things and time will tell.

Lee "Scratch" Perry – Makumba Rock (2019, 10" vinyl) Adrian Sherwood X Lee "Scratch" Perry – Time Boom X The Upsetter Dub Sessions (2019, CD) Lee Perry stayed very active in his later years, but plenty of music industry attention was always spent playing up the wild image he had built. Not making light of it at all, but at times it could leave the impression of his antics walking the line between mental health crisis and marketing scheme. In a lot of ways, many Lee Perry albums starting at some point in the 80s were selling "Scratch" the character as much as anything he necessarily contributed to the music. The result was more than a few CDs released under his name and featuring his vocal ramblings over music produced entirely by others that were far from essential (and far from the heights of Perry's most inspiring, innovative or beautiful work from earlier days). (Confession: That " Lee Perry meets Andrew W.K. " album? I admit to buyin...

Syl Johnson & Jimmy Johnson – Two Johnsons Are Better Than One Evidence – ECD 26122-2 CD, Album, USA & Canada, 2002 info A quick post, but after talking to R a couple days ago I realized I should share this one. Chicago lost two of our unsung musical treasures last week. Tragically, the losses came just a few days apart from the same family when soul singer Syl Johnson followed his big brother, blues guitarist Jimmy Johnson, in passing. Jimmy was 93 and Sylvester (who is also the father of R&B singer Syleena Johnson ) was 85. Jimmy was under appreciated, slugging away working the Chicago blues circuit for decades. He had backed other artists on guitar, but I'm pretty sure he was 50 or so before putting out an album under his own name. Syl was best known for the great soul sides he had cut in the late 60s and early 70s for Twinight here in Chicago and, later, Hi Records in Memphis. He kept recording blues and soul records for smaller labels into the 1990s, but his later ...