Jamaican saxophonist Cedric Brooks had a long, and industrious career. Brooks began his musical journey as a pupil of Kingston’s legendary Alpha School for Boys, where underprivileged youth were taken in, and to keep them out of trouble, given an instrument to learn. The school subsequently cultivated scores of students who would become maestros and shape the sound and course of the island’s reggae legacy.  

In the mid-60s Brooks joined fellow Alpha alumni, including Tommy McCook and Don Drummond, in The Skatalites. In their capacity as Clement “Coxsone” Dodd’s Studio One house band they contributed to countless ska and rocksteady hits. In the late `60s, The Skatalites morphed into Sound Dimension, still at Studio One, but by 1970 Brooks had also connected with Rastafari devotees and nyabinghi / grounation practioneers Count Ossie and his Mystic Revelation. This collaboration sending some of Brooks’ subsequent work in a far more spiritual direction. He continued to record and perform until his passing in 2013. 

In 1978, Brooks released the album “United Africa” on the small, now cult label Water Lilly. The set features a host of Jamaica’s top session musicians and reinterprets a collection of classic Rasta hymns, such as “Satta Masa Ganna” and “River Jordan”, via calypso, jazz and upbeat African rhythms. Pressure Sounds recently reissued this highly sought after slice of vinyl, and also created a couple of wicked Dubism re-licks which are now available on a 10”. “Love And Praises” is transformed into a hypnotic trance dance of tumbling, percussion, allowing for flashes of clipped, funky guitar virtuosity, snatches of swinging sax, and brief breakdowns announced by mass brass blasts. “Dub Forces” now feels like a lost Fela Kuti track. Stripped right down, before being built back up. Its chunky, chugging groove ruled by ringing, delayed loops of rhythm guitar. Its cool, calming keys carrying a kinda “Water No Get Enemy” melody. Cows moo-ing in the mix, plus there are also snippets of villainous spaghetti western laughter. Both perhaps in tribute to the mighty Lee “Scratch” Perry. 

Cedric Brooks’ “Dubism” mixes can be ordered directly from Pressure Sounds.