July ended with the premiere of a tremendous Latin American production. "Sounds of Freedom" It is the name of the new album of the trans-Andean backing band "Gregory's Guardians", the first tribute in Spanish to the mythical Black Uhuru and that has the participation of prominent singers from the Latin American reggae scene.
The album produced by the Argentine label Negril Music Studio rescues 10 classics of the Jamaican band Black Uhuru translated into Spanish and performed by renowned guests such as Chileans Quique Neira, Kingoroots, Y Balaguero; Bahiano, Chelo Zimbabwe, Rey, M.Roots Y Fedaroots from Argentina, Javier Alert from Colombia, Y Jahricio from Costa Rica, thus completing the list.
Reggae Chalice spoke with the outstanding Chilean artists who participate in this production, who shared their experiences and agreed to feel honored to participate in a tribute to a high-level Jamaican band with great influence for Reggae lovers.
The first time that Quique Neira -the most internationally known Chilean artist with a long career in Reggae-, heard Black Uhuru was in the late eighties, in the program “Reggae Session” which at that time broadcast Radio Tiempo and conducted Doctor Reggae (Richard Paulmann). Remember how captivating her singing style was, he also remembers his meeting with Duckie Simpson, leader and creator of this group, on a trip to Kingston and the moment he shared the stage with Mykal Rose at a Festival in Switzerland in 2008.
“How will they understand, my participation in a tribute album to this great artistic proposal that is Black Uhuru is simply natural, organic, desired and even mystical. "Sounds of freedom" (Sounds Of Freedom) is the first tribute album from the Latin world of Reggae to these outstanding Jamaican artists. Beauties and blessings of living in music. I am very grateful for the opportunity”, expressed Quique Neira who interprets in Spanish “Guess who´s coming to dinner”.
In a similar sense, Balaguero He commented that “for me it is an achievement based on the fact that it is the first production of several artists in which I participate in Argentina, It is the first official cover that I do alone, so on that side it has a lot of meaning ", said the artist, in addition to relieving the pride that he deserves to interpret one of his favorite songs by the Jamaican band such as "Sinsemilla".
For Federico Soto Roland, album art producer, "After Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, Black Uhuru is perhaps the most listened to reggae band in the world, and his contribution to the history of our music is immense, while counting on Sly & Robbie as a rhythmic base, who revolutionized reggae ", commented.
The also member of Los Guardianes de Gregory added that “it was quite a challenge to adapt the lyrics of Michael Rose, and at the same time, the rhythmic foundations of Sly & Robbie are by themselves very different from the traditional reggae sound of Marley or bands like Roots Radics., but I think we achieved a good synthesis of both things ".
It should be noted that "Sonidos de Libertad" is the fourth tribute album by the band "Los Guardianes de Gregory", his previous forays into this tribute format were with Gregory Isaacs, Israel Vibration and Don Carlos.
