Friday July 29th

After a "soft" thursday night, the day I was waiting for, since the line up announcement, finally came. The most exciting name on the line up was the biggest jamaican producer alive, King Jammy himself. Other big names were Jah Shaka, The mighty Twinkle Brothers, Johnny Clarke and Horace Andy.

King Jammy used to come once every 5 years in France for a clash or a dancehall night with many singers like Admiral Bailey, Robert Lee, Lecturer, but this time, for Garance Reggae Festival 20th birthday, the king was directly mixing his most famous hits on a mixing desk. It was simply amazing to hear exclusive dub mixes of some much classic reggae songs !

King Jammy  was operating like in his own studio , check this video :

Right after King Jammy, another legend was here, the man called Jah Shaka. He is operating a sound system since the 80's in London. Jah Shaka was of course playing on Blackboard Jungle sound system. I have to says his session was a bit short, Shaka needs time to make you enter into his vibes. Still, his vocal interventions were great, always in the good timing and the selection was on top !

On the main stage, the mighty Dub Asante Band backed Horace Andy and Johnny Clarke, two of sweetest voices of Jamaica. I couldn't attend to the entire show but these two veterans have kept their energy and more important their voices !

I could miss Clarke and Andy (seen them several times) but not The Twinkle Brothers who is my favorite reggae band. Their show was incredible as always, Norman Grant always smiling and jumping, delivering his positive lyrics with Dub Judah on the bass ! One of the two best concerts with Burning Spear.

This friday was simply the best day of the festival ! King Jammy mashed up the place, it was HISTORY and it's always a great pleasure to see and hear Shaka and The Twinkle Brothers in action