''Roots to the Bone'' was issued in 1995 by

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

as a reissue of Rico Rodriguez' most important album, ''

Man from Wareika ''Man from Wareika'' was the first album recording for Rico Rodriguez led by his own artistic imagination, and his first recording created for album release. It is notable for being the only roots reggae album to be released on Blue Note Records. ...

'', (minus two tracks: "Rasta" and "Gunga Din") with some 12" sides from the late 1970s. Rico was musically very active during that time playing in Europe as well as in Japan. He just had releases with

Jazz Jamaica Jazz Jamaica is a British jazz/reggae music group formed by musician Gary Crosby in London formed in 1991. History In 1991, inspired by the rhythms of traditional Jamaican music and the largely improvisational nature of jazz, Gary Crosby — on ...

and continued with his own recordings he had produced in Japan during 1994/1995. At the same time Trojan re-released his 1969 LPs, '' Blow Your Horn'' and '' Brixton Cat'', while Island used its Reggae Refreshers series to present Rico on this album, ''Roots to the Bone''. Th
liner notes
have been written by Steve Barrow as a brief history of Rico's career that lasted for half a century just as long as the development of Jamaican music as one "of the world's great popular musics". He concludes: "as one of its original creators, he has used his trombone to sing the songs of King Alpha as convincingly as any vocalist."

Track listing

All tracks written by Rico Rodriguez; except Track 1 written by

Chuck Mangione Charles Frank Mangione ( ; born November 29, 1940) is an American flugelhorn player, voice actor, trumpeter and composer. He came to prominence as a member of Art Blakey's band in the 1960s, and later co-led the Jazz Brothers with his brother, ...

, Track 4, written by

Paul Desmond Paul Desmond (born Paul Emil Breitenfeld; November 25, 1924 – May 30, 1977) was an American jazz alto saxophone, alto saxophonist and composer, best known for his work with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for composing that group's biggest hit, " ...

#"Children of Sanchez" #"Midnight in Ethiopia" #"Free Ganja" #"Take Five" #"Far East" #"No Politician" #"Firestick" #"This Day" #"Ramble" #"Lumumba" #"Africa" #"Man From Wareika" #"Over The Mountain" #"Dial Africa"

Credits

Produced by Karl Pitterson except track 1 produced by Dennis Bovell, track 2 by Rico, tracks 3,4 and 12 by Dick Cuthell, track 7 co-produced by Dick Cuthell Engineers: Dick Cuthell, Terry Barnham, Godwin Logie, Paul "Groucho" Smykle, Errol "T" Thompson, Karl Pitterson Cover by Intro

Releases

1995: *CD: Reggae Refreshers / Mango RRCD 54 / 524 068-2 {{Authority control Compilation albums by Jamaican artists 1995 compilation albums Reggae compilation albums Island Records compilation albums