I spent two hours yesterday at Doctor Dread’s house doing part one of a multi-part interview with Delroy “Barry” Wright, founder of Live & Learn Records and one of the most respected reggae record producers alive today. Along with his brother Hyman “Jah Life” Wright, Barry served the right coast, and the world, with some of the most legendary and noteworthy recordings from “the golden age of reggae,” and especially in the earliest days of the dancehall era from 1979 through 1986 and beyond. The list of his productions is absolutely mind-blowing and way too long to share here. But you should CHECK IT HERE if interested. And that list is incomplete!
For those who do not know, Wright emigrated to NYC in the early 1970s with his brother and sisters and eventually established the Live & Learn store on Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring, MD. I would call it a label and record store, but he sold everything there from ital food, vegetables, magazines, books, music, phone cards, you name it he had it.
So we will be sitting down soon to complete this in-depth interview about his life and career, but in the meantime here are just a few of his productions from my record collection. There will be big news to come from these interviews about Live & Learn.
Don Carlos’ “Black History” is one of my favorite Wright productions. I always assumed that the Roots Radics are on the riddim, however, according to Wright he used Jimmy Cliff’s Oneness band.
____________________
Michael Prophet’s best album IMHO is Jah Love on the Live & learn imprint.
____________________
The best album to see a release on Live & Learn is Winston Hussey’s The Girl I Adore. Timeless heavy roots rock reggae from start to finish.
____________________
____________________
A shot from Anthony Johnson. Produced by Delroy Wright.
____________________
Love all the stuff that Wright did with Al Campbell, especially this one.
“Fence too tall, can’t go over de wall.
Time get hard, some a holla some a bawl.”
____________________
Little John is a must every time.
____________________
When it comes to Junior Reid, Wright recorded him de best…
Remember this one?
Check the alternative mix titled “Dread In The Mountain” by engineer Jim Fox, which appears on the Doctor Dread-produced Brutal LP by Black Uhuru. Is that Chinna or Frank Stepanek with the searing guitars? I think Chinna had moved on to Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers by this point.
____________________
Trinity took on the name “Junior Brammer” to sing this one.
____________________
Ernest Wilson’s “Undying Love” is a killer track…Delroy gave it to me so here it is…
Some scans from my vinyl collection:
LEGENDARY REGGAE 