The Jolly Brothers - Conscious Man (Deluxe Edition) (1978)

Another classic Black Ark album from 1978 given a deluxe make-over which includes rare songs and dubs.

The Jolly Brothers debut masterpiece "Conscious Man", produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry.

The Jolly Brothers are another one of those obscure groups that not much is known about, what is known though is this:

The Jolly Brothers consisted of vocalist trio Winston Edwards, Lennox Miller and Willis Gordon but sometimes also included Clevian Lewis and Hendrick Nicholson. They were based in the Hellshire Beach area of St. Catherine which is to the west of Kingston.

In late 1977 the groups friend and musical tutor of sorts known as Mattis arranged for the group to record a session at Lee Perry's Black Ark studio in Washington Gardens, Kingston.

The result of the session was two tracks, "Conscious Man" and "Colour", two original songs with all the trademark production of Scratch and the Black Ark sound.

At this point an old acquaintance of Perry's from England named Tony George Owens arrived at the studio looking for songs to issue on his new label 'Seven Leaves' in the UK and so The Jolly Brothers tracks were given over as well as some other Black Ark recordings of the time.

However once Owens returned to the UK he gave the single over to Mo Claridge who was operating the Magnum label, a subsidiary of Pye records, which would give the song major distribution across the UK and also into Europe.

Then in early 1978 Mo Claridge started the Ballistic imprint label after striking a deal with United Artists and "Conscious Man" would be it's first single release. With major label backing the single sold well and eventually broke into the UK singles chart reaching as high as number 45.

This sparked an interest from Claridge to have the Jolly Brothers return to the studio to start work on a full album and so Tony Owens returned to Jamaica to initiate the project.

When the Jolly Brothers and Tony Owens returned to the Black Ark studio Perry was in the middle of a ground-breaking collaboration with two Congolese musicians, Seke Molenga and Kalo Kawongolo, and their project "Monama" which would be yet another album by Perry that would be declined for release by Island records.

The Jolly Brothers joined in on the sessions providing harmony and instrumentation, likewise the two Africans would do the same for the Jolly Brothers when their album sessions began.

The Jolly Brothers recorded between 10 to 12 songs at the studio, mostly very rootsy numbers and a couple of lover's rock tracks. Their style was that of the vocal trio (one lead, two harmony) but often they sang in union with all three on lead.

Overall the material was very good, not unlike previous Black Ark recordings by the likes of The Congos with yet another strong production credit for Perry.

Tracks like "Brotherly Love", which credits Hendrick Nicholson as lead vocalist, is a nice mellow tune, "Dread Dreader" highlights the growing frustration of the ghetto people and "Cool Down" reminding the people that violence is not the answer.

Also the group recorded a couple of love songs, "Right Before My Eyes" and "Play Play", the latter opening with the depressing lyrics of  "Play play with fire, fire will burn you / play play in the water, water will drown you".

At some point, once the recording sessions had finished however, there was some kind of disagreement between Tony Owens, Lee Perry and Mo Claridge that resulted in the material being held back.

Claridge instead struck a deal with producer Prince Jammy, a protoge of King Tubby, who took the Jolly Brothers into Harry J's and Channel One studios to record a separate albums worth of love songs.

These recordings are still pretty good, Jammy's sound is not unlike Perry's but still they are somewhat weaker compared to the Black Ark recordings.

Ballistic eventually released the album "Consciousness" in 1979, the album includes the Black Ark recorded "Conscious Man" as it's opening track along side the Jammy produced material.

"Consciousness" failed to sell in sufficient numbers for the label to press for a follow up and the Jolly Brothers slipped into obscurity.

Tony Owens continued to release Jolly Brothers material on his Seven Leaves imprint, mainly 45's and 12 inch singles that would fail to acknowledge Lee Perry as producer, instead Owens was given this credit. Also many of the track names and artists on the seven leaves releases were incorrect too making it difficult to track down certain songs or work out what was really on the vinyl.

They did however release two volumes of excellent Black Ark, Perry produced material, as "Megaton Dub".

The remaining material that the Jolly Brothers recorded with Perry at the Black Ark was shelved remaining unreleased for over 10 years!
 

  

This truly was a real shame as, based on the positive response to the "Conscious Man" single, an album would have most likely seen the Jolly Brothers reach a similar success to that of artists such as The Congos.

Eventually, in 1993, Tony Owens sold the publishing rights to the material and gave the master tapes over to the Roots label in the UK who pressed limited quantities of the album on both vinyl and cd.

The album contained ten tracks, all recorded and mixed at the Black Ark but by this time the album was unknown, as were the Jolly Brothers, and so it sold only to those in the know.
   

This deluxe edition adds eight bonus tracks to the ten released in 1993 including the vinyl only 7" singles and the b-side "Right Before My Eyes" as well as a number of dubs.

Better late then never as they say!

Enjoy!   : )

Tracklisting:    
    
1) Conscious Man (Discomix)
2) Brotherly Love
3) Have A Little Faith
4) Back Biter
5) Cool Down
6) Babylon A Fight Rasta
7) Dread Dreader
8) Play Play
9) Oppression
10) Colour

Bonus Tracks:

11) Right Before My Eyes (7" Single B-Side)
12) Conscious Man (7" Single Mix)
13) Conscious Man (Dub)
14) Brotherly Love (7" Single Mix)
15) Brotherly Love (Dub)
16) Dread Dreader (Dub)
17) Oppression (Disco Mix)
18) Colour (Dub)

Recorded at the Black Ark studio, 1977 / 1978, Produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry.

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