"We've heard the message before from the reggae
legends," says Mr. Mojo. "It's the message of Rastafari,
and we stipulate in that message that His Majesty [Ethiopian Emperor
Haile Selassie I] is Christ returned. He's the Black messiah sent
to redeem his people in the Diaspora, letting them know the fullness
that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Yet our message is that same
as Martin Luther King's and others. Mankind has to hear the same
thing over and over again. So we come not with nothing new, but
to remind people of who they really are."
It is said that those blessed with twin roots are
the strongest, and Denroy Morgan's children were born in Brooklyn,
where he relocated in '61, and raised with their ears tuned to a
world of music. They learned to play R&B, rock & roll, as
well as reggae.
Heritage was a virtual unknown in Jamaica when
an awed MCA A&R exec signed the group in Montego Bay, hot off
the Reggae Sunsplash '92 stage. Miracles, the group's debut album,
was released in '94. The following year, Morgan and his family returned
to Jamaica, settling in bucolic St. Thomas parish. For the children
raised in Brooklyn, it was a true homecoming, and they began digging
deeper to discover their musical/cultural roots by working with
such famed local producers as Bobby "Digital" Dixon and
Lloyd "King Jammy" James.
Protect Us Jah, produced by Bobby Digital and released
in '97, by Brickwall/VP, includes hit singles "Set Yourself
Free," "Let's Make Up," "Live Up," and
the set's title song, which was the first Heritage tune to make
the reggae world sit up and take notice of the group. One Calling,
produced by Jammy and released by Greensleeves/VP, spun off smash
hits "God Is God, " Trodding To Zion," "Coming
Home" and the title track.
After their two Jamaican-produced albums, Heritage
branched out to work with other top recording studio giants - Philip
"Fattis" Burrell, Donovan Germaine, Tony Rebel, and [sax
legend] Dean Frazier. "Reggae Bring Back Love," released
during the heights of World Cup Reggae Boyz fever, shot the group
to reggae's frontlines. It was included in the Heritage's ground-breaking
fourth set, Don't Haffi Dread, (VP Records, '99), also helmed by
Bobby Digital, and featuring the title boomshot, "Don't Haffi
Dread," a tune that captured hearts and minds all over the
world by stressing the importance of the "content of one's
character" rather than such superficial concerns as hair style.
It broke the group internationally. Not surprisingly, the lyrical
theme that one doesn¹t have to wear the customary dreadlocks
to embrace Rastafarianism - sparked off a reggae controversy that
continues to this day.
"We don't argue the point," says Peter.
"But sometimes, if we do spend the time reasoning, they have
to say, `It's true.'" After the move to Jamaica, Heritage also
set out to fulfill a not so hidden agenda: resolving petty rifts
that divide the local music community by creating imaginative collaborations
with leading artists, including younger stars Luciano, Buju Banton,
Capleton, and veteran singers like Toots Hibbert and Edi Fitzroy..
The "Morgan Heritage and Friends" album series, which
has yielded 2 sterling volumes so far, impresses as much for its
searing tracks as for bringing together artists usually not found
on the same package. The group also began building its own productions.
More Teachings is alive with Heritage's euphoric
family feeling and new spins on the hoary Rastafarian credo that
it's all about love. Over the group's own productions, the set's
eighteen tracks apply that lesson to topics that range from equality
and family unity, to the healing powers of music, to the faith that
the underclass can indeed transform the world¹s Babylon system
and work. Featuring the group's densely textured harmonies, sinewy
leads, and firmly swinging beats, Heritage comes up with some of
the most buoyant interpretations of reggae's "one drop"
philosophy in recent memory. "This new album is a dream come
true for us," says Peter. "It's a conceptual album, unfolding
like a storybook. Don't Haffi Dread is the preface, and More Teachings
is the entire book about the true teachings of Haile Selassie. We
tell people how to live, to know Christ as your Lord and Savior
while still knowing the divinity of Haile Selassie, that he's Christ
in his kingly character, the returned Messiah."
More Teachings sails off an infectious positivism
with a rousing opening track, "Ready Or Not," as Peter
sounds a classic reggae warning to the faithful - the time of Judgement
is now. The title track suffers no illusions in its truth-telling.
It features Peter and Gramps, who spits classic Yankee-style sense
in a brief, suitably tough verse. The brothers trade lyrical accounts
of "Blackman history" once again over the driving riddims
of "Know Your Past."
"Questions," a gentle test of faith for
the listener,takes it down to the more relaxed but equally intense
tempos of a night-long, hand drum-propelled Nyabingi gathering.
Those ancient, African vibrations also buoy the promise of "H.I.M
Come," and in "See Things Clear," Peter's shimmering
prophesy equals the impeccable vocal purity of the late and sorely
lamented reggae legend, Garnet Silk. Old Testament fire and thunder
rain down on the heathen in "So Much Confusion," while
the bouncy riddims "Seen The Sun" evoke a feel-good Marleyesque
mood, and a lilting "Down By The River" takes the listener
back to reggae's Golden Seventies, by springboarding off a classically
sweet Studio One riff. And the whole family joins together to remind
listeners that "love is the same all around the world,"
in "What We Need Is Love."
More Teachings is clearly the group's crowning
achievement so far, but Heritage has also been busy spreading the
love, producing other artists, including Jah Cure, Bushman, Jahmali,
and their father, for the family's labels. 71 Records releases More
Teachings in tandem with VP Records, and Heritage Music Group [HMG]
released the two Family & Friends sets. The family also produced
the Sept., 2000, Heritage album, Gunz in the Ghetto, another compilation
featuring Heritage with other artists, including Bounty Killer on
the title song. LMS, a trio of younger Heritage siblings, is already
firing reggae imaginations with high-octane performances. The family's
next venture, "East Man Project," is a group of three
St. Thomas-based artist - singer Prince Theo, dub poet Adigun, and
deejay Don Marshall. "Eventually they'll have their own band,"
says Peter. "But we're backing them for now. Hopefully, their
album will be out by Fall, 2001." The East Man Project artists
are also featured in Heritage's extravagant stage production.
Reggae culture may have embraced Morgan Heritage
as the best hope for the continuing success of roots & culture
reggae, but Heritage insists that "we're only vessels being
used by the Divine Creator," says Una. Adds Mr. Mojo: "We're
simply deliverers of a word. We're plainly and simply a family chosen
to bring glory and gratification to the King."
