Black Man's Pride

Gathering 18 Studio One recordings from across the 1970s that focus loosely on the black experience, this album finds Alton Ellis opening with the song it's named after. Ellis sings ‘I was born a loser/Because I’m a black man’ as he chronicles slavery and suffering. Other leading reggae singers here include Horace Andy, Dennis Brown, Sugar Minott, John Holt and The Heptones. Alongside these icons there are lesser-known artists; compiler Stuart Baker has sifted the Studio One vaults for songs that reflect different Jamaican experiences. Some are hymns to Rastafari as liberation theology, others celebrate loving relationships, while the likes of Cedric ‘Im’ Brooks’ ‘Why Can’t I’ is a jolly instrumental – why it's here beyond perhaps lightening the mood is hard to fathom. Some forgettable tunes are included: The Nightingales’ ‘Rasta is Calling’ is banal, even by the ‘I Love Jah’ clichés that came to dog a lot of 70s reggae; while Freddie McGregor's effort here is a corny copy of Cat Stevens’ ‘Wild World’. Black Man's Pride (and, yes, it's all men) mixes the excellent and the mediocre. Of interest, but not one of Soul Jazz's finest efforts.