YOGOMAN's
Rocksteady Revue
Starring
Winston Jarrett
Rocksteady
Doors at 9:00 pm
Show at 9:30 pm
$17 Advance
$20 Day of show
Legendary reggae singer Winston Jarrett makes a rare Bay Area concert appearance, singing reggae and rocksteady songs from throughout his long career, in Yogoman’s Rocksteady Revue. The evening is filled with historic and new Jamaican-rooted styles, leaning heavily into the rocksteady period of the ’60s before reggae, when Jarrett’s singing was at the forefront of Jamaican music. After backing Jarrett, the Bellingham, Washington band Yogoman plays its own set of Jarrett-inspired rocksteady-rooted music for dancers.
Winston Jarrett came to attention as a singer in Alton Ellis’s band the Flames in the ’60s as fast-paced ska music was beginning to transition into the slower-paced rocksteady (the style takes its name from Ellis’s song “Rock Steady,” featuring Jarrett on lead vocal), a dance music that added a touch of New Orleans R&B and jazz among other styles. Jarrett then formed his own vocal group the Righteous Flames and since the ’70s has been a solo artist, recording an impressive number of classic songs over the past 50 years. Along the way he worked in and with most of the hot names of Jamaican music – Studio One, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Treasure Isle, RAS Records. His discography is impressive and his lineage goes back to recording at Studio One (the Motown of Jamaica), which is the foundation of Jamaican popular music. At age 76, Jarrett’s voice is still strong, and he has sympathetic accompaniment for his West Coast tour with Yogoman.
Coming out of Seattle’s underground music scene, bandleader-conductor-songwriter-drummer Jordan Rain goes by the name Yogoman. He formed his band of the same name, in 2005 in Bellingham, as he says, to bring sunshine to region by way of his original mix of Jamaican and New Orleans dance music. The band has backed such stars as Pato Banton and Junior Reid and shared stages with Third World, the Skatalites, and other greats. The group played at Burning Man before teaming with Jarrett for the current tour. On its own, Yogoman mixes up its favorite dance musics, playing everything from Bob Marley and Toots & the Maytals to Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong, as well as Rain’s original music. Along with Rain on lead vocals and drums, Yogoman is Jacqueline “Bongo Jac” Rae and Chloe Howard on percussion and vocals, guitarist Miles Harris, violinist-singer Denny Franzmann, bassist Joseph Vacca, saxophonist Matt Nash, and trombonist-guitarist-keyboardist Kenta Gumbert.
