‘A preservation ting’ - Father and son Gabre Selassie & Yared Lee ‘dub-ble’ efforts for Kingston Dub Club Live
Published:Thursday | October 31, 2019 | 12:05 AM
Regular partons know that Kingston Dub Club is always developing, whether by building an extra walkway, erecting bannisters, or by this latest effort, collaborating with the musicians responsible for The Pallet’s successful Thursday night open-mic experience, The Jam Is Back. Each week for the foreseeable future, The Jam musicians, instruments strapped to their backs, will make the sloping trek up Jacks Hill, St Andrew , taking their instrumental skills to Kingston Dub Club Live.
For Kingston Dub Club proprietor Gabre Selassie, it’s encouraging to see a group of young men seek the Corporate Area’s weekly entertainment roster. “This set of musicians that deal with The Jam are a talented set, and they play many genres. Now they’re linking up with Dub Club, already knowing and representing the flavours we’re tying to bring. They decided to keep it ‘rootical’, keep the ‘dub-ical’ feeling to it. I like their enthusiasm in trying this. I have a good feeling about it,” he told The Gleaner.
Gabre’s son, music producer Yared Lee, is also an organiser of the Kingston Dub Club’s collaboration with The Jam Is Back. Adding millennial perspective, the young professional has categorised this hybrid of music brands as a “preservation ting”. He estimates that over the past seven or eight years, dub music has regained traction as a staple sound for local entertainment.
Demand
“People are looking for roots but not giving proper focus on the dub side. Dub is the flip side to reggae. They release an album, and a dub. It’s equally important for preservation and access. Jamaica needs it the most because more than enough people are doing it in Europe,” Lee told The Gleaner.
He continued: “Dub music exists and has been continuing in its own fashion everywhere in the world. Kingston Dub Club was probably the only event for a while holding up the standard.”
Lee also added his energy to the event ‘for the culture’. “As an A&R, I’m not only making music I want, but that is culturally relevant, significant, and needed for Jamaica. Things have been strange with dancehall, so it’s important for people to have that option.”