Gregory Isaacs – One Man Against the World LP

Description

Gregory Isaacs, the Cool Ruler as he became known, grew up in the ghetto district of Kingston Jamaica. His influences lay not only in the American singers he heard on the radio such asSam Cooke,Otis Redding, but also local singers such asAlton Ellis,Delroy Wilson, andJohn Holt. His debut releaseAnother Heartachewas recorded for producerWinston Sinclairand was released under Winstons’ name in the U.K. This saw Gregory move on to work with producerRupie Edwardsforming a vocal group calledThe Concordsalongside two local singersBramwell and Penros. Isaacs always had his sights on forming his own label, which he did in 1972 alongsideErrol Dunkley, called African Museum. Gregory carried on working with various other producers throughout his career, work that helped fund his own label. One of these producers wasTappa Zukie. Tappa Zukie was also raised in the rough and tough areas of Kingston Jamaica, and very much like Gregory Isaacs found music as a way out of the tough environment in which he was surrounded. Music seemed like the only way out of a life of crime and gang culture. A path that Tappa Zukie found and by the mid 1970’s was establishing himself as a named star on the DJ Roots circuit. Back home in Jamaica he was also getting a name for his production work for other local singers such asPrince Allahand the groupKnowledge. To release his own productions, like Gregory Isaacs, he formed his own label called Tappa Records. These two artists working together was a match made in heaven and resulted in this set of songs. Nine of these songs originally saw the light of day in 1988, released on Tappa Zukie’s Tappa Records initially calledRed. Kingston Sounds has added some additional material also produced by Mr. Zukie around the same time to expand that release and make their work together more of a complete story.