On his recent visit to Kingston, Neil “Mad Professor” Fraser caught up with fellow musicians and reminisced about the old days.

The Guyana-born, London-raised engineer/producer longs for those good times.

One of the architects of modern British reggae, the music he produced for his Ariwa label was inspired by legendary Jamaican producers such as Clement Dodd and Duke Reid. He also admired the Khouri family, who operated Federal Records and the Lee brothers, Byron and Neville, who were proprietors of Dynamic Sounds and Sonic Sounds, respectively.

“I have a lot of respect for Federal and Dynamic, as they raised the bar of Jamaican music so high that the rest of the world tried to reach it. Going to Jamaica in the 80’s you had studios with their own sound and identity,” he told the
Jamaica Observer. “Federal [now Tuff Gong], Dynamic, Channel One, Joe Gibbs, Music Works, Harry J [are] all with engineers with special ears. These days, artistes just use computers.”

While he accepts the role technology plays in contemporary music, Mad Professor believes production standards have fallen significantly.

He said the situation is similar in the UK, where descendants of the 1970s reggae movement are not as exposed to the music.

“Black youths in the UK like reggae, but they don’t get to hear it. When they hear it, they go crazy. Ask the BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] why don’t they play reggae or dub, when every festival you attend plays reggae all day!” Mad Professor said. “The most popular records [in the UK] for the past 20 years have been Bam Bam (by Sister Nancy); Silly Games (Janet Kay); and No, No, No (Dawn Penn), but radio don’t play any new artistes.” he shared.

Mad Professor, 71, was born in Georgetown, Guyana’s capital. He moved to the UK at age 13 and discovered Jamaican pop culture through the music Dodd and Reid produced for their Studio One and Treasure Isle companies.

With Ariwa, which he established in 1979, he produced songs by first-generation British reggae acts such as Sandra Cross, Pato Banton, Macka B, and Kofi. Mad Professor has also collaborated with Sly and Robbie, Massive Attack and Lee “Scratch” Perry.

— Howard Campbell