The Greensleeves storySunday, April 15, 2007
Of course, the three-decade history of Greensleeves records significantly pre-dates the above-referenced 1986 Tippa Irie single (one of, if not the first record from a reggae artiste to find national chart success in the UK) and neither does it end with Vybz Kartel's famous slang.
Vybz Kartel
But the two form a reasonable bracket to one of the most diverse and influential bodies of work - both commercially and artistically - in the annals of reggae music.
Greensleeves began as a record shop in West Ealing, London, in November 1975. A move to the Shepherds Bush community two years later set the stage for the thriving record label as it is known today, with offices in both London (actually in Isleworth, Middlesex), and New York City (where the sales, promotion and much of the A&R work is handled).
Indeed Tippa Irie was not the mainstay of the label in its formative years, but a DJ with the unusual moniker of Dr Alimantado, whose album, Best Dressed Chicken In Town, was a runaway success and has never been out of print since.
By 1980, the record shop had been eclipsed by the record label.
Greensleeves quickly established an identity with acts that provide a continuity between those fledgling days and today: the first few albums included work by Augustus Pablo (the acclaimed Original Rockers album) and Barrington Levy, both of whom still appear on the label.
The emergent dancehall culture of the early '80s led Greensleeves to form mutually satisfying relationships with the late Henry 'Junjo' Lawes, the pioneering early ruler of the genre, and with singer/producer Linval Thompson. This period included dub releases from Scientist, vocal albums from the Wailing Souls, Freddie McGregor, Thompson and Don Carlos, and early works from Black Uhuru produced by Prince Jammy (he later became King Jammy), another Jamaican producer long associated with the label.
The mid-80s were a particularly strong time for the label, with virtually every reggae major recording for it in some degree or fashion. Among best-remembered highlights of the era are several albums from Eek-A-Mouse (including the classic Wa Do Dem), 10 albums from Yellowman (including his most famous, Zungguzungguguzungguzeng), Josey Wales' The Outlaw Josey Wales, Johnny Osbourne's Water Pumping, Junior Reid's debut, Boom Shack A Lack, and Frankie Paul's early success Pass The Tu-Sheng-Peng.
At the same time, the company continued to provide for the more traditional end of the reggae market with classic roots material like Hugh Mundell's Africa Must Be Free By 1983, Jacob Miller's Who Say Jah No Dread, Ras Michael's Rastafari and albums from Burning Spear, Ini Kamoze, Augustus Pablo and Israel Vibration.
An eight-year period of home-grown productions reached its peak with Tippa Irie's UK Top 30 hit Hello Darlin' in 1986. Other Greensleeves UK acts to score heavily were Pato Banton, whose Secret Thunderbird Drinker remains a cult classic, and reggae-rapping duo Clint Eastwood & General Saint who were highly successful with Another One Bites The Dust (nine weeks at Number one in the UK reggae charts) and Stop That Train (Number three in the national charts in Holland).
Greensleeves was quick to embrace the new digital music from 1986 onwards, issuing Wayne Smith's Under Me Sleng Teng, the record that started it all. In 1988 Gregory Isaacs' Rumours single (a Gussie Clarke production) was the best-selling reggae record of 1988 and created a new hi-tech raggamuffin genre all on its own. For the next two years, Clarke's productions on records by Isaacs, JC Lodge, Dennis Brown, Home T, Cocoa Tea, Shabba Ranks, and Greensleeves' own signing, Deborahe Glasgow, dominated both the label and the reggae world.
For several years, Greensleeves licensed the leading American reggae label RAS, with releases from Black Uhuru (including a UK Top 50 entry for Great Train Robbery), Freddie McGregor and Israel Vibration. It continued to distribute the RAS label, and in addition provided UK/European distribution for other leading US reggae labels -- Heartbeat, Shanachie and VP -- for a number of years until deciding to concentrate on its own Greensleeves label in the late '90s. A world music series, including three albums from Zouk masters Kassav, came out in the late '80s.
In the early '90s, the NYC connection deepened and productions like Shaggy's career-launching cover of the Folkes Brothers' Oh Carolina reached the UK Number one slot in March 1993. The single also reached the Top 10 in Holland and Belgium on the Greensleeves label.
The mid-90s also saw an involvement with the fast-rising 'new roots' scene in the UK through releases for the legendary sound system figure Jah Shaka and newcomers Alpha & Omega, and also some of the toughest productions to emerge from the UK ragga-jungle scene (now collected on two mid-price compilations).
