ONE LOVE: REGGAE: Quoc Pham: Founder Dub-Stuy Records/Sound System

"So I've chosen this LP called "Man from Wareika" From Rico Rodriguez. And this LP I think has a lot of significance actually at multiple points in my life. And you know when I was a youngster ... when I was in Paris France so this is where I grew up right. You know I was a musician from a long time and I played violin since I was seven years old, played national conservatory actually and then when I was a teenager I got interested into jazz and I started playing trombone. And, you know, I started playing in jazz bands, funk bands, all kind of stuff and at the time I wasn't really into reggae quite yet you know. But someone introduced me to this record and the reason why this is very significant for me is because this is really a record that treads the line between jazz and reggae and he's a trombone player right. Rico Rodriguez is a trombone player so it really spoke to me because obviously as a jazz man and,you know, as a musically curious teenager, you know, I felt that this was an entire new world that really I had discovered through this record. So in a way this was my introduction to reggae. 

You know obviously I knew Bob Marley and Peter Tosh and all of those but those were like more of a you know part of my listening rotation but not so much as a deep interest. And 

so when I listened to this record it was kind of really a whole new world for me, you know, because it was again you know instrumental and kind of the tromboners was leads which 

is quite rare, you know, in any kind of music but it was really about like the trombone as the main, the shining kind of element of the sound. It's produced by Sly and Robbie who you know are obviously like giants of the Jamaican music industry so. The sound itself was kind of like the signature Sly and Robbie kind of sound and then, I don't know there's something about this record that really fascinated me and that's one of my first memorable reggae records one honest right. So I guess like fast forward maybe seven years, eight years from there from that time, from when I first got introduced to this record. And by the way at that time it wasn't in LP format, I got it in CD or cassette. It was late 90's ..I don't remember what was the .... mini disc! (Laughs) And then what was really funny is that I found this record as an LP so this is the one that you see now. In the one dollar bin at goodwill in college in Seattle Washington. So I was in college probably like 21.. 22 .. and at that time I was - I had kind of given up on playing music just because I was just .. I guess I made the choice of not continuing a like an actual musician career, right, and getting more into kind of like my .. the real world. (Laughs). 

And I saw this record literally in the one dollar bin, for those who know this is like a hundred dollar collectable. This is actually the Blue Notes ratio, very rare records basically 

right, found in like a one dollar bin. And I did have a record player at the time and I just saw it and it brought back these memories and I just had to have it. It was a dollar so it 

was kind of like ok you know why not. So I bought it and this is the first vinyl in my collection basically you know. And at that time that's kind of when I reconnected with reggae and started becoming more involved as a DJ, as an event organiser. And, in a way, looking at the last five years of running my own record label and being involved in the, you know, part of the community here in New York, part of I guess the contemporary reggae and sound system culture for me like tracing it back you find this record, you know. And the moment when I found it at goodwill was really the beginning of what I'm doing today, you know. So yeah this is it, this is my kind of story around "Man from Wareika". Beautiful record, you know, every track on their is like they're just lovely. Beautiful production, beautiful cover as well you know. Kind of like Ethiopian orthodox drawings you know. Yeah everything about this record is just like .. its very special to me." 

Quoc Pham: Brooklyn, NY, 7th February 2019 

Rico Rodriguez: "Man from Wareika” - released 1977 

Dub-Stuy