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-- by Basil Walters Observer staff reporter

It's hard to explain, how the Reggae scene in Switzerland today is dominated by roots and cultural artistes of the 70s, whose message is heavily focused on an afrocentric world view and highly critical of a Eurocentric way of life and belief system. This is no less puzzling for visiting Swiss music historian, journalist and record producer Marc Ismail, who was hard-pressed to explain how a country like Switzerland, with an almost 100 per cent white population, embraces a music that by and large extols virtues of Rastafari.

Another revelation from Ismail, is that as far as Reggae is concerned, there is no generation gap in terms of Reggae among his country's seven million inhabitants. The acts that are big in Switzerland, touring there sometimes twice per year, include Burning Spear, Max Romeo, Toots, Israel Vibrations. There is also home to the legendary Lee Scratch Perry.

"The most popular reggae artistes in Switzerland and in Europe are the 70s roots artistes, the most militant Rasta artistes. And this is something very interesting to study, because you think the artistes that sing about love would be the more popular...," Ismail argued.

"But no," he stressed, "the artistes that sing about repatriation, His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie, slavery and their forefathers are the most popular ones. Those young people (in Switzerland), their forefathers were not taken from Africa, so they don't have any reason to repatriate...or singing about life in the ghetto, there is no ghetto in Switzerland. Some people have a hard life, but nothing compares to what people are experiencing here in Jamaica. It may sound strange but the music with the most impact is the roots music. And the artistes realise that and they have to perform the same songs again and again."

Ismail was in Jamaica for a presentation organised by the Department of Literatures in English in association with the Institute of Caribbean Studies at UWI.

Speaking under the theme, It a Go Dread Inna Switzerland: Reggae Music as a Bridge between Worlds, the record producer, with a passion for Jamaican dub music, explained how Wayne Smith's Sleng Teng, brought about a digital evolution in Switzerland to the point where it created a divide among the fans. For while some were catching on to the new sound, others were slow in terms of their appreciation of it.

Added he; ".there would be one part of the audience that would love that new style, still listening and wanting to know what's going on in Jamaica to get the newest music and to follow the evolution. Then the other part of it is some who didn't understand this change and were very disappointed of it because they had discovered first roots reggae played by musicians and to them it ought to stay that way..."

Notwithstanding, even though to some extent, dancehall music sparked a lot of interest, it is confined mainly to dances where it is being played heavily. But when it comes to live performances it is the vintage roots and culture artistes that are on top of things.

"Now in 2009 in Switzerland we have 15 bands that play mostly roots reggae, some of them play dancehall too, some play ska because ska is very big in Germany," Ismail noted.

".....Over the past four to five years," he goes on, "we are experiencing a very strong revival with very young listeners. This struck me when I was here two years ago. I celebrated my 30th birthday here in Kingston and I was very lucky because there was a show with artistes I love like Ken Boothe, the Cables, Leroy Sibbles, Pat Kelly. And I was sitting there looking around and the audience, I would say, average age, was 50/60 years old. If you take the very same show to Switzerland the audience would be 20 years old. Because it doesn't have anything to do with generation it just that, it's not their parents' music, it is their music even if they are 15...so the same people in the same age, would go and see Vybz Kartel and Mavado and their friends would go and see Ken Boothe."

Switzerland's introduction to reggae came during the ska explosion in England in the late 70s, via the 2 Tone era, Ismail said. 2 Tone Records was an English label that released mostly ska and reggae-influenced music with a punk rock and pop music overtone. Within the history of ska music, it is classified as its second wave.

"And to many of them (Swiss fans) ska was the English side of reggae, because at the same time reggae was exploding, was 2 Tone that came from England with a ska revival 15 years after ska ruled Jamaica but then people thought it had been created in England," Ismail explained.

"So it was a great discovery for them to realise that actually ska was the grandfather of this genre of music, reggae. And after the ska they discovered another wonderful style between ska and reggae that was rock steady," he added.

SOURCE
published: Sunday | October 25, 2009 | Jamaica Observer
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Entertainment/
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