Funky Kingston

Toots Hibbert sings reggae as though the rhythm has to pass through gospel before it can leave his body. That quality is central to Funky Kingston, a title attached to two related Maytals albums released in different configurations in 1973 and 1975. Rather than treating reggae as something exotic to be explained to an overseas audience, the music meets listeners head-on: tight Jamaican rhythm, raw soul feeling and a lead voice with the grain and force of a Southern R&B singer.

The album’s history reflects the international route reggae was taking in the early 1970s. The original Funky Kingston was recorded in 1972 at Dynamic Sounds in Kingston and Island Studios in London, with production credited to Chris Blackwell, Warwick Lyn and Dave Bloxham. A later 1975 US album used the same title and cover but was assembled by Danny Holloway from material on three previous Maytals albums. That distinction is important because Funky Kingston exists as more than one historical track sequence; what unites the versions is the period in which Toots and the Maytals were helping carry Jamaican music to a much wider audience. The title track captures the group’s appeal particularly well. The groove is taut and repetitive, but Hibbert’s vocal refuses to sit politely inside it, pushing, testifying and answering the band as though the studio were a live room. The Maytals had already been major hitmakers in Jamaica and had already given the genre its name with their single “Do the Reggay”. On Funky Kingston, the connection between reggae and American soul feels less like fusion than kinship.

That is what makes the record such an inviting entry point. The rhythms are unmistakably Jamaican, yet the emotional vocabulary of church, soul and rhythm and blues gives Hibbert a directness that crosses borders easily. Behind him, the band never overplays. Guitar, bass, drums and keyboards keep the pulse springy and uncluttered, leaving the voice room to surge. Funky Kingston is historically significant, but it does not need history to justify the pleasure of hearing it. Its argument is made in the groove.