if you'd asked me at different times in my life who was my very favorite musical act, i might have said muddy waters, tammy wynette, billie holiday (who got me through my first big love disaster), the pretenders, seldom scene, ramones, stones, iird tyme out. if you ask me right now, i'll say augustus pablo (who's getting me through the most recent), the great reggae producer/melodica player. the list below is two discs of the best, partly constructed for me to noodle along on melodica. there is no reasonable "best of" so one should download these individual songs. all his albums are uneven, if you ask me, and he's far better in a spooky minor key mode than in others: all of these are the former. in a way my love of pablo (like a lot of love) is eccentric: i love what other people might find annoying: the extreme simplicity, repetitiveness: it's a form of mesmerism. my favorite quote ever is from miles davis: "i always listen for what i can leave out." like davis, or billie holiday, pablo is always looking for the direct, the non-technical expression: always at the heart, always being true to the improvisation, even in its imperfections. 

there's something about the free-reed instruments, if you ask me: the harmonica, accordion, melodica. it's just my favorite timbre. pablo is the only melodica player who could possibly appear in any history of music, and like the harp, the melodica is half serious instrument, half toy.

of course, pablo produced these great tracks, many of which have fairly famous vocal versions by various artists, and he often returned again and again to the same underlying riddims. most of the dubs are by king tubby, and represent some of his very best work. tubby invented dub, which has utterly revolutionized world popular music: changed its ontology. (veal's book linked below is a mgnificent academic treatment of the form.) ultimately the music below is devotional, an instrumental gospel music of rastafarianism (though "bedroom mazurka" ain't exactly a hymn!)

[from east of the river nile]

(1) jah light

(2) chant to king selassie i

(3) nature dub

(4) natural way

(5) memories of the ghetto

(6) africa (1983)

(7) east of the river nile

(8) addis-a-babba

(9) east africa

(10) jah light version

(11) islington rock

 

[from skanking with pablo]

(12) java

(13) hot and cold (version 1)

(14) bedroom mazurka

(15) bedroom mazurka (version)

(16) pablo in red

(17) lama lava

(18) vibrate on

(19) vibrate on (version)

 

[from in fine style]

(20) far east

(21) phillip's showcase

(22) up warika hill

(23) mountain view dub (version)

(24) chuck full and dub

 

[from king david's melody]

(25) king david's medley

(26) zion high

(27) mr. bassie

(28) sufferers trod

 

[from king tubby meets rockers uptown]

(29) keep on dubbing

(30) 555 dub street

(31) brace's tower dub

(32) king tubby meets rockers uptown

(33) skanking dub

(34) satta dub

 

[from original rockers]

(35) up warika hill

(36) cassava piece

(37) tubby's dub song

 

[from blowing with the wind]

(38) ancient harmonies

(39) blowing with the wind

(40) zion ufo

(41) eastern code

 

[from valley of jehosaphat]

(42) kushites

(43) omega africa

(44) internal struggle

(45) sleeping chariots

(46) ethiopia binghi drums