Legendary Jamaican producer Collin "Bulby" York released his sophomore LP Master Blaster today to much critical acclaim. The genre-spanning album has been lauded as an "11 track masterpiece" by leading reggae website World A Reggae. Of the accolades, Bulby said "I'm just happy about the support and truly humbled by the response so far."
Recorded at some of Kingston's most distinguished studios like Tuff Gong, Big Yard, Mixing Lab, and Harmony House, Master Blaster features a role call of reggae's top shelf vocalists and musicians. "Freedom" finds Beres Hammond, Marcia Griffiths, J Boog and Lutan Fyah joining forces over a music bed supplied by the elite crew of drummer Sly Dunbar, bassist Flabba Holt, keyboardist Steven "Lenky" Marsden, guitarist Garth "Duckie" Forester, saxophonist Dean Fraser, and percussionist Alvin Haughton. On "Never Bow," the late great Joseph Hill is joined by Leego and Kumar Bent (former lead singer of Raging Fyah) chanting over a nyabinghi riddim provided by drummer/percussionists Sticky Thompson and Bongo Herman, guitarists Earl "Chinna" Smith and Jai Vatuk, keyboardist Christopher Birch, and bassist Danny Dennis.
"Lots of Signs" features superstars Christopher Martin and Beenie Man delivering a modern take on this cover of Tenor Saw's classic cut. The song recently sparked a social media challenge where dozens of hopeful dancers submitted their best skanks to Bulby's Instagram.
On "Cherry Oh Baby," Busy Signal and Trinidadian Soca star Patrice Roberts team up for what Jamaica Observer call a "raucous dancehall" version of Eric Donaldson's celebrated tune that has been covered by the likes of the Rolling Stones and UB40. Check the official "Cherry Oh Baby" video
Master Blaster is the follow-up to Bulby's 2016 debut album Epic & Ting (VP Records). The prolific engineer and producer is best known for creating pillars of reggae music like Beenie Man's "Stop Live in a de Pass" and Yami Bolo's "Put Down Your Weapon" and has also handled live and studio engineer duties for A-list artists like Chaka Khan, Madonna, and Jimmy Cliff, among many others. York has also served as resident selector for Michael Franti since 2010 and will once again join him on a North American tour in October.
Bulby is available for interviews and will be embarking on a northeast U.S. promotional run from September 16 - 29 to support the album release.
Master Blaster tracklist below: