New Reggae Night in Costa Rica
By Jim Parisi
Reggae music has become a global phenomenon, cast into public awareness forty years ago by musicians like Johnny Nash, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. But the music remains Caribbean in temperament.
In 1995, the young Costa Rican music label Papaya Music released “Costa Rica Reggae Night”, an excellent compilation of authentic Reggae music from the Caribbean coast of this country. It is a compilation of thirteen songs from well known Costa Rican bands, both past and present; it was a kind of history of notable reggae bands from this area. The album has been a big hit, selling more than fifteen thousand copies in just ten years, a remarkable feat for an independent Central American label.
Papaya has decided it is time to release a second album in this vein, appropriately titled “Costa Rica Reggae Night 2”. The album is a great follow-up to the first CD and picks up where it left off, with some new conceptual twists. Many of the songs were recorded and compiled during October and November of last year; this new disc is an excellent showcase of current Costa Rican bands and how Reggae has been embraced globally and woven into other musical fabric, including ska, electronica, cumbia, dub and even punk music, along with conventional Latin rhythms.
The album opens with “Danger” by the Kingo Lovers, a popular band from San Jose who has amassed a large fan base during their four years together. The second song is “A Queen Is” by the band Unity, which was formed by Sergio Camacho, who has been in the Costa Rican Reggae scene for some time now. His original band, Native Culture, appeared on the first Reggae Night compilation. Other standouts on the disc include Huba & Silica, performing “Rockin’” from their 2009 album “El Origin de las Especies” and Sulalakaska, from Heredia, doing “Ayer Triste Hoy Feliz” from their album “Mummy Fingers”. The band, whose name means “paradise” in the indigenous bri-bri, are proud of their community mindedness, performing at many benefits for social causes, including a concert in 2006 to aid Caribbean peoples effected by Hurricane Katrina. This is a band that boldly goes where no band has gone before, blending ska, punk, cumbia and yes, even meringue into their reggae stew for their own, unique sound. I also like these guys because they do a tribute to legendary calypsonian Walter Ferguson, one of my all-time heroes.
Another new band on this compilation worth checking out is Moonlight & Huba, a group who mixes reggae dub with electronica, all with an environmental message. Very Twenty-First Century. Appropriately, the song on this album is “Global Warming”. The band was founded by bassist Gabo Davila, originally from the popular band Mekatelyu, who were also featured on the first Reggae Nights CD. Moonlight has recorded two CDs, “Biodub” in 2009, which came packaged with seeds for planting, and the new disc “Se Caliente” which was released last month.
In all, twelve bands are represented on the new album, which was produced by Yazmin Ross, one of the founders of Papaya Music. The result is a great barometer of the breadth Costa Rican reggae has reached, revealing new talent and the evolution of some popular local musicians. Costa Rica Reggae Night 2 has the possibility to succeed beyond its predecessor and is a great addition to anyone’s music collection. It is available, along with Papaya’s entire catalogue, at the Jaime Peligro book stores in Quepos, Tamarindo and Tilaran.