Leroy Sibbles crowned King of The Reggae Bassline

Leroy Sibbles’ status as reggae royalty has never been in doubt, but last Saturday his coronation as King of The Reggae Bassline at Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre made it official.

The 75-year-old singer/musician treated just over 600 ‘subjects’, including two of his daughters, to a quality, hour-long performance that heard him presenting songs he recorded with harmony trio The Heptones during the 1960s and early 1970s. He also played some of the expansive bass lines he created at Studio One, which have driven some of the biggest songs in contemporary dancehall/reggae.

Sibbles, who is celebrating his 60th year in the music business, was introduced by his granddaughter, Empress Adara from Canada, who serenaded him with Donny Hathaway’s
A Song For You.

He started with Party Time, then had patrons singing and and dancing to other timeless tracks such as Baby, Why Did You Leave, Pretty Looks Isn’t All, Why Must I Live, Heptones Gonna Fight and Sweet Talking.

Calling for the bass, Sibbles revisited songs he played on the instrument, beginning with the seminal Satta Massa Gana by The Abyssinians. He also did the lines to the Mean Girl rhythm, alternating with singer Andrew Cassanova on Luciano’s Sweep Over My Soul and Capleton’s Stand Tall which were done on that rhythm; John Holt’s A Love I Can Feel (Beres Hammond’s Tempted to Touch, Tony Rebel’s Fresh Vegetable, the Full Up (Pass The Kutchie by The Mighty Diamonds, Tarrus Riley’s Beware and Political Fiction by Half Pint).

Drenched in sweat, Sibbles was flocked by fans as he left the stage to sustained applause.

“Bwoy, is a great feeling, we thank all di artistes an’ people who come out. It was great,” he said.

Saxophonist Dean Fraser, singers Duane Stephenson, Etana, and Singing Melody preceded him onstage, each delivering well-received sets. Stephenson got the crowd going with his rendition of Tyrone Taylor’s Cottage in Negril, The Heptones’ Equal Rights and August Town, a reflective ode to the St Andrew community where he is from.

Etana, who also grew up near to August Town, went over well with hits like Wrong Address, I Am Not Afraid and Roots. Singing Melody’s performance was the evening’s longest, built around hit solo singles such as Shower Me With Your Love and I Want You Back, as well as Run Free and Just As I Am, which he did with harmony quartet LUST.

Percussionist Bongo Herman, who like Sibbles is a Trench Town native, closed the show with the Alton Ellis’ classics, Rocksteady and Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.