomorrow ... or at least translate it) where he speaks about his deal with Greensleeves. In the interview he states that Greensleeves leased the music from him and not own the rights for it. If I don't remember wrong some of the controversy in the Scientist case was regarding that specific part.

Don't know who Melon was (... except that he was Junjo's brother apparently).

Still I would think that Junjo produced the early 80's sound. At least the majority from Greesleeves. There is much material overlapping with Jah Life and Junjo though ... which is understandable since they worked so close together for a long time. Thinking of the Barrington debut albums among other 'tings.

I'm not really interested in the copyright debate. I feel such debates can never be solved. But as you say, the early Barrington tunes seem to be co- (or doubly-) produced, which raises some questions.

What was the relationship between Jah Life and Junjo? From what I read the artists all had great respect for Junjo. I always believed he changed the way artists were treated in the music business (a la Bunny Lee), establishing a kind of an alliance between producer and artist. A trend that intensified later with Jammys, Denis Star etc. (and which seems to have ended in the early 90's).

If Scientist was as importatnt as he says he was, why didn't he become an important producer as Jammys and Tubbys did? Was it because of his young age?

timp said:

I'm a little dubious about the comments re Junjo and Greensleeves. Firstly that assumes Greensleeves ONLY worked with Junjo which isn't true and secondly is assumes that Junjo was a bit thick as well as illiterate. Given some of his other runnings and the way he met his end you have to speculate that a)he wasn't stupid and b)that if someone crossed him they may well regret it.

I still think Junjo was the main power behind the early 80's musical revolution. He got something out of DJs no one before was able to achieve.

[kalcidis]

I doubt that Junjo had any actual say in the sound of the music. I often think of the interview done with the late Tero Kaski where he speaks about Junjo's way of working;

»He had a good concept: Roots Radics with Steely, Channel One-studio with Soldgie at the controls. Soldgie and Scientist mixing... They knew what Junjo wanted and Junjo knew that they knew what they were doing. Sometimes he just came to the studio with a bunch of guys and said: "play these rhythms". Then he went asleep and woke up only later to check what the guys had gotten on tape.«

How I see it personally is that he and a lot of the producers where just the financial support (as TimP says) while the musicians did most of the work. Thinking about Leroy Sibbles and Mittoo at Studio One while Coxsone was the »producer«.

[wellcharge]

There is a difference between Junjo's Radics output and other producers Radics collaborations, I think. The Junjo stuff more often has sweet sounding horns and "sugar coating". Also Junjo stuff is almost consistently high quality, which is imo not the case with Linval and Jah Thomas, who have released a lot more "happy go lucky" dancehall tunes without much variation or good songwriting, albeit mostly with heavy riddims.

[ns]

Didn't Junjo also manage the soundsystem where 'his' artists practiced their new tunes?

I mean, he might as well dozed off at the studio, but the artists probably knew what was expected from them, and at the end of the day, he would probably review their output and decide what will be released. So, in a way, though sleeping, he was still in command.

kalcidis said:

He had a good concept: Roots Radics with Steely, Channel One-studio with Soldgie at the controls. Soldgie and Scientist mixing... They knew what Junjo wanted and Junjo knew that they knew what they were doing. Sometimes he just came to the studio with a bunch of guys and said: "play these rhythms". Then he went asleep and woke up only later to check what the guys had gotten on tape.

My point exactly.

I'm sure it was all one big collaboration. But as Wellcharge says, when Junjo's credited as producer, it sounds different.

[riffy]

hmmmmmm..


www.dubmusic.com/3/The_Scientis_respond_to_blown_sound_system.mp3

[ns]

Those Scientist replies (if he is 'Izhmel') on the SNWMF board seem rather strange and confused. It seems most Jamaican veterans can't help but build a huge load of frustration over the years, and rightly so I'm afraid.

[riffy]

Yes I, the reading does require some sifting, but it's all intelligable if you read everything carefully. He's definitely frustrated as most folks would be if they had put so so much in and then people start trashing for no real good reason. susu dat.

bless