image provided by Rob Frith
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON SEPT. 9, 1983
By Steve Newton
“One thing about this music,” says Hillary Tanner of Asiyah, “is that it is new in Vancouver. People don’t hear it everyday, and not many have found out what Bob Marley was saying. And the music is indeed a message music.
“A lot of the agents and other people in the music business don’t really want to deal with a group that has a message like that. That happened to a lot of the reggae groups in Vancouver. And because it is new to Vancouver, reggae still needs more development–and help from people who are in the position to help.”
Reggae may be relatively new to Vancouverites, but bands like Asiyah are still doing their best to bring the “message” of the music to local listeners. At a recent gig–broadcast live on Co-op Radio (CFRO) from the Inner Circle on Hastings–keyboardist Tanner, bassist Rya Moore, lead guitarist Gabriel Szohner, rhythm guitarist Daniel Jackson, percussionist Ho-Tai Eden Zerba, drummer Hu-I, and lead singer L. Beedee Gutter brought their Caribbean and African -influenced melodies to a receptive audience of both young and old.
“The music is a message,” reiterates Scottish-born Hu-I, “and it attracts all ages of people. We’ve had little kids sitting up in front of the stage grooving, and right on up to older people. Like last night [at the Inner Circle] I was groovin’ with this lady who was as old as my mom! And she could step too. I mean, she was moving to the reggae.”
“Yeah,” adds Beedee, “for reggae the age is limitless. These two kids at the Soft Rock put their chairs down and sat in front of the guitar players and myself. And I looked at them, and they just sat there and watched my every move, mimicking me a little bit. And they clapped after every song.
“If you listen to rock or blues, some of that music has age gaps, a certain crowd. But with reggae, the soothing sound goes from an infant all the way to somebody 70 years old.”
Jackson, Asiyah’s England-born rhythm guitarist, offers a few insights into the music itself–and why it is so easily related to.
“The technique of reggae is the groove,” he says. “Everyone has to stick precisely on the same groove or the sound will come across as cluttered and excessive.
“The rhythm is basically it, and it’s a separate rhythm from rock ‘n’ roll and blues. Technically speaking, the way the rhythm is constructed, this would be considered ‘offbeat’ music. The accented beats are the second and fourth beat, which give reggae what they call a hypnotic backbeat.”
Hypnotic is right. Mesmerizing is more like it. For when the seven members of Asiyah start to groove, the sound produces an irresistible impulse to sway with the beat. As Beedee’s earthy, pleading vocals cry out for world-wide love and compassion, the instrumentations of the other six players reinforce his message with a thickly woven and beautifully intense improvisational flow.
But are there drawbacks to playing in a band that includes so many members?
“Well, at one time we had nine members in the band,” says Hu-I, “and that wasn’t excessive. Because money was never the whole focus behind it. We were just going up there for the crucial sound and the crucial arrangements.
“And we hope to have more people actually,” says Tanner. “We hope to add horn players again.”
“Often–like in Bob Marley’s band, or in African bands–you have anywhere from 13 to 19 people in a single band. What’s happening is that many rhythms are being overlayed into a thick rhythmic and harmonic texture, and the sound at the same time is really punchy and sharp because everyone is so clear as to the rhythm. It just gives it a drive that is powerful and subtle at the same time.”
Local music fans who witnessed King Sunny Ade’s performance at the Commodore Ballroom last Tuesday should be aware of what Tanner speaks. And recent appearances by Peter Tosh and Eddy Grant have also–in varying degrees–helped bring the spirit of African and reggae music to our shores.
What sets Asiyah apart from a lot of the groups playing in town, and makes the possibility of their becoming as popular as the above artists a realistic one, is the fact that all their material is original. At an Asiyah concert you hear nothing but Asiyah songs.
And another thing the band has going for it is youth. Four of the members are still in their teens, and the youngest–bassist Moore–is just 15.
When asked to describe the band’s original sound, Hu-I waxes philosophical, and in the process uncovers another of Asiyah’s strong points: faith in the music they make.
“It’s innovative”, he says, “that’s the freedom of reggae. Reggae music in an experience, and we are loving it. Like you get into this feeling of the spiritual experience involved and tune into the faith of Rastafari.”
And what are the underlying precepts of Rastafari?
“The thing with Rastafari is repatriation,” points out Hu-I. “Like these black people–the original people of creation–discovering their roots. All beats, all music comes from an African/Eastern influence, and so the brothers totally focus on reggae, on the roots. Because the rest–I’m talking ’bout funk, rock ‘n’ roll, anything–they’re all branch and stem of the same tree, man. Roots–that’s what Rastafari is all about, Jack.”
“And love,” adds Beedee. “We try to set a feeling to the audience that when you come in all your cares and woes won’t follow you. Because that’s really lacking nowadays. There’s a lot of tension going on. And reggae music is the form of music that’ll soothe, not hurt ya.”
Asiyah will be opening for Messenjah at the UBC SUB Ballroom on Monday, September 26.
To read over 100 of my other interviews with local Vancouver musicians since 1983, go here.
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