Stur Gav Hi-Fi
Stero A The Best: The Story of
King Stur Gav Hi-Fi
The remarkable story of U Roy’s early career has been told so
often that it has become the stuff of legend among reggae
circles, and not without good reason. Through his groundbreaking
performances on King Tubby’s Home-Town Hi-Fi, and the series of
chart-topping hits in their wake, U Roy forever changed reggae
music and the dancehall culture at its core. Although such a
meteoric rise to fame is not uncommon for reggae artists, U Roy
was unusual in that he did not descend into obscurity with equal
speed. Though he was never to repeat the tremendous success of
his initial recordings, U Roy nevertheless had a powerful and
direct influence on Jamaican music for well over a decade past
his popularity’s peak in 1970, primarily through the sound
system that he founded and ran. This sound, King Stur Gav Hi-Fi,
not only served as a deejay academy at which some of the best
microphone talent of the era could hone their skills, but also
provided a platform for these disciples to take their teacher’s
style to the forefront of reggae music.
Despite U Roy’s initial popularity, and the accompanying wave of
imitators eager to share in his success, his delivery did not
remain in fashion indefinitely. Adapting the innovations of Big
Youth, mid-70s deejays turned away from U Roy’s ballistic
jive-talk, instead favoring rootsy, cultural chant. Yet, by the
late 70s, U Roy’s style was again dominant in the dancehalls.
Many artists shared the responsibility for this shift: U Brown
and Ranking Trevor, who deejayed for King Attorney (soon to
become Socialist Roots) just as U Roy once had, and whose
deliveries were almost wholly faithful to U Roy’s style, never
were regulars on Stur Gav, but scored hits in the later part of
the 70s and played a significant role in bringing U Roy’s
musical tradition back into popularity. General Echo and Lone
Ranger, who remained faithful to the feel of U Roy’s delivery
while making creative stylistic innovations, also had a huge
influence on the path 1980s deejaying was to take. But in
addition to these younger deejays, it was U Roy himself who,
through his sound system, ensured that his style was to be the
foundation for all deejaying of the 1980s and beyond.
Perhaps wisely, U Roy was not the lead deejay of his own sound
system, which might have condemned it to being an "oldies" sound
irrelevant to the new generation of dancehall patrons; instead,
he allowed younger, more popular DJs to take center stage. In
its first incarnation, Stur Gav was dominated by Ranking Joe on
the microphone and selector Jah Screw at the turntable. Joe,
formerly known as Little Joe, essentially turbocharged U Roy’s
rhyming style: his chat was wild, lightning-fast, and full of
barely-contained explosive energy, often punctuated with wails,
shrieks, ululations, "oinks," "bims," and similar interjections.
Infectiously dynamic and full of energy, Joe’s delivery was
perfectly suited for live performances, and though his vinyl
recordings did not always capture his dancehall capabilities, he
nevertheless found chart success through several major hits.
With Joe on the microphone, Stur Gav was one of the biggest
sounds of the era, only challenged by Stereophonic with General
Echo as its lead DJ; the two sounds came together in spectacular
sound clashes on several occasions.
In 1980, however, disaster struck: the sound was destroyed in
one of the many incidents of politically-motivated violence
associated with the year’s election, and Ranking Joe and Jah
Screw, who had both been working for Ray Symbolic for some time,
left the sound permanently. Though this may have seemed a deadly
blow to the sound, it in fact only set the stage for a new
beginning. After a brief hiatus, U Roy rebuilt the sound in
1981, and Joe’s departure did not prove fatal: U Roy had found
new disciples to take Stur Gav forward into the new decade. The
rejuvenated sound featured Josey Wales and Charlie Chaplin as
lead deejays, with the late Inspector Willie serving as
selector. Again, U Roy allowed the younger micmen to dominate
the sound, with the "Teacher" only occasionally taking up the
mike to chat.
Of the new lineup, the "Colonel" Josey Wales was the most
celebrated. He was the only deejay close to challenging
Yellowman’s dominance during the early 80s, and his records for
Lawes, George Phang, Bunny Roots, and Ossie Thomas often met
with chart success. Onto U Roy’s stylistic foundation Josey
added a no-nonsense ragamuffin voice and a seemingly incongruous
half-sung delivery; this unlikely mixture was perfectly suited
for the heavy-hitting Roots Radics rhythms that were the
standard sound system fare of the time. In contrast, his
sparring partner Charlie Chaplin’s delivery was less gruff, but
shared the half-sung quality, and was aided by a distinctive
voice and way of phrasing words that made even his spoken
comments in the interim between selections compelling. Though
the Principal, as Chaplin was called, was indisputably a
talented deejay, he never achieved the same level of chart
success as his spar. Nevertheless, Chaplin’s efforts for
producers Roy Cousins, George Phang, and Junjo Lawes are well
worth seeking out. Both deejays, particularly Chaplin, were
extraordinary not only in prowess at the mike, but also in a
firm anti-slackness stance and Rastafarian viewpoint that was to
become increasingly uncommon as the dancehall era progressed.
