Ronald 'Nambo' Robinson (right) and his band in concert at Redbones the Blues Café last Thursday. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
For someone who has spent most of his 30-odd years in the music business at the back of the bandstand, Ronald 'Nambo' Robinson sure knows how to handle the glare of centre stage.
Last Thursday, the burly trombonist led an eight-piece band through 'Freedom Sounds', a rollicking show at Redbones The Blues Café in St Andrew. Robinson not only proved his chops as a musician, but showed he can more than hold his own as a vocalist.
The band rocked throughout the 90-minute set. They started off with rocksteady standards like Rockfort Rock, Swing Easy and Real Rock, before going into roots-reggae favourites such as Jah Jah See Them A Come by Culture.
Great second half
They were really at their best in the second half of the show on the Skatalites' Addis Ababa and Lumumba, which was originally recorded over 40 years ago by the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari.
"The first time I heard this song it brought tears to mi eyes," Robinson told the gathering as he called the latter, a song about Patrice Lumumba the Congolese prime minister who was mysteriously killed in 1961.
Robinson's interplay on the song, with saxophonists Everald Gayle and Jeffrey Brown, and trumpeter Craig Henry, evoked the passion of his youth when the song first caught his ears. This did not go unnoticed by an appreciative audience which erupted into spontaneous applause.
The band, which also included Maurice Gordon on lead guitar and Robinson's son, N'namdi, on rhythm guitar, delivered a stirring version of Bob Marley's Concrete Jungle. Robinson sang the 1972 classic about the trials of ghetto life with as much verve as the reggae king; his smooth vocal was complemented by a searing solo by Gordon.
Fitting end
Fittingly, Robinson and company closed an entertaining display with Eastern Standard Time, another Skatalites gem composed by trombonist Don Drummond, one of his biggest influences.
Bassist Andrew Ayre, drummer Derrick Stewart and Stephen Maxwell completed Robinson's side which also backed singer, Sherar, the evening's support act, who gave a favourable showing with her rendition of Leona Lewis' Better in Time and her original, Here I Am.