Natural Selectah at Ophelia's [Review]
The heat is on...
By Stephanie Esposito
Friday, February 3, 2017
Despite ice-covered roads, a line stretching out of the door greeted me when I arrived at Ophelia’s on Wednesday night. On the debut night of Natural Selectah Reggae All-Stars, Coloradans came out in full support. With such a stacked lineup of musicians from so many different bands, how could it be bad, right? Say hello to a beautiful community of music and people, and goodbye to any plans you might have had the first Wednesday of every month.
On the show bill, it mentioned these cats would be doing cover songs in a reggae style, but when I walked, in I could tell some original magic was happening. Members of Dubskin and Roots Massive opened up the night with singer Justin Cooney, or Machet, who warmed up the room with a kind of energy that only a prominent vocalist in this musical style can really create. It is a sound that forces you to leave your crap at the door, and is utterly transformative if you embrace the positivity. Check out a clip of “Solid Rock” on Facebook and go see Machet powered by Roots Massive if you’re near Fort Collins when they open for Rudie Clash at the Whiskey on February 10th and/or for Jo Mersa Marley on February 12th at Hodis Half note.
After set break, the Selectah-squad assembled, led by drummer Jeff Franca from Thievery Corporation, who coordinated the night. Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" was blown a new one when The Reminders singer Aja Black came out and basically sang the roof right off the building. She also did a dub version of the Fleetwood Mac classic, "Dreams", encouraging the girls in the crowd to sing along, and belting out in the end, “Denvah!! You will know!”.
As if that wasn’t enough, she later sang the Lauren Hill bomb track, "Lost Ones", rapping, showing her versatility, blowing my mind and making her easily my new hero. Aja and her husband/collaborator Big Samir opened for Thievery Corporation for six nights on the East Coast recently, and he led a few songs throughout the night as well. I wondered what funk song the band had started to play when Samir just came out and rapped all over it. It was exciting to see everything coming together.
Other members of the All Stars included crispy hot horn players from The Motet, Drew Sayers on saxophone and Gabe Mervine on trumpet. Break Science keyboard player Bonahm Lee seemed to be having fun with it, bringing his hands up high in between beats like he was casually plunking an old piano in a speakeasy. Kim Dawson from the Pimps of Joytime sang a few, including "Mr. Big Stuff" which featured an awesome guitar solo by the New Mastersounds' Eddie Roberts, who was festively dressed in a white suit and a pith helmet.
Between sets and afterwords, Yaadcore was spinning and mixing songs, sampling fresh tracks like "Fari Difuture", "Farmer Man", and "Who Knows" by Protoje featuring Chronixx. By the end of the night nobody wanted to stop dancing, but they called it good a little past 12.
Recently some friends and I were talking about how a monthly show is the perfect idea. It's spaced out enough that it's exciting, something you look forward to, maybe gives the artists more time to practice than a weekly jam, and not oppressive to your schedule if cuddling cats in your pj's at home is your preferred evening activity. It's a place you can tag back to after a month of other sonic adventures in our mile high music city and see artists really having fun with it, cross-pollinating with musicians from other bands, destroying the concept of competition, making a commitment to the people that every month they’ll be there for us. I am surprised every day by this amazing community and last night a dub fire was lit at Ophelias! Special thanks to Megan Rogers wherever you are for giving me some extra info about Reggae Revival. See you there next month, One Love!