DAVID HILLYARD & THE ROCKSTEADY 7 – Get Back Up! – CD

Label: Brixton Records
Code: BR-029-CD
Format: compact disc, album
Release: 31/09/2009

Tenor and soprano saxophonist David Hillyard is one of the great innovators of the American ska scene. Together with his band, The Rocksteady 7, he blends Jamaican roots instrumental rhythms in the style of the Skatalites or Burning Spear with extensive jazz improvisations in the vein of David Murray, Charlie Haden and Pharaoh Saunders.

His new CD, GET BACK UP!, is a dazzling tour de force showcasing his take on Jamaican jazz. The title track evokes the power of John Coltrane’s *Love Supreme* and is a roaring triumph over adversity. From the rapped reggae of ‘Death Ride’, through the Brazilian bingí of ‘Ça Purange’, to the restrained rendition of the 1960s classic ‘Sunny’, Dave and his friends are in their element.

David Hillyard has been a professional musician for over 20 years. As a 17-year-old, he was already playing with The Donkey Show, one of the pioneering ska bands in California. He has played with Hepcat, a band that went on to become one of the most active and notable of the 1990s. He has also performed with: other ska bands such as Stubborn All-Stars and Skinner Box; reggae artists such as Cornell Campbell, Congo ‘Ashanti’ Roy and Johnny Osbourne; jazz musicians such as Roy Campbell; blues musicians such as Simon Chardiet; soul singers such as Archie Bell (“Do the Tighten Up”); punk rockers such as Rancid; and even with Fermín Muguruza in Balazalak.

But David Hillyard is best known for his work with The Slackers, a band of which he remains one of the key members and with whom he has recorded 10 CDs and played over 1,000 concerts. Even today, he performs around 120–150 concerts a year with The Slackers across the USA, Canada, Japan, Latin America and Europe.

Through these diverse experiences, David has developed a unique style – a blend of the warm, island-inspired tones of Roland Alphonso and Tommy McCook, the piercing wails of John Coltrane, the smoothness of Sidney Bechet, the otherworldly sound of Pharaoh Saunders, the honking blues of King Curtis, and the swing of Ben Webster, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins. As Jazziz magazine succinctly put it: “HILLYARD KNOWS HOW TO PLAY”.

His band, The Rocksteady 7, is an ever-changing collective of musicians, including some of New York’s finest instrumentalists who have played with everyone from Sting to The Skatalites. The longest-serving member of David’s band is veteran percussionist Larry McDonald, who began his career with Carlos Malcolm & His Afro Jamaicans Rhythm at the very time when ska music was emerging. His career led him to feature on recordings of some classic reggae tracks such as ‘Cherry Oh Baby’, ‘Funky Kingston’ and ‘Rivers of Babylon’. He later left Jamaica and collaborated for extended periods with Taj Mahal and Gil Scott-Heron.

The debut album by David Hillyard & the Rocksteady 7, *PLAYTIME* (Hellcat/Epitaph), was widely praised for its innovative blend of Jamaican roots rhythms and jazz and Latin influences.

The Rocksteady 7’s second album, UNITED FRONT (Do Tell/Brixton Records), combined free improvisation, reggae and revolutionary rhetoric. The Beat magazine referred to the group at the time as “true musical revolutionaries” and stated that they “blow the competition out of the water”. Ragga magazine dubbed them “the Magnificent Seven”.

Their third CD, WAY OUT EAST (Brixton Records), captured the band’s powerful live energy. Recorded in Jena (Germany), this album was described by Worldmusic.com as a perfect jazz-reggae fusion that left fans of both genres in “a state of ecstasy”.