Entertainment

Combinations worth staging

( L - R ) Ninja Man and Shabba

AFTER SEEING TERROR Fabulous at the recent Beenie Man Summer Sizzle in Clarendon and listening to Remember The Days from Bushman's Nyah Man Chant album, it occurred to me that there are quite a few outstanding combination songs that are too rarely performed - if ever, come to think of it.

Of course Remember The Days features Bushman, Daddy Screw, Delly Ranks and Sasha, while Terror Fabulous features in two outstanding combinations which it would be good to hear performed properly live. One is Action with Nadine Sutherland, who also features in the other, Anything For You, along with Snow, Buju Banton, Beenie Man, Louie Culture and Kulcha Knox. All three songs are from the early to mid 1990s.

A chore

Even as recently as the 2001 It Was Written, with Stephen Marley, Jr. Gong and Capleton ­ as well as a rapper whose name I just can't remember­ getting the performers together to deliver the song was a chore. It happened at the Reggae Sumfest following the Grammy win for the Half-Way Tree album, but I have seen Capleton deliver his part of the song solo many a time and also seen Jr. Gong and Stephen Marley do the same.

Back in the early 1990s again, after Ninja Man put Shabba to rest with a teasing 'dodo pants' at Sting, there was a remake of Admiral Tibbet's Serious Time with Ninja and Shabba. Who can forget when Ninja comes in with 'revelation a reveal...'?. Was that one ever performed live as it is on the record? It is very doubtful.

Then there was the Dead and Alive combination of Tenor Saw and Buju Banton, which simply could not be done live. The Guyanese group First Born now faces the same situation, as they have a combination with Dennis Brown.

It is good that the combinations of Bling Dawg and Vybz Kartel ("fools wanna war but it aint easy"), as well as Sasha and Turbulence, make the transfer from record to stage on a pretty regular basis. Macka Diamond and Lady G also discuss their man desires on stage regularly as well.

There is one combination that may or may not happen on stage, though, and that is the Sizzla and Jah Cure Divide and Rule.