--------------------

Preserving reggae's purity

--------------------

Jamaican legend Mikey Dread is determined to teach his music's spirit of nonviolence and diversity.

Jim Abbott

Sentinel Pop Music Critic

October 19, 2006

Mikey Dread is one of reggae's most enthusiastic and articulate ambassadors, spreading the word on radio, in documentaries and on stage.

Dread's recording career dates to influential work with the Clash on its 1980 Sandinista! album and includes production duties for a diverse list of acts ranging from Jamaican dancehall icon Sugar Minott to Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds.

It continues with Backstage Pass, an album Mikey Dread just completed in Jamaica.

"Everything was done manually," says Dread, who performs Friday at the Social. "No computerized drums. Just drums, bass, horns, backing vocals, percussion and guitars."

For his studio band, Dread enlisted old-school reggae players such as drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Larry Silvera. He expects the album to be ready for release by early next year on his label, Dread at the Controls.

"That way, I have more control over it," he says. "I don't want to take it to somebody who don't know nothing about reggae and makes me sound like Sean Paul. If I want to sell it for $10 or $12, nobody can force me to sell it for $15."

Keeping a clear focus on reggae's identity is a lifetime mission for Jamaican-born Dread. He doesn't play Florida much, although he lives here, he says, because so many promoters know so little about reggae's roots.

People are more knowledgeable on the West Coast, the Midwest and in Mexico, Argentina or Europe, he says.

Too often, the business is "infested with promoters who want to pay $500 for a band, and we don't play for that kind of crowd. We play reggae music on a professional platform.

"A lot of these promoters, they only know the Bob Marley family and think that's where it stops. There are many more names and faces who have never gotten the wide exposure, the opportunity or the access to deliver their message."

Not that Dread is critical of Paul's commercial success, or the buzz behind other dancehall stars. Still, he thinks that a part of reggae's original spirit has been lost in translation.

"Maybe they are not following our tradition, but they are still making a name for themselves with MTV," says Dread, who lives in Gainesville, where his wife is attending dental school at the University of Florida. "It's not the same class of reggae, and the people trying to push reggae now are not people who know the bottom line. They just want to dance, jump up and down and be crazy."

True reggae, he says, embodies a spirit of nonviolence as well as cultural and racial diversity. For two decades, Dread has spread that message on radio shows in Jamaica and Great Britain and on BBC programs such as Rockers Roadshow and Deep Roots Music.

In the 1990s, he hosted shows on AM radio stations in Miami, while earning degrees in music and video production from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and in international communication from Lynn University in Boca Raton.

"I used my time to educate myself on a different platform," he says. "In the United States, there are more opportunities than I had in Jamaica, so I thought maybe I'd use some of those on an academic level to better myself. Learn as much as I can while I can do it."

Ultimately, Dread wants to take his knowledge and pass it along to future generations. He wants to spread his appreciation for influential Jamaican stars such as King Tubby, a pioneer of dub music who died at age 48 in 1989.

"My ambition is to preserve reggae music in a visual domain. A lot of reggae artists have come and died and nobody has ever interviewed them. I want to do something so that people 20 years later, 100 years later, can say this is what they said."

Jim Abbott can be reached at 407-420-6213 or jabbott@orlandosentinel.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Orlando Sentinel | Get home delivery - up to 50% off

Visit OrlandoSentinel.com