Toots and The Maytals Album: “Light Your Light”

Often we may hear of bands we listened to in the past with recent releases and I won't name names, but I often feel that a band has lost something in the ensuing time, it might not have to do with age but just in the direction that music and reggae say have gone!

And I read one reggae fan with a webpage that said basically, Toots and the Maytals basically have their own style and might even be thought to be outside of a definition of being Reggae, Soul and even Ska and Rocksteady ...even if some commentators point to T and the M as being the first users of the term Reggae with their song "Do the reggay."

First off, though many of us knew of Bob Marley even when he was alive and maybe some of us had his records, that is not the end of much less the beginning of reggae.

So, it must pertain to most people, like what was their first reggae outside of Bob Marley? Well for me (not including American top 40, say Desmond Drekker's "Israelites" when we really had not the feintest idea of reggae or even some Johnny Nash) it wasn't so much a reggae song but all the same, it was the Skatalites doing "Guns of Navaronne."

Although it is out there, I rarely find the great version of "Guns of Navaronne" that was so stunningly good that I found on the compilation album "Ska Party '67"; but on this Toots and the Maytals CD the track Amazon has listed as "Guns of Navaronne" is actually on the CD listed as "Medley: Tribute to Coxsone/Guns of Navaronne" and though it is done in part with harmonies, it is a very faithful rendition of the orginal along with the man made vocal effects in it and maybe, what is it? the accompanying trombone solo. Absolutely marvelous and a fine tribute to Dodd. To authentically bring back the original hit but basically without the brass section is remarkable and moving.

I don't know if Toots' albums have ever been altogether that strong, being the maker of very memorable and hit songs like "Monkey Man", "Sweet and Dandy" or even landmark songs like "Pressure Drop" but this effort is on the heels of his last Grammy winner in 2005, "True Love" and is equally excellent.

The album opens with "Johnny Coolman", apparently a number he did in the past before and I'd say one of the best on this effort in definitive "Funky Kingston Town" style. Otis Redding's "Pain in my heart" and "Celia" are other numbers that stand out along with "Premature" featuring Bonnie Raitt.