Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Not Just "Another Rockaz Moment"- Morgan Heritage

Preparing dinner one evening in 2007 my cell phone rang and it was a call to sub for a guitarist in a band that I had admired and was a fan of for years - Morgan Heritage.  Lukes, their rhythm guitarist & the one who deals with most of the business side of things for the band laughed at how surprised I sounded to be getting the call from him. I accepted the job but the catch was, their schedule didn't permit any rehearsal so I had about two weeks to learn over thirty songs. I met up with the bass player who handed me some CDs with the instructions "just listen to all of them but the show will be almost exactly the same show on the 'Live' album" which turned out to be "Another Rockaz Moment".









They're one of the best Reggae bands on the road today in my opinion and are in leagues with  The Wailers, Third World, Steele Pulse and Inner Circle. The only thing which separates them seems to be that illusive hit record to open the doors to commercial success.

Morgan Heritage was formed in 1994 by five children of Jamaican Reggae artist Denroy Morgan. They grew up in New York and recorded their debut album there but moved to Jamaica  shortly after that and began working with some of the island's top record producers.  Since then they've gained some success and have recorded several albums over the years including two live albums.

"Another Rockaz Moment" lists 19 tracks which takes you on a journey that makes you feel like you're at their concert at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. Lead vocalist Peter Morgan delivers each song effortlessly with his kick ass band & siblings supporting him all the way.  Mojo, Gramps (his brothers) & sister Una takes the lead on a few numbers as well, showing us that they're all truly talented.  Songs from several of their albums were performed in the set - "Don't Haffi Dread", "Liberation", "Best Friend", "She's Still Loving Me", songs which were popular in Jamaica, the Caribbean, some parts of Europe & Africa.

All in all it's a great album. I grew up on Bob Marley's "Live" & "Babylon By Bus" and "Another Rockaz Moment"  in my opinion represents in our time what Marley's albums represented back then and still does - Roots Rock Reggae music in all it's Elements.
This album is not just "Another Rockaz Moment", it's an album you should definitely check out in my opinion.

Here's a performance of "Works To Do - Jah Works" (from the tour I did with them :-)






Have A Great Day!!

 

1 comment:

  1. Ahhhhh much respect Morgan Heritage .......and to you too ......30 songs, 2 weeks .....shows the measure of the man ! Was great to see them in London last year ......thank you for sharing :-)

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