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With the Colonel and the Principal
at the helm, Stur Gav became not only one of the leading sounds
of the era, but developed a distinct "personality" that
distinguished it from the competition. This was in part because
of its consistent roster of performers: though many sounds had
large numbers of deejays constantly cycling through, Stur Gav
was almost always manned by Josey and Chaplin. Though they were
occasionally accompanied by other performers, such as Brigadier
Jerry, Sugar Minott, Don Carlos, U Brown, Jah Grundy, Colour
Ranking, and others, the Stur Gav mike was not dominated by
swarms of up-and-comings eager for self-promotion. Perhaps
because of this, the sound’s sessions had a uniquely musical
feel: Inspector Willie’s selections played almost continually,
with the vocal "Part One" often allowed to run for nearly its
whole length instead of being hauled up after fifteen seconds,
as was common practice on many contemporary sounds. When the
record was flipped and the performers let loose over the version
side, the music was again continuous, as the artists allowed the
rhythm to run without feeling the need to "wheel up" the music
and lecture the crowd. This commitment to entertainment over
self-indulgence, when combined with an unwavering dedication to
cultural music instead of slackness, made Stur Gav a unique
sound that not only commanded the respect of dancehall patrons
of the day, but that has lived on in the cassette tapes sought
after by fans to this day.
Inevitably, times changed, and reggae music changed with them.
As the decade passed through the Sleng Teng digital revolution
and headed into the late 80s, Stur Gav left the spotlight. In
retrospect, it seems unlikely that the digital rhythms
themselves were at the root of the sound’s decline – the sound
was still running strong in 1986, with the deejays, talented as
ever, not showing any difficulty adapting to the new sound of
the music. Indeed, Josey Wales continued to score hits using
King Jammy’s digitized rhythms. It is perhaps more due to the
newer generation of deejays that came to prominence in the late
80s, and the near complete demise of conscious lyrics, that Stur
Gav no longer was at the center of the dancehall scene. It is a
stark reality of reggae music that older performers are
eventually eclipsed in popularity by younger innovators, and the
new crop of deejays of the late 80s – men like Shabba Ranks,
Supercat, Cutty Ranks, Admiral Bailey, Ninjaman, and Cobra –
were not inclined towards the Rastafarian lyrics that would make
them welcome on Stur Gav. Inevitably, without the support of
young, popular deejays, and without sacrificing its commitment
to positive, conscious lyrics, Stur Gav could not remain at the
forefront of dancehall music, and sounds like King Jammy’s
Super-Power and Killamanjaro came to symbolize the new era. The
coffin must have seemed nailed shut by the change, instigated by
Stone Love, from live performers to dubplates that took place
around the turn of the decade. Following the tradition of U Roy
on King Tubby’s Hi-Fi, it was the live deejay performances that
were at the very core of Stur Gav’s vitality, and so the sound
was utterly incompatible with the dancehalls of the early 90s.
However, by the late 90s, time had changed again. Led by Tony
Rebel, Buju Banton, Anthony B, Sizzla, Luciano, and Capleton,
cultural music had again come to the forefront of Jamaican
music, and though many artists still dealt with hedonistic
concerns, the stage was set for Stur Gav’s return. The New
York-based Downbeat Hi-Fi hosted several successful reunion
sessions featuring the Stur Gav crew, and after touring on the
Blood and Fire sound system alongside Joseph Cotton and U Brown,
Ranking Joe returned with news of enthusiastic crowds. Seeing
his opportunity, U Roy relaunched the sound, and since then,
King Stur Gav Hi-Fi has again been on the road, featuring not
only its original crew (albeit with Inspector Willie replaced by
former Volcano and Stur Mars selector Danny Dread), but also a
host of other vintage artists eager to participate in
foundation-style dancehall sessions. The sound has toured the
world, and recordings of two 1998 sessions, featuring Johnny
Osbourne, Brigadier Jerry, Al Campbell, and U Brown alongside
the expected Colonel, Principal, and Teacher, have been given
commercial release as a double-CD set.
In between these performances, the artists have again found time
to record tunes: Charlie Chaplin has voiced several superb
"combination" tunes with conscious singers like Luciano, Garnett
Silk, and Cocoa Tea for culturally-oriented labels like Bobby
Digital’s Digital B and Fatis Burrell’s Xterminator. And even
though the Colonel and the Principal, strangely enough, never
collaborated in the studio during their prime in the 80s, the
two have now begun to appear together in combination efforts on
vinyl as well as on the Stur Gav microphone. Although it is not
reasonable to expect Stur Gav and its artists to regain the same
influence they had at their peak, their revival of
foundation-style dancehall music can still be enjoyed by fans
old and new alike. Hopefully, they will carry on their musical
works for years to come.
- © Michael Villet 2003
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