Stories
From Vinnette Sista V Duhaney :
"I used to live across from the Western Front and was there when Ram played reggae music and Rudy Dottin was playing soul music. Marvin Gilmore had leased the club to the Spanish guy we only knew as "Porky". When Ram left, Porky missed the reggae vibes so he said to me: "You are Jamaican... bring some of your music and play for us". My son Echo was at U Mass Amherst so I called his friend Tappa Knotts and we revived the reggae nights with Echo joining us when he came home on weekends.
Jah Shirt, Errol Strength Horace Reid, and many others who became band members were regulars at reggae nights. We started with every Thursday then went from Thursday thru Sunday. Sunday was ladies night and I was the DJ for that night. That was before any band ever played there... the rest is history.
We didn't even have any professional equipment at the time we used my Pioneer receiver and speakers, 2 turntables, and 2 speakers I borrowed from Doctor Soul.
Lloyd "Doctor Soul" Edwards (no relation to my son Stephen "Echo" Edwards) was a friend of mine. I remember that he used to have people call in and answer questions about reggae music on his show, and give away tickets to all sorts of events. I used to call and win all the tickets until he eventually banned me from calling...LOL. He walked away from the music and joined Jehovah's Witnesses and I lost touch with him. The last thing I heard was that he passed away."
Doug Herzog:
"There was a show called Night Shift on Ch.5 and it ran late Monday nights. It was a show dedicated to college productions. I produced two. Both were simulcast on WERS. The first one was in 1979 with Ellis Hall Band and another in Nov/Dec 1980 with Zion Initation. Zion I played in a brightly lit WCVB studio as their family and friends and my college friends skanked in front of the cameras. It was quite a day getting everyone up there from Dorchester."
Sept 12 1979
Local Color: Zion Initation
By Mark Rowland, the Real Paper
Thank Jah for Zion Initation. Their very existence probably merits a hymn or two, since Boston reggae bands tend to be about as rare as blond dreadlocks. I can think of only three other entries (Jamaica Hilton a.k.a. Jamaicaway a.k.a Sunrise counts as one), but even among this elite Zion Initation is in a class by itself. Part of the reason is sheer size (ten pieces), another the hip vocal trio of Ras Jackson, Ava Cunningham, and Danny Tucker. But what finally impresses is their combination of spiritual exhilaration and effortless musical grace, a combination that must be at the core of any top-notch reggae band. Their energy is infectious, too - within the last six months Zion Initation (loosely interpreted, the name means "meditation on the perfect spirit") has grown from virtual anonymity to an ensemble commanding a sizable bloc of loyalists, as demonstrated last week when they sold out a Boston Harbor cruise boat within days. In this city's highly competitive scene that's pretty impressive, especially for a brand new, previously unheralded ensemble. But then, Zion Initation isn't really new at all.
Lead and rhythm guitarist Ras Ipa began forming the Dorchester-based group more than three years ago. Newer members arrived through friends and through word of mouth, bound together by a strong Rastafarian creed and the unshakable belief that roots reggae was the most fulfilling musical approach available. "The way I see it, blues, punk, and rock don't really have much to say anymore," explains lead guitarist Edward Babbs. "For what they do say, they might as well be instrumentals."
In a way, Babb's explanation is perfectly logical - reggae is never just music, it's a way of life. Anyone who ever spent "serious" time with a group of Rastafarians can appreciate the folly of attempting conventional conversation. Ask a question about chord riffs and you'll get back a half-hour dissertation on the divinity of Haile Selassie - which is actually fine by me, because if the Lion of Judah really did inspire reggae, he deserves all the praise we can muster. (I'm just glad the Moonies didn't invent it.) And besides, how can anyone knock Rasta consciousness? Are against universal love? Racial equality? Freedom and understanding? African liberation? The intrinsic holiness of marijuana? No, of course not. And besides, true Rastafarians just happen to be about the nicest people on the Earth.
But alas, Boston enclaves are few, which makes Zion Initation's dilapidated three-decker near dilapidated Codman Square something of a spiritual as well as musical oasis. Graffiti praising the glory of Jah lines the stairway walls, sprinkled in with various other pithy observations (my favorite: "The Pope is the source of all negative vibes"), and eventually leads into a hot, crowded rehearsal room. A few Rasta fellow travelers are imbibing the proceedings, along with the ganja haze, while the band paces through its repertoire. This includes hoary reggae standards like the syncopated version of Paul Desmond's "Take Five" (someone should send Dave Brubeck a tape - he could use the seminar on rhythm) and some gently proselytizing Zion Initation originals like "This About It" (okay) and "I Didn't Know," the latter song about meeting a Natty Dread who turns the singer on to Jah. And so on. But the great thing about Zion Initation (and good reggae in general) is that once the music begins, the beat is so infectious that you believe. Well, I believe.