Strong relationships with most of Jamaica's top producers has continued to allow Greensleeves the pick of the very best music from the island, including productions by King Jammy, Shocking Vibes, Jack Scorpio, Steely & Clevie, Startrail, and Bobby Digital. Highlights have included albums by Bounty Killer (including 1997's highly successful Ghetto Gramma), Garnett Silk's Lord Watch Over Our Shoulders (1995), Beenie Man's Maestro, Mykal Rose's Nuh Carbon and Beres Hammond's Lifetime Guarantee (all 1996).
Compilation albums increased significantly in importance during the '90s, and Greensleeves has established two of the leading compilation series -- its mid-price Sampler series of more accessible reggae, and its Ragga Ragga Ragga series of hardcore dancehall.
A recent development has been a merging of roots lyrics with modern ragga rhythms, which are showcased on the compilation series Conscious Ragga, and on albums from artistes such as Everton Blender, Anthony B, Bushman, Morgan Heritage, and Sizzla.
The label also helped to bring Sizzla Kalonji to wider attention, beginning with the classic Black Woman & Child (released to massive critical acclaim in 1997) and its successors, Royal Son Of Ethiopia (1999), Bobo Ashanti (2000) and Rastafari Teach I Everything (2001).
The label also brought pop success to Beenie Man with his smash, Who Am I (Zim Zimma) which stormed on to the UK national charts at Number 10 in 1998. Following this, dancehall sensation Mr Vegas proved himself a cross-over success: his debut album, Heads High, became one of the label's best-selling single artiste albums, the title track reaching Number 16 in the UK pop charts in 1999 after his MOBO award success that year.
The annual Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems series of double-CD collections each year has recently been supplemented by its first retrospective Anthems release, covering the 1979-82 period and entitled The Birth of Dancehall.
On the publishing side, Greensleeves has published 10 Top 20 hits in the UK in the last 10 years, including two Number ones, and Greensleeves Publishing has now developed far beyond its original subsidiary role to the record label. With a well-established network of sub-publishers throughout the world, it has become a substantial business in its own right, currently handling over 12,000 songs, including two recent Top 20 hits in the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA.
The new millennium saw the emergence of the charismatic Elephant Man, whose first three albums on the label have been among the company's biggest successes recently. Greensleeves also signed Ward 21, as well as Vybz Kartel, whose debut album for the label was released late 2003.
The other recent development on the label has been the success of the Greensleeves Rhythm Album series, meeting the ever-present demand of hardcore reggae fans to own all the cuts on the best new rhythms by releasing them on a single album. Number 27 in the series, Diwali, produced by Steven 'Lenky' Marsden, even crossed out of the base market to reach the sort of sales figures normally only achieved by top artiste albums in the genre and spawned the recent Wayne Wonder hit, No Letting Go.
Now, with the A&R base shifted to New York, Greensleeves is again in a period of reinvention, one which the relatively new A&R head Dan Kuster hopes will coincide with a reinvention of its principal genres.
"We're essentially starting from scratch, we're in search of new talent, and personally, I'd like to see new energy in the business, and I believe the market as a whole wants that too, "Kuster told the Observer in a phone interview.
Part of that search for renewal has led to a collaboration with this year's season of Digicel Rising Stars, launched this past week in Kingston. The winner of this year's competition will have two singles recorded with Greensleeves, one of which will be accompanied by a music video.
The label is also currently in talks with other acts, Kuster says, but "nothing that we're ready to announce as yet".
On the distribution side, recognising the shift towards digital media, Greensleeves has signed a global agreement with leading digital distribution outfit, The Orchard.
Kuster, whose own background dealing in 7" reggae singles, helped prepare him to assume his current position ("when I was approached, I was winding down my own business and looking to get more involved on the creative side") says it's still early days for the digital distribution of reggae but acknowledges that the music scene is rapidly heading in that direction.
Still, Greensleeves remains focussed on its history.
To celebrate its 25th Anniversary in 2000, the label re-released 25 classic titles from its catalogue, remastered, and repackaged. This Greensleeves Classics series has been continued with further re-releases on a regular basis.
Five years on, the company plans to continue the trend, and is scheduled to re-release some 50 of the more classic items in the catalogue, many of which are appearing in the CD format for the first time. But no doubt, Greensleeves, like other labels, will have to continue to walk the line, maintaining the bridge to the past while looking clearly towards the future.
