Chris Blackwell, is known for signing reggae’s biggest stars and popularizing the genre by promoting Bob Marley through his Island Records label. Since the 1960s, the label has released several iconic reggae albums that define the genre. Still, no matter how big the band has been or how good their music, none have surpassed the milestones of Bob Marley in the last 50 years.
Recording engineer and producer Clive Hunt shares one reason why no other act has surpassed Bob Marley’s stature and recalls a visit to the Sheraton Hotel in Kingston, where Chris Blackwell had invited him.
Hunt said that after a long wait in the living room of Blackwell’s suite, Blackwell eventually came out and told him that he wanted to hear the album Hunt was working on by the roots reggae group The Abyssinians.
Blackwell then followed Hunt and The Abyssinians to the nearby studio to listen to the album, which made the Mango Records founder take out his checkbook on the spot to pay Hunt as well as members of the band for the album, with the promise that “his people would call.” A practice of Blackwell and other impresarios at the time but Hunt was not having it.
“Me tell him seh ‘no,’ me nuh want no money because anuh my thing inuh and me and you nuh talk no business,” Hunt says, further explaining why he was hesitant to take the money being offered by Blackwell.
“We had a little talk in the studio that when Chris Blackwell signed Bob Marley, what him do is him sign every other reggae act anywhere, which was a business ploy,” he claims. Adding his own speculations as to why Blackwell signed that many reggae acts he said, “Him sign Steele Pulse, him sign Third World, but it wasn’t to big them up; it was to big up Bob and hold them down.”
Blackwell left the studio and never called back Hunt about the project.
The album played in the studio for Blackwell was “Satta Massagana,” the debut album by The Abyssinians. Initially recorded in 1969, it was first offered to Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, who declined its release. The album was unofficially released by Hunt in 1975, with the official release occurring a year later on the Pentrate label, owned by Hunt and Geoffrey Chung, and subsequently by Jam Sounds in the U.S.
Drums on the album were played by Mikey “Boo” Richards, Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace, and Sly Dunbar. The bass was provided by Val Douglas and Robbie Shakespeare, while the guitar work was handled by Mikey Chung and Earl “Chinna” Smith. Keyboards were played by Geoffrey Chung, Clive Hunt, and Tyrone Downie. The French horn was played by Hunt, Jerome Francique, and Llewellyn Chang, with Clive Hunt also playing the flute.
In 1977 and 1978, the album was released as Forward On To Zion and Satta under different labels. Hunt also released a version titled Satta under his Azul label. Over the years, the album saw multiple re-releases, some of which Hunt told WMV were bootlegged releases. In 1993 it was first released on CD edition with bonus tracks and then in 2007 deluxe edition was made available. The title track, “Satta Massagana,” meaning “He Gave Praise” in Amharic, based on Carlton Manning’s “Happy Land,” became a major hit and has been widely covered, even adopted as a hymn by some Rastafarian groups. The track was covered by Dub Colossus in 2011 and referenced by The Clash in their 1979 song “Jimmy Jazz.”
In 2021, Manatee Records President and CEO Calvin ‘Doc’ Flowers brought together artists from Jamaica, Belize, Trinidad, Argentina, USA, France, and Mexico for a musical project centered around the iconic Satta Massagana riddim. Manatee Records first released their rendition of the Satta in the 1990s, with the blessing of Bernard Collins of The Abyssinians.
In his memoir “The Islander: My Life In Music and Beyond,” Chris Blackwell recalled how other members of the Wailers felt threatened by his interest in Bob Marley and his decision to lead the group in a different direction. This shift began with the album “Catch a Fire,” for which Blackwell paid $4,000 for the recording.
An excerpt form the book reads, “From the moment that Bob and I set to work remixing Catch a Fire in London, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer felt threatened. To them, it seemed it was now me and Bob. They were so protective of the three of them, which was understandable. It had always been their thing. They had fought hard to keep their band going when so much conspired against them, and then here, all of a sudden, was this white guy deciding for them that they needed to move in a different direction.”
