AMG Review of Peace & Harmony: The Trojan Anthology

Steve Leggett
All Music Guide

Sort of Jamaica's version of the Temptations, the Heptones (Leroy Sibbles, Barry Llewellyn, Earl Morgan, and later, Naggo Morris) have been one of reggae's finest harmony trios since the 1960s, continually riding out the ever-shifting style changes in the island's musical landscape by sticking to their roots. Fans of the trio have been waiting a long time for a comprehensive release that would give a solid overview of their career, and while this two-disc set from Trojan/Sanctuary goes a long way toward that aim, it falls short in a couple key spots. Peace & Harmony is still a marvelous and valuable set -- the Heptones have been too consistent a group for too long to make any compilation a complete failure -- but the holes are bothersome. Nothing from their stay at Coxsone Dodd's Studio One label is included here, and the key tracks ("Sufferer's Time," "Party Time") from their best album, the Lee "Scratch" Perry-produced Party Time, are also missing. So what listeners get is a decent chronological survey of the group from its start on Ken Lack's Caltone label in the late '60s through their late-'70s work with Niney the Observer, with some grave omissions. All that said, there is delightful music here, including the Heptones' first release in 1966, an absolutely bizarre interpretation of The William Tell Overture called "Gunmen Coming to Town"; the sublime and wise "Hypocrite" (produced by Joe Gibbs) from 1971; a pair of Alvin Ranglin gems, 1973's "Old Time" and "Meaning of Life"; and a solid cover of Curtis Mayfield's "I've Been Trying," produced by Sonia Pottinger in 1972. There are two Perry-produced cuts, "Babylon Falling" and "Mistry Babylon," and while these are fine, displaying the vintage Black Ark sound, they are far from the best tracks the Heptones delivered with Perry. Likewise, the extended mix of "Through the Fire," the lone cut from producer Niney the Observer, only hints at the body of work the group did with him. One of the Heptones' most fruitful (if somewhat unsung) periods was their stay with producer Harry Johnson in the mid-'70s, and several excellent tracks from that relationship ("Suffering So," "Book of Rules," "Mama Say," "Country Boy," "Cool Rasta") are included here. In the end, Peace & Harmony does a decent -- but not perfect -- job of presenting this fine trio's history. Listeners who want to get the story in a complete fashion should pick up this compilation, but amend it by also picking up On Top for the Studio One material and the excellent Perry-produced Party Time album, which was arguably an artistic high point for the Heptones. This group deserves a thoroughly annotated box set, but until that day, Peace & Harmony is probably as close as listeners are going to get.