Natty Pablo returns with ‘Hold A Vibes’

It’s hard to believe now, but there was a time when singers and deejays drew crowds to Jamaican dance halls. They gave spontaneous performances that paved the way for successful recording careers.

Natty Pablo is a product of those good old days. He came up through the sound system ranks in Kingston, Jamaica’s capital, before launching his recording career over 40 years ago.

On July 10, the vinyl edition of ‘Hold A Vibes’, the singer’s second album, was released by Star Zone Music, a division of Talee Promotion Inc. in Canada. The digital version will be available in August. ‘Good Friends’, his first album, was released in 2011.

Natty Pablo commented on the 15-year gap between albums.

“I wanted to wait because of how the music was going and I wanted to put together an album of substance, meaning I wanted it on vinyl, not only streaming,” he said.

The Rastafarian artiste produced nine of the 10 songs on ‘Hold A Vibes’. The exception is ‘Miss You’, which is produced by legendary session guitarist Earl “Chinna” Smith, one of the veteran musicians who played on the album.

Keyboardists Robbie Lyn and Franklyn “Bubbler” Waul, and bassist Daniel “Axeman” Thompson, are some of the other seasoned players on the album.

Natty Pablo also produced ‘Good Friends’, which was dominated by Afro-conscious themes inspired by his faith. For his second album, he handled most of the production, pointing to his musical maturity for an even more rounded product.

“I have grown a lot because I ‘overstand’ more musically, especially instrument-wise,” he said.

Born Paul McKenzie, Natty Pablo is from East Kingston, an area that was once the stomping ground for pioneer acts like Count Ossie and The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, and The Skatalites.

It was also a fruitful sound system region that produced deejay/singers such as Welton Irie, Professor Nuts, Wayne Wonder, Spragga Benz and Agent Sasco.

Natty Pablo’s career started during the early 1980s as a deejay with homegrown sound systems such as Qualitex, Soul Express and Stereophonic. He also performed with more established ‘sounds’ like Arrows International and Stur Gav.

It was Stereophonic which released ‘All Time Lover’, Natty Pablo’s first song in 1985.

He has also recorded songs for Smith, Sly and Robbie, Philip “Fatis” Burell, Bunny Wailer’s Solomonic Records and Indie Records, a label from Edmonton, Canada.

(Photo contributed)