Roots Architects - From Then 'Til Now (2024)

Bringing together over 50 of Jamaica's greatest session musicians, whose work spans from the birth of reggae in the late 1960s until today, Roots Architects is the largest gathering of Jamaican musical talent on one all-instrumental album. Never before have so many veterans, who helped create the immortal rhythms that made reggae internationally successful, been assembled to play on new material without vocals. This album aims to celebrate and pay tribute to the unsung heroes of reggae music: the rhythm builders or Roots Architects.

The project is the brainchild of Swiss keyboardist and producer Mathias Liengme. In 2013, he travelled to Kingston, Jamaica, to produce The Inspirators project, an all-star album gathering Leroy ”Horsemouth” Wallace, Lloyd Parks, Earl ”Chinna” Smith and Sangie Davis, the four of them acting both as musicians and vocalists. This first experience in Kingston studio life paved the way to what would become the Roots Architects project. In February and March 2017 Mathias Liengme travelled for the fifth time to Kingston to record as many of reggae’s greatest living veteran musicians as he could. With the help of a few of these Architects like Robbie Lyn, Fil Callender or Dalton Browne, he managed to gather over 50 session musicians aged 60 to 85 on nine instrumental songs.

Roots Architects are legends back together in Kingston studios doing what they do best: creating instrumental music all together!

Drums
Sly Dunbar, Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace, Mikey “Boo” Richards, Fil Callender, Stanley “Barnabas” Bryan, Albert “Ilawi” Malawi

Bass
Robbie Shakespeare, Lloyd Parks, Boris Gardiner, Jackie Jackson, Errol “Flabba Holt” Carter, Christopher Meredith, Howard “Spred” Bedasse

Keyboards
Robbie Lyn, Ansel Collins, Michael “Ibo” Cooper, Tyrone Downie, Franklyn ”Bubbler“ Waul, Bernard “Touter” Harvey, Tony “Asher” Brissett, Dennis “Jah D” Fearon, Lloyd “Obeah” Denton, Mathias Liengme

Guitars
Ernest Ranglin, Radcliffe “Dougie” Bryan, Michael “Mao” Chung, Dwight Pinkney, Winston “Bo Pee” Bowen, Stephen “Cat” Coore, Dalton Browne, Fil Callender, David “Little David” Trail, Leebert “Gibby” Morrisson, Papis “Peace” Diouf, Josu Santamaria

Percussion
Bongo Joe, Christopher “Sky Juice” Burth, Harry T, Derrick Stewart, Alvin Haughton, Bongo Herman, Alphonso Craig, Joseph “Junior Congo” Sutherland, Mathias Liengme

Horns section
Vin Gordon, Karl “Cannonball” Bryan, Glen DaCosta, Dean Fraser, Calvin “Bubbles” Cameron, Llewellyn “Lew” Chang, Arnold Brackenridge, Sting Wray, Everald Gayle, Dwight Richards, Sheldon “ATiiBA” Bernard, Claude “Jah See” Jordan

Tracklist
01 - 1000 Light Years
02 - In The Shadow
03 - Whitewater
04 - Memories Of Old
05 - Rose Hall's Birds
06 - Squirrel Inna Barrel
07 - Under The Cotton Tree
08 - 45 Charles Street
09 - Everlasting Love