the hum / By Bob Doran

This Different Rhythm

Toots is back, plus Doc, Béla and Solid Blues

(Oct. 4, 2007)  He doesn’t lay claim to inventing reggae, but Frederick “Toots” Hibbert says he gave the Jamaican music style its name. Born in a town called May Ten in the hills far from Kingston, Toots headed for the lights of the city when he was still a teenager.

As he tells the tale, “I’m from the countryside. I grew up in the church with my parents; dad and mom would preach. I sang in the choir, grew up in that, you know. People told me I could be a singer so one day after I become a big young man I got myself to Kingston.”

Frederick “Toots” Hibbert

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It was the ska era when Toots hit Kingston. As predicted he found work as a singer and put together a vocal group called The Maytals. “My music was a little different because of my voice, because of the sound I have,” he recalled. “I can sing R&B, I can sing country, I can sing blues. And I invented the word reggae.”

How? “The music was playing in Jamaica for a long time. Then this rhythm come up, this different rhythm. Nobody knew what to call it. People called it different names like ‘blue beat’ and ‘boogie beat.’ One day we were sitting around and this word just comes up — reggae — because in Jamaica they would say, if a girl not looking good you call her streggae ; if a boy not looking good you call him streggae . It’s a nickname, slang for people who don’t dress properly. I shortened it a little, said, ‘Let’s do the reggae.’ It was a different vibe.”

The raggedy music called reggae took hold and Toots and the Maytals have been at it for decades, injecting the gospel sound he grew up with to prove that “Reggae Got Soul,” as he put it in another song. Ready to feel the Maytals vibe? He’s back in Humboldt Thursday, Oct. 4, for a show at the Indigo Lounge.

There’s more reggae, plus rock and trance DJs Saturday at Southern Humboldt Community Park. Irie Boogie features Humboldt and Mendo bands including Ishi Dube and Massagana , Self Fulfilling Prophecies , Soulevity and assorted irie DJs.

The CenterArts concert juggernaut comes on strong this week with four majors shows in the course of a week. First up is folk music icon Doc Watson playing at the Van Duzer Thursday, Oct. 4. The blind flatpicking guitarist with a rich baritone voice broke through nationally during the folk boom of the early ‘60s after playing the Newport Folk Festival and revived his career in the ‘70s when the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band enlisted him for their Will the Circle Be Unbroken album. He’s been going ever since although he did slow down a bit after his son (and music partner) Merle died in a tractor accident in the ‘80s. This tour finds him sharing the stage with David Holt , a multi-instrumentalist/storyteller/historian who worked with Doc on his autobiographic 3-CD set, Legacy .

Next up is a Sunday show featuring what might seem an unlikely pairing: jazzy pianist Bruce Hornsby and bluegrass mandolin master Ricky Skaggs. Of course if you know a bit about Hornsby it makes more sense. He was born in Virginia, so the Southern sound is part of him, and he can play with just about anyone. He was with the Grateful Dead for a time and has worked with everyone from Bob Dylan and Bonnie Raitt to Don Henley and Willie Nelson. What will it sound like? Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby, the eponymous album they put out earlier this year, mostly leans toward the country side and they’re touring with Ricky’ band Kentucky Thunder , so expect jazzy bluegrass, not the other way around.

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