"We write about what we see around us," points out percussionist Ras Amen, "and about what can be done. Schools don't teach us history, they tell use we were slaves and before that we were wild men. We never learn about the roots of our power." As a result, several Zion Initation songs stress the beauty of African culture - the "Ethiopian garden" of Rasta lore - while tying in impassioned pleas for social justice. And their message has already had some effect. It can't be mere coincidence that Zion Initation is one of the few - perhaps only - local bands with a strongly integrated following, or that they remain popular in black Dorchester clubs (this Saturday, September 15, for instance, you can catch them at the I & S Function room at 986 Blue Hill Avenue) along with in-town Boston and Cambridge venues.
Like many "roots" reggae bands, Zion Initation isn't the last word in music technique, but their songs are infused with genuine emotion. Their textures are richer and more varied than a compact ensemble could ever provide, and several instrumentalists balance one another's ideas nicely - the tension between Ras Iphus's straight-ahead, Sly Dunbar-style drumming, for example, and the more exotic, African punctuations of Ras Amen. Or the sublime melodies of lead guitarist Babb played off against Ras Ipa's sturdy chop rhythms. As befits reggae, Iraka's thunderclap bass figures anchor the band, and the saxophonists, particularly Ritchie on tenor, contribute lots of neat melodic fills. (Hey, I'm just being a critic). But the singers are really something special. Ras Jackson's sweet arching tenor bears generous comparison to Leroy Sibbles, while Ava Cunningham boasts the ward, fervent tone and clean phrasing of a gospel artist. Danny Tucker, who double on alto sax, (and also has his own single "Take Us Home," recently released on Twigze-D records) lends the group some needed bottom - together, their harmonies are sheer delight. The fact that they're working in a form that values precision and is rarely ornamental only underscores their effect. And they don't intend to change that direction, either.
Because for Zion Initation, music is still basically an expression of what they see as a deeper spiritual quest. They've already struggled financially for years, yet none of them expresses the least desire to follow today's fashion a la Peter Tosh and dilute the sound for economic reasons. "The reggae groups that do that are only trying to build an audience," one of them them explained generously. "It's like they want to get a message across - especially in black culture, where everyone listens to either funk or disco. ...eventually, you have to return to the other side of reggae, the Zion spiritually side. They try to bridge the gap between pop and rock and reggae. We are roots reggae." Jah be praised.
"I used to live across from the Western Front and was there when Luke White Ram Ehrlich was playing reggae music and Rudy Dottin was playing soul music. Marvin Gilmore had leased the club to the Spanish guy we only knew as "Porky". When he left Porky missed the reggae vibes so he said to me "You are Jamaican... bring some of your music and play for us". My son Echo was at U Mass Amherst so I called his friend Tappa Knotts and we revived the reggae nights with Echo joining us when he came home on weekends. Jah Shirt, Errol Strength, Horace Reid, and many others who became band members were regulars at reggae nights. We started with every Thursday then went from Thursday thru Sunday. Sunday was ladies night and I was the DJ for that night. That was before any reggae band ever played there... the rest is history."
Luke "White Ram" Ehrlich:
Because Downtown Sound had automation, I mixed three tunes off the debut I-Tones album there, with engineer Jeff Whitehead. The automation was "space-age" technology at the time, which came in particularly handy for the dub passages on "The Ship".
STORY BEHIND HOW SISTA PAM CAME TO WORK AT, AND LATER MANAGE, THE WESTERN FRONT :
It's was late 1979. Pam lived in Mattapan, but worked at a greenhouse in Cambridge, and she took the bus to work. Every day she got off the bus on Western Ave. in front of the Front (it was actually called Porky's at the time - long story) and then walked down to the greenhouse on the corner of Western Ave and Memorial Drive - remember that one? She thought the Western Front building was interesting and liked the artwork and the marquee.
One day Marvin was out front changing the marquee as she was waiting for her bus home. She said to him, "Hey, your club is pretty quiet, you need a good bartender...you should hire me." He laughed. But the next day, he waited. When she came to the bus stop, he invited her in, and hired her. She worked at both the greenhouse and the Front for a while, then quit the greenhouse, as it was looking to her like the Front was meant to be for her. Pam eventually helped paint over (with many coats) the Porky's sign when they changed to Western Front, but she said many locals would call it Porky's for a few years afterwards. Pam is also the one that started the "let the local singers and musicians in free" policy, which Marvin at first didn't like. That all ended when Marvin's nephew took over, but when it was in place, it helped build a community, made the artists feel respected and welcomed, gave them a chance to be guest singers and deejays with bands at the end of the night, and was an attraction for people coming to see the bands or just hang out
Luke "White Ram" Ehrlich:
The first Boston reggae music video was released sometime in 1985. Filmed in Paris and Cambridge in spring of 1984, the I-Tones' "Walk On By" video was edited by the Boston University Film Department. Then we took it to another video studio, where we digitally tinted the original black & white film with monochromatic overlays and added titles. Meanwhile, a Boston-based UHF-TV all music video station called V-66 had recently been launched by a fellow named John Garabidian. "Walk On By" and V-66 coincided perfectly and our video went into regular rotation on the station. This led to the video being added to MTV's Boston feed where it was played with fair regularity for around a month. The video mainly served to make the band members more recognizable on the street. And it was not uncommon for people to shout approvingly from passing cars.