Ultimate Collection

Black Uhuru can claim big things in reggae history. Winners of the first Grammy Award for best reggae album (for Anthem), Black Uhuru took Bob Marley's punching rhythms and hardened them further, thanks to the duo of bassist Robbie Shakespeare and drummer Sly Dunbar. Singer Michael Rose also had a raggy voice, which was coarse and impassioned like Marley's--and had a great alter ego in vocalist Sandra "Puma" Jones. This generous 77-minute set of classic Uhuru includes the major points: "I Love King Selassie," "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," "Utterance," "Youth of Eglington." The melodic flow and harmony-vocal crosscut of the lattermost tune stood far and away above so much reggae of the era with an adroit mix of old-school rootsiness and creative expression. Alas, the lineup that cut the tune would break apart gradually, first with the 1984 departure of Rose (replaced by Junior Reed), and then in 1986 with the departure of Jones--who succumbed to cancer in 1990. The vast majority of these 17 tracks, though, come from the Rose/Island Records era, and for that, the collection indeed amounts to "ultimate" as its title claims. --Andrew Bartlett