Ranglypso Ernest Ranglin

• 1 Mento Time in Jamaica 04:43
• 2 Feel Like Making Love 06:46
• 3 Escape to Villingen Blues 05:32
• 4 Tico Tico 04:11
• 5 Ranglypso 06:41
• 6 You Make Me Feel Brand New 05:41
• 7 Honky Tonk 05:24
• 8 Freeway 05:43
• Total Runtime 44:41

Info for Ranglypso

Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin’s work with reggae legends Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff and long association with internationally acclaimed Jamaican jazz pianist Monty Alexander (check out Monty’s classic reggae-saturated MPS outing, Rass), ranks Ranglin among the major figures in West Indian music. One of the founding fathers of ska, Ranglin’s jazz credentials were permanently established when in 1964 London’s iconic Ronnie Scott’s Jazzclub hired him as their house guitarist. On Ranglypso Alexander takes on the role of sideman alongside renowned German bassist Eberhard Weber and English drummer Kenny Clare. The mento in Ranglin’s Mento-Time in Jamaica refers to the Jamaican folk music that heavily influenced reggae and ska. The Roberta Flack hit Feel Like Makin’ Love maintains its original soulful sound, while the medium-up Escape to Villingen is a bluesy tip of the hat to MPS. Ranglin and band blaze through the classic Brazilian choro standard, Tico Tico, Ranglypso celebrates calypso’s up-beat joy, and the Stylistics hit You Make Me Feel Brand New retains its gorgeous ballad feel. The R&B hit Honky Tonk plays as a straight-ahead shuffle with classy blues solos, and the album’s last piece is a rocking ride down the modal Freeway. Sumptuous jazz and soul marinated in the melodic-rhythmic juices of the Caribbean.

Ernest Ranglin, guitar
Monty Alexander, piano
Eberhard Weber, double bass
Kenny Clare, drums

Recorded Oct. 25, 1974, MPS Studio, Villingen, Germany
Engineered by Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer
Produced by Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer

Digitally remastered

Ernest Ranglin
A pioneering force behind the rise of Caribbean music, guitar virtuoso Ernest Ranglin was born in Manchester, Jamaica, in 1932. He began playing ukulele as a boy, soon graduating to guitar; while in his teens he began performing live both locally and in the Bahamas, often in tandem with the young Monty Alexander. Ranglin's session work at the famed Studio One helped give birth to the ska phenomenon, which during the late '50s began taking Jamaica by storm. He finally began attracting international notice in 1964 when he traveled to London to perform at Ronnie Scott's jazz club, so impressing its owner that he remained on as the venue's resident guitarist for the next nine months. There he made a number of solo records for the fledgling Island label, and also collaborated with Prince Buster; additionally, Ranglin teamed with Jamaican singer Millie Small to cut the international smash 'My Boy Lollipop.' He soon returned to session work, arranging classics including the Melodians' majestic 'Rivers of Babylon'; with his guitar leads on the Wailers' 'It Hurts to Be Alone,' he also laid the foundation for the rise of rockers reggae. Though remaining perhaps best known for his jazz prowess, in the 1970s Ranglin toured with Jimmy Cliff; in 1973 he was awarded the Order of Distinction from the Jamaican Government for his contributions to music, and continued touring and recording regularly throughout the decades to follow, most notably signing to Chris Blackwell's newly formed Palm Pictures label to issue 1998's In Search of the Lost Riddim. E.B. @ Noon and Modern Answers to Old Problems arrived two years later, Grooving appeared in early 2001, and Alextown and Surfin' followed in 2005.

This album contains no booklet.