"Every record has a story" - R. Zee Jackson

Every record in my collection has a story. Because of the fact that I hardly bought my stuff on the internet almost every record has a little story. I can still remember where I bought it or who provided me the inspiration to buy a certain album. As a collector I used to spent my days as a hard core record hunter. With my good friend I travelled regularly to Antwerpen, Gent, Brussel, Paris and London to hunt for records. Fairs, shops, wholesalers we went everywhere and at some point for me it was more the journey then the records. Here is just a story how a specific album ended up in my collection.

This story is one about "coincidence" or maybe about the fact that there is not such thing. In may 2008 I bought a stack of reggae records from a private collector up North in Groningen. While checking them out I bumped into an album I didn`t know. It was "Seat up" by R. Zee Jackson. The sleeve looked interesting and I never saw the label before. So I give it one spin and put it aside to listen to it more carefully before deciding to add it to my collection.

In july of that same year I spend time with my family in Jamaica. On Reggae Beach near Ocho Rios I met a very friendly grey bearded Rasta man. He introduced himself to me as Castro Pink. We chat about reggae and he told me about his production work and so on. At one point he gave me his business card. The card said: "Esso Jaxxon, stage name; R. Zee Jackson". I was very surprised and I told him about his album that I found the other day. He told me the story behind the album. How they were booked as a backing band for a Jamaican artist (can`t remember who it was, I thought Alton Ellis)  on his Canadian and American tour. But there was delay because of visa problems and they killed time by recording the tracks for the album. And that was how it came out in 1980. And that`s how this album ended up in my collection. Musically it`s a solid roots album, check it out.

Flying D

Support your local record shop

In these Corona hard times with all this rules on social distancing a lot of shops close their doors temporarely. My local record shop keeps the store open under strict rules; You have to sanatize your hands when you come in en no more then 5 customers allowed inside and of course you have to keep the 1.5 meter social dinstance. I promised myself to go there every saturday in this difficult periode to buy at least one record every time. You have to support your local record shop. Record shops are vital; music is the staff of life.

I used to travel allover the world to visit record shops and fairs to hunt for records. A lot of the shops I went to in eigthies and the nineteens are long gone. They died out by the competition of the internet or just by the economical downfall. I still meet a lot of other collectors who complain about the solid record shops that are no longer there. Of course there are exeptions.

This made me realize I am still a lucky guy because my local "used" record shop that helped me most to start up my reggae collection is still up and running in a healthy state up to this date. Diskid opened his doors in Zwolle in 1987 while I was buying reggae albums for some years already. Up to that time I always had to travel to other cities to find my reggae stuff. Diskid was a general used record shop that made it possible for me to dig through loads of used records on a weekly base. For years I visited the shop every week. First just for finding records, but later on also to have a good time and have some good discussions on various topics with the owner and other regular customers. I also helped the owner one day in buying reggae stock at some wholesalers in Amsterdam.

The shop moved a couple of times to better locations and some years ago the owner also started to organize a yearly record fair with mostly private sellers. I attended there on most occasions with a full Jamaican Music stall and sometimes I had to spin a little reggae set on the sound system. Now having children and other priorities besides collecting and selling records I don`t visit my local record shop as often but still once a month I pop by for an update. And nowadays the facebook connection is also working. But as I said in these Corona time I will try to visit every week to support my local record shop.

I remember once in those early days (1989?) I was still studying and I had this birthday party at my house. My student friends gave me this special gift voucher issued by my local record shop. It was a hand writen coupon with the value of 25 dutch guilders. They went to the shop and asked the owner if they could buy a gift voucher for his regular customer. So he just improvised that one! And of course on my first visit after that birthday he had this special album for me behind the counter. That was Ras Michael - Kibir Am Lak! By the way later on he started to issue official printed gift vouchers! :) Diskid is still out there and I had some great catches out there and always a good time! Big respect to all record shops!

Flying D

Reggae rules!

That`s the nice thing from having some good shelves with records. You don`t have to play music to enjoy them. I can just pick my little relax moment after a busy day at work in standing in front of the shelves with my record collection. Just pick some things out and look at the sleeves. It is like going through memories and having a laugh about some nice sleeves. I saw this one today.Reggae rules!! Watch how John Travolta and his Disco is smashed by this Zap Pow super hero! 

Flying D

Delroy Wilson and the Power of Dub

This story is about the power of dub and just a little bit about Delroy Wilson. Actually Delroy Wilson is only on the sleeves of the two records that this story is about. It was in 2003 when I was in Jamaica at the house of one of my sisters - in law. There I met Mello who used to operate a small local sound system with his brothers.

He told me it was like how a lot of Jamaicans operated their own sound. In the good old days you gained much respect from the community when you owned a sound system in Jamaica. “Im boss man! Im haffe a sound!”. And that is how Count Mello started out by the end of the sixties. He ended his sound system activities in 1990. When I told him that I was interested in reggae music, boxes and scandal bags full of 45’s and albums started to appear from under his bed and from several different closets in the house. And every time I thought I saw it all, more records appeared from somewhere.

At one point I was going through a box of albums and I found two of the same Delroy Wilson - Prophesy copies. I looked in the sleeves and I saw that both records were pressed on a Music Ism label with the title "Richie Mac - Jah is I light"? While studying these records Mello asked "You like the dubs?". I asked him what he was talking about and he told me that those were dub records I was looking at. Dub records? How do you mean?

A "small" set of speakers and the mixing desk of the sound system were still connected in the back room of the house. Now in modern style with two CD players. For the occasion a turntable appeared from under the bed and was plugged in. Mello took one of the records and put it on the turntable. He adjusted some of controls on the mixing desk and started the turntable. The first sound that came out of the speakers was a clear and nice horns line followed by a heavy and warm bassline. When the JA style speakers brought in the drums the a full horns dub filled the room. It was such a magical moment when those vibes filled the room and I was totally astonished by what I heard. I knew I encountered the power of dub in full effect on that moment.

It turned out that I found two Aquarius recorded dub albums: "LP - No.3 and 4 - Dub - Aquarius" according to the matrixes. Although the stamps on the label mention "dub lp - 1 and 2. Two solid albums full of nice and heavy dubs. I still love to play the track that was unvealed to me first. Just to revive this magical memory in dub! Mello told me they just pressed those two copies for him when he was at Dynamic Sounds one day to buy some ammunition for his Sound System. Probably they used random labels and sleeves!? Well they are specials for me!! Maybe somebody out here can fill me in about the proper labels and sleeves for these records?!