''Positive'' is a studio album by the Jamaican

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

group

Black Uhuru Black Uhuru is a Jamaican reggae group formed in 1972, initially as Uhuru ( Swahili for 'freedom'). The group has undergone several line-up changes over the years, with Derrick "Duckie" Simpson as the mainstay. They had their most successful per ...

, released in 1987. A dub album, ''Positive Dub'', was released the same year. ''Positive'' was the final album with vocalist Delroy "Junior" Reid.

Production

The album was produced by Steven Stanley.

Sly and Robbie Sly and Robbie were a prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo, associated primarily with the reggae and dub genres. Drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare teamed up in the mid-1970s after establishing themselves separa ...

, who had produced Black Uhuru on earlier albums, appear as backing musicians.

Puma Jones Sandra "Puma" Jones (October 5, 1953—January 28, 1990) was an American singer, best known as a member of the Grammy Award-winning reggae group Black Uhuru. Career Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Jones graduated from Columbia University i ...

left the band before production began, and was replaced by Olafunke; Jones is still credited on the album.

Critical reception

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

wrote that "Sly and Robbie won't knock you out, but on Uhuru's best records they never do—given the right songs and performances, all they have to do is make them righter." ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...

'' thought that the album "finds

elroy Elroy may refer to: Places in the United States * Elroy, North Carolina, a census-designated place * Elroy, Pennsylvania, a village in Franconia Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania * Elroy, Texas, an unincorporated community * Elroy, Wiscons ...

Reid coming into his own as a vocalist, and features a few songs that are strikingly original." The ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the '' ...

'' called the album "uplifting, yet realistic," writing that it "paints real, and often graphic, pictures of conflict in the Third World." The ''

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

'' wrote that "at its best, Black Uhuru combines the persistent dance-inciting rhythms of pure reggae with substantial pop melodies and soulful vocals." ''

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'' opined that "occasionally missing ... is the sheer tunefulness the band has displayed in the past."

Track listing

Personnel

*Derrick "Duckie" Simpson - vocals * Delroy "Junior" Reid - vocals *Olafunke - vocals *

Sly Dunbar Lowell Fillmore "Sly" Dunbar (born 10 May 1952, Kingston, Jamaica) is a drummer, best known as one half of the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and reggae production duo Sly and Robbie. Biography Dunbar began playing at 15 in a band called ...

- drums *

Robbie Shakespeare Robert Warren Dale Shakespeare (27 September 1953 – 8 December 2021) was a Jamaican bass guitarist and record producer, best known as half of the reggae rhythm section and production duo Sly and Robbie, with drummer Sly Dunbar. Regarded as ...

- bass *Asher - keyboards * Chinna Smith - guitar *Rass Brass - horns

References

{{Black Uhuru 1987 albums Black Uhuru albums