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Written by Glenn BurnSilver
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Thursday, 07 December 2006 |
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 With the rise of dancehall, reggaeton and jamrock, the way of the roots rocker is fading. Fewer young artists are embracing the socially conscious, classic musical style made popular by Bob Marley and the Wailers.
Instead of opting for a vocal trio with one lead and two harmony singers and a tight rhythm section moving urgently through smoking slow grooves, many new “reggae” artists instead sing about living the high life and sexual conquest — to an all together different rhythm.
Thankfully, artists like Keith Porter, founder of The Itals, still make the rounds. The Itals, along with a handful of other acts like Israel Vibration, the Meditations and Culture continue to follow a roots reggae ideology.
I had the chance to speak with Porter not long ago. A few minutes into our conversation, I thought of the movie “Rockers.” Even though everyone in the movie spoke English, the Jamaican accents were often so thick that they were impossible to understand. The movie provided subtitles, and that’s exactly what I could have used when speaking with Porter, an avowed up-countryman from Westmoreland. Understanding the soft-spoken Porter was difficult at times, and even after multiple plays of the interview tape, sometimes elusive. Still his message was clear: a devout Rastafarian, Porter was put here to make socially conscious music, spread the cause of his beliefs and live an ital — pure, healthy, natural — lifestyle.
“I no prefer (the) city,” he said during our phone interview. “Country life (is) ital, healthy for body and mind.”
As a youngster, Porter began singing in the church, but as he learned of Rastafarianism he never really felt comfortable with the church view. Vocal groups were just coming into vogue so Porter utilized his father’s stereo to find his voice.
“I always sing, to records ya know. I just keep singin’,” he said. “I never really know what I gonna do.”
Porter, like many aspiring Jamaican musicians in the late 1960s, found his way to Kingston to audition before legendary producer Sir Clement “Coxsone” Dodd.
Dodd liked what he heard and used Porter in various vocal situations, occasionally with childhood friends Ronnie Davis and Lloyd Ricketts.
“January 1967 it was,” he recalled, that “I cut me first record” at Studio One.
Porter and Davis formed their own vocal group in 1975. A year later Ricketts came on board and The Itals were officially created. They exemplified what is now considered the classic roots sound. Though Ricketts and Davis are gone, Porter continues to front the band, with harmony provided by his daughter Kada Porter and David Isaacs. As always, for The Itals there remains a deep spirituality of inner power and peace found in the old school riddims.
Yet, there are those who see roots rock reggae as a dying style. Porter, of course, knows better.
“I and I (we) stay with roots,” he concluded. “It is Itals sound.”
———
TO GO TO THE SHOW
to go
• The Itals
• Doors 8 p.m.; show 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8
• Aggie Theatre, 204 S. College Ave., Fort Collins
• $15; 482.8300
• with Lion Star Sound
———
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE NAME, MON
The Itals were hitting their stride in the mid-1980s with a handful of solid records yielding Grammy nominations when the Cleveland-based reggae group, I-Tal, sued them for stealing their name. Of course, there was a vinyl trail pre-dating the formation of I-Tal. The frivolous case was cut and dry. The Clevelandites changed their name to I-Tal U.S.A.
Glenn BurnSilver
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