Wednesday, October 19, 2005  

Abdel Wright
"Loose We Now"
Abdel Wright
(Weapons of Mass Entertainment/Interscope, 2005)

Abdel Wright
"Quicksand" (acoustic)
Prealbum sampler CD
(Weapons of Mass Entertainment/Interscope, 2004)

Go to AbdelWright.com to stream the whole CD and watch the video for the album version of "Quicksand." Or just go buy it for less than $10. The above photo was taken at the 2005 Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival; read my review here.

I met Abdel Wright by chance in January 2004 while flying to Kingston to do research and interviews for a story about jazz's influence on ska and reggae. I was standing with pianist Monty Alexander in the Montego Bay airport, and he pointed out a guy across the hallway. "See that young, skinny dread? Bono said he's gonna be the next Marley." Alexander had never met Wright, but he had just overdubbed some melodica on the CD the singer-songwriter was working on.

We couldn't get out of line to say hello, and Abdel kept walking, so we figured that was that. Alexander and I soon boarded the plane and walked toward our seats. Who did we see sitting in the third seat in our row? Abdel Wright. We had a great chat -- two Jamaicans and a bottle of paste between them -- and Abdel ended up spending some time with us in Kingston because he wanted to meet the legendary guitarist Ernest Ranglin, who joined me & Monty on our trip around the city.

Wright was an unknown then -- and is pretty much an unknown now -- but there was a growing buzz about him. Just a few months prior to our meeting, Bono and Dave Stewart (of the Eurythmics and owner of the Weapons of Mass Entertainment imprint) had invited Abdel to play a concert in South Africa benefitting Nelson Mandela's 46664 AIDS charity. Other artists included U2, Queen, Peter Gabriel, etc. All megastars. No Abdel Wrights.

Wright played his lone song, "Loose We Now," at the Mandella concert in bare feet because he wanted to be close to Mother Africa. He clearly breaks down in tears at the end of the tune (which I posted last year). So, why the waterfalls? Wright couldn't believe he was singing to a huge audience at a packed soccer stadium in Africa. When you read his about his life you'll know why he got so emotional.

The story below is from the September 2004 issue of Global Rhythm. It was supposed to coincide with the release of Abdel's debut CD, but the album was delayed until August 2005 -- two full years after it was originally recorded. In the meantime Abdel added the strong antiwar anthem "Babylon Wall" to the CD. (A much shorter version of this story will appear in the December 2005 issue of Harp.)

ABDEL WRIGHT
From Guns to Guitars -- and a Bidding War
Story: Christopher Porter

Abdel Wright is sitting on a bed in a no-frills Quality Inn in suburban Virginia. The room is stuffy because the air conditioning is switched off to protect his voice, and a Jamaican flag T-shirt is thrown over a lamp to diffuse the harsh light. This is the man that U2's Bono dubbed "the most important Jamaican artist since Marley."

Everybody has to start somewhere.

Four months before the September 14th release of his self-titled debut for Interscope, Wright is playing solo gigs up and down the East Coast. While the CD versions of his socially conscious tunes are decorated with Jamaican rhythms, the 27-year-old's music is based primarily on American folk-pop. For instance, the first single, "Quicksand," features harmonica decorations and a strummed acoustic-guitar over a dubby bass and hip-hoppy rhythm with Wright delivering lyrics in a distinct vocal style: his verses are mostly patois and sometimes chanted, while his choruses are largely sung in straight English. Meanwhile, slide guitar pops up on "Human Behavior" and the Bob Dylan-esque "Loose We Now," and delicate finger-picked guitar introduces "Dust Under Carpet" and the raw autobiography "Issues." But while the song structures might come from folk-rock, this Rastafarian's words are born out of the same political sensibility as Marley's, and this is what Bono meant. "He didn't say I was the next Bob Marley," reaffirms Wright, yet he admits that for all the buzz the superstar's quote will help create, "It's kind of pressuring because I know how people think."

But Wright has faced bigger problems than worrying what others think. He's the son of a mentally ill mother and a father he never met. "The police had to take me away from her because she's too sick to take care of baby. I was like 3, 4 months old," he says quietly. "It took about three months because she was so hostile to them. They finally found me in the house ceiling; she hid me there in a little basket. One or two days I'm up there. That's where the homes started, the orphanages."

After bouncing around facilities in Clarendon and Kingston due to his bad behavior, the 14-year-old Wright ended up at SOS Children's Home in Barrett Town near Montego Bay, which is where he met Johnny Cash. "He lived just down the road," Wright says. "He would give us books, visit us, talk to us. Every Christmas he would have a concert and he would invite SOS kids. I watched him play the guitar and the mouth organ, and I said, 'My, God, I wish I could do that.' And a guy beside me said, 'Hey, man, shut up! You ain't doing shit! You'll never do that!' It hit me for months, because it was one of the most degrading things someone can say to me. The only thing I respected much at this time was music."

While he briefly had a guitar at the SOS home in Kingston, "I smashed it in the wall when the chords weren't coming out that great," Wright laughs. "But before I smashed it I learned a couple of Tracy Chapman chords." Luckily, there was also a guitar in Barrett Town, and Wright was able to borrow it and then own it. "One Christmas at the age of 17, everybody got gifts but me. I said, 'Mmm, hmm, I did something bad as usual.' Everybody was laughing at me, until this superintendent from the village, Ian Philips, I love him so much, said, 'Abdel, I noticed you didn't get anything, but I have something to say: The guitar down the office is yours.' I said, 'Back side!' And I run down the office and grab it, and I run up to my room and nobody saw me for three days after that. I hug that guitar like my girlfriend."

Wright should have held onto that guitar a little tighter the following year when as an 18-year-old he left SOS and moved back to Kingston. "I didn't have anywhere to go to. No skills at all," Wright says, shaking his head. "I got involved with a lot of guns, robbing people for a living. I was on the street." After a year of scraping by, Wright was busted. "I was caught with illegal possession of firearm and ammunition. I went to GP [general penitentiary] first, then they transfer me to Gun Court because I'm a talent. They had a rehabilitation program just starting there, and they wanted me to go into the band."

Wright taught other prisoners music and himself Spanish and sign language. He was released after five years, and started playing his own songs at karaoke bars. In 2003 a friend told producer Brian Jobson about Wright, who asked to meet the singer-songwriter in a hotel parking lot. "I took my last $200 [about $4 U.S.] and took a taxi knowing I'd be hungry later," he says. Wright sang two of his CD's best songs -- the playful looking-for-a girl tune "My Decision" and the prison-bunk meditation "Roughest Time" -- and when he finished he saw a smile on Jobson's face. The producer said he would see Wright again and drove off.

A week later Jobson called and said he bought Wright a guitar and he wanted to record an album. That recording made its way to the Eurhythmics' Dave Stewart, who passed it on to Bono, and the two rock stars invited Wright to sing with them at the 46664 charity concert last November in South Africa. A small bidding war started, Interscope won, and here we are.

Despite his life's quick turnaround, Wright isn't worried about losing his head. "My experience helps me to be humble. I lived without a mother and a father, so nothing really flatters I and I. I appreciate where my life is at now, but as you see," he says, opening his arms and looking around the hotel room, "I'm a very simple person."

Posted by CP | Link |

---