JAHUG Records Ltd 7 Raphael House, 322B Coldahrbour Lane London SW9 8QH Tel:07776196754 Press Release Artist: CARL I By Roger Steffens . Keep My Fire Burnin’ is the long-awaited debut cd from the internationally renowned Rastafari writer and former reggae journalist, Carl I (Gayle). Carl’s groundbreaking patois writings began in the early ‘70s, initially for Let It Rock magazine, which published his first interview with Bob Marley in 1973, and then, for many crucial years, in the pages of Black Music magazine. His trenchant articles garnered a multi-national audience in North America, Africa and the Caribbean; his ground-breaking roots-style introducing Jamaican parlance to fans eager to “penetrate the patois” of Marley and other early reggae creators. But unknown throughout his writing career, Carl has also been musically active as well and many of his earliest compositions are contained on his new cd. His life has been one of intense contemplation and active participation, sometimes as a “hermit in the hills,” other times as a revolutionary, intent on educating “de youth dem” about the great hidden history of his people and the power of Rastafari. Raised initially in Western Kingston, Carl moved with his family to England in 1959, at the age of eight. There, he recalls, “music was our only source of rare light-heartedness,” as import discs from Jamaica introduced the new “ska” music to the island’s ex-pats. Seeing Bob Dylan on TV “helped me develop a strong interest in conscious music.” In the ‘70s, Carl became a leading force in the popularization of conscious reggae music, not only through his influential Black Music works, but also through his own journal, JAHUGLIMAN, which he founded a few years after his return to Jamaica in 1977. The magazine presented deep Rasta reasonings and controversial articles like his comprehensive review of Kingston’s One Love Peace Concert, printing the entire transcript of Peter Tosh’s fiery speeches on that historic evening in 1978, rants that led to Tosh’s near fatal beating by police a few months later. In 1986 he fulfilled a lifelong desire to “live in the hills, where I built a bamboo cabin and started to grow my own food and live like a hermit. It was the loneliest, most trying period of my life but I emerged from it stronger, wiser and more determined than ever before to show what life is really worth. I'd been writing songs in the evenings, chanting and singing. Up there in the hills, far from the rest of the world, you feel one with Creation. As the night comes down the unseen creatures of the bush start chanting with you, like a higher choir. This is where I wrote ‘Rare Moments’ and ‘Ises’." Following 17 years in Jamaica, he returned to London in 1990 and in the following year, relaunched his journal as JAHUG, just in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Emperor Selassie’s birth. Says Carl, "JAHUG now emphasized the Creator’s embrace rather than the outcasts of Jamaican society that JAHUGLIMAN signified. Since then, tens of thousands of the seven volume publication have been sold worldwide.” His first venture into an actual recording studio came in ’88 at Marley’s fabled Tuff Gong Studio. Titled “Bird Heights,” it was never released, although he “felt encouraged by the enthusiastic vibes of the musicians who played on it," notably Earl “Chinna” Smith and Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace, the drummer star of the movie Rockers. His first actual record was “Heroes” with Tyrone Downie. “He played all the instruments and provided backing vocals too, up at Music Mountain studio around ‘99” recalls Gayle. “I pressed a couple hundred copies on a 45, but had to leave Jamaica before I could get it on the road properly. Then in London, I recorded two versions of ‘Ice Cream’ and a remixed version of ‘Heroes’ for a 12inch, and pressed about 500 copies. Family illnesses caused Carl to abandon his music plans for several years. “I wrote ‘Light of the Universe,’ ‘Heart of Darkness’ and ‘Queen of the Streets’ after the loss of my parents. Then I was introduced to a musician named Peter Dread in 2004, who had his own studio. He played almost all the instruments, according to my instructions, on ‘Light,’ ‘Queen,’ ‘DJ,’ ‘Remedy,’ and " Monk.". And I asked a veteran sax player Bukky Leo to play on three tracks, including ‘Ras Tafari.’ “I wanted a more natural, colourful sound for the other nine tracks with full drum kit, horns, percussion and more backing harmonies. I met George ‘Skillington’ Stewart, a guitarist, who was rehearsing some music of his own with a drummer named Dean Pierre, a Polish bass player named Jacek, a trumpeter from Australia and a sax player from Eastern Europe, and a white English dread called Ketteh Lion on percussion. We all met up, and then had two rehearsals to before laying the rhythm tracks in the studio. We added my daughter and granddaughter, Ziah and Rosie, to chant on ‘Closer Than A Brother.’ The musicians are very proud of what we’ve done and so am I, especially as only George had ever done recording sessions before.” As befits the historian turned recording artist, Carl I has made sure that his album’s accompanying booklet contains several powerful tracts by Haile Selassie, black British MP Bernie Grant and other writers, on topics as widely divergent as AIDS, the Belgian rape of the Congo, and the necessity for reparations for centuries of enslavement of black Africans. “Each one teach one” goes the mantra, and teacher Carl now stands at the head of the class, leading students with his inspired musical meditations. Roger Steffens, Los Angeles-based reggae archivist, is the founding editor of The Beat magazine and chairman of the Reggae Grammy Committee. He is co-author, with Peter Simon, of Steffens and Simon’s Reggae Scrapbook, coming from Palace Press in November of 2007. *Note - on last page of cd booklet, the actual date of Selassie’s speech to the U.N. was Oct. 4, NOT Oct 6, 1963