Buju in Salt Lake



S and I went up to Club Suede in Kimball Junction to see Buju Banton , one of Jamaica's all-time great modern reggae artists. The first time I saw Buju was at the Bob Marley festival in Long Beach, CA in the mid-90's. If memory serves me correctly, i think it was 94', but it may have been 95'. Anyway, at the time, Buju was a young, talented, up and coming artist, who focused more on the aggressive ragga dancehall style. He wore his hair short, much like the american hip hop artists at the time. But over the years, he has revolutionized the dancehall style, mixing in the synthesized beats of ragga with a conscious message, and mixing in throw backs to the ska beat. He has grown his dreads, and spread a message of unity, peace, and one love, in addition to refining his pure dancehall lyrics. Recently, it seemed that Buju had returned to this dancehall style, as evidenced on the new tracks on Selector LudDub's mix "Dancehall Rock" (Thanks LudDub! Much Respect!). It was with great anticipation that I went to see Buju again. The last time I saw him was back when I lived in San Francisco...

I can say that Buju put on an incredible show. The depth of his musical talent was endless; his energy, even in a somewhat "difficult" crowd in Park City, was amazing. He gave 100%. He started off with a couple of new tracks from his Too Bad album, but quickly moved into some incredible classics, high lighted by "champion", "How the world a run", and "No respect". He then moved into newer classics like "Give I strength", "Not an Easy Road", and "Untold Stories", the last of which was a really incredible, powerful performance. In addition to these, he sang "love sponge" and mixed it into "one to one", for the lover's in the crowd. Most incredibly, in the encore, he sang the wayne wonder part for the duet "bonafide love", in addition to his own part. That was awesome. There were many other songs, including three songs to a ska beat, one of which was a cover of "lollipop", the classic american R&B song. Speaking of covers, he also covered a classic Beres Hammond track. It was an amazing show.

I was stupid enough to ask the bouncer if i can bring in my camera. i was told no. My friend K-AS, however, was smart enough to keep her mouth shut, and got the pics below (thanks K-A!!). The evening was capped by a poster signed from Buju, to the Tribal Rhythms crew. One Love. Big up all massive and crew!












Posted: Mon - September 25, 2006 at 11:14 PM          

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