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Features Disc of the day
Noel Ellis
Noel Ellis
(Summer Records, 1983; reissue on Light In The Attic, 2006)
Ethereally sad roots reggae forged in cold Toronto winter.
Noel Ellis received his earliest musical education in the heat and culture of Trenchtown in Kingston, Jamaica. The son of "Godfather of Rocksteady" Alton Ellis, Noel was raised in the hectic heart of the Studio One's early '60s scene. "Most of the older musicians, them a know them from a small, yunno?" Noel told Kevin Howes in the liner notes to the 2006 Light In The Attic reissue, "Heptones pass by. All of them!" But in 1969, following a successful series of gigs, his father moved to Toronto. The family followed but when Alton left to pursue a solo career in England, Noel was left behind, in the charge of his aunt and uncle. Initially starved of reggae, the teenage Noel studied funk and disco and formed a soul harmony group The Disciples, with fellow Jamaican immigrant, Anthony Hibbert. But following the launch of Jerry Brown's reggae recording studio Summer Records, in Malton, Ontario, and the arrival of Studio One releases in Toronto's West Indian record shops, an underground reggae community grew up around Toronto, a basement party scene of jam sessions and sound systems, which Hibbert and Ellis Jr. became central to. Soon Summer Records was attracting Jamaican talent keen to exploit Brown's innovative heavy-bass dub techniques and thanks to Hibbert's connections, Noel was enlisted as a session vocalist. Encouraged by a visiting Jackie Mittoo, Ellis lent his oddly mournful vocals to Willi Williams, Bongo Gene and Mittoo's 'Rocking Universally' rhythm track. The album that followed was equally melancholy. Over booming bass, deep echo, tinkling piano and strangely insectoid guitar lines, Ellis sings with a ghostly, downcast sadness about Haile Selassie, Marcus Garvey, loneliness on the dancefloor and the Jamaica he left behind, his voice bounced and fading through the cavernous spaces of Brown's multi layered production. Standout track is the Hibbert-penned Memories, a doleful recalling of "youthful days... somewhere behind my eyes". Recorded on a shoestring, Noel Ellis now sounds like a record out of time, eschewing the digital sounds of the time for an astral, echoing sound that perfectly captures the emotional estrangement of spiritual outcasts stranded in a strange, cold, foreign city.
Andrew Male
Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 29/06/2010
Further Listening
Various – Jamaica To Toronto – Soul, Funk And Reggae, 1967-1974 (Light In The Attic, 2006)
Various – Summer Records Anthology (1974-1988) (Light In The Attic, 2007)
Alton Ellis – Sunday Coming (Heartbeat, 1970)
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