Back in time with The Travellers

When harmony band, The Travellers, first approached Prince Jammy in the ‘70s, they only had a small repertoire of songs, so Jammy asked them to “just sing, create something on the spot”.

“And it was good, so I decided to record the album,” Prince Jammy, now elevated to King Jammy, recalled.

“These songs of sufferation, hope, love and classic Jamaican storytelling were all completed within a month, utilising Jammy’s existing rhythms and new bespoke recordings, all of which were mixed at the legendary King Tubby’s studio,” a VP Records release notes.

The line-up of The Travellers (also known as the Mighty Travellers and the Black Aces) comprised Neville Morris, Leroy Hoffman, Ashley Fray and Wesley Codner.

What was once living in “glorious obscurity” has now received the reissue treatment it so thoroughly deserves, with fully remastered audio, restored artwork, updated credits and extensive sleeve notes from King Jammy’s specialist Angus Taylor.

“Collectors’ enduring fascination with ’70s Jamaican reggae stems partly from the sheer volume of good music generated from an island of less than three million people. The competitiveness of Kingston’s studio scene, with queues of aspiring singers arriving for auditions and sessions musicians knocking out rhythm after rhythm every week, meant even releases that didn’t cut through at the time could become greatly loved by aficionados years later,” Taylor writes in the extensive liner notes.

“So it was with Black Black Minds, the début and sole album by four-part harmony quartet, The Travellers. Recorded for prodigiously talented engineer, and pupil of King Tubby, Lloyd ‘Prince Jammy’ James, the album is a delicate, lovingly crafted work that captures the beauty and fervour of the “rockers” era of roots reggae. On its 1977 release it fell short of the same success as Love Crisis, Jammy’s début long-player for another group from the same Waterhouse area of Kingston: Black Uhuru. Yet its distinctive close harmonies, heartfelt lyrics, precision musicianship and crystal-clear Jammy’s production, make it worthy of attention,” Angus adds.

Carter Van Pelt of VP Records describes Black Black Minds, as “an obscure but cherished roots reggae classic from the earliest days of Prince Jammy as a producer”.

Dating from 1977, the release includes the original cover art on which is the only known photo of the group. “Listen to it all, but don’t sleep on the steppers track Know Yourself,” Van Pelt cautions.