The veteran Jamaican band Toots and the Maytals, credited with coining the term “reggae,” played the final show of their six-month “The World is Turning” tour at Colby College on Saturday, October 4. They opened for hip-hop group The Roots, a band with far less experience and acclaim. Toots’ 40 years in the business have established him as one of the major figures in reggae. However, Toots and the Maytal’s Colby College show was not up to par for several reasons.
Because Toots’ music is almost tribal at times, with a very heavy emphasis on call and response (this is when the musician calls for audience participation), the singing and dancing of the audience are a vital part of the show. Toots feeds off the energy of the crowd. And to be honest, because Toots and the Maytals were not the headlining act, there were a lot of non-Toots fans in the audience. The crowd was a diverse group of all ages, including a mother with a baby suckling on her breast, middle aged men with dreadlocks to their knees, and energetic fleece-wearing teenagers. Many of the attendees seemed to view his show merely as a time-killer until The Roots played.
Toots came onstage dressed in a three-piece suit of his trademark flashy Rastafarian colors: a vibrant orange, red, green, and black. He was accompanied by two keyboardists, a lead and rhythm guitarist, a drummer and a bass player. The band was not, however, accompanied by Toots’ three daughters, who are usually his back up vocalists. The lack of back up singers also hindered the call and response aspect of the show.
Toots opened the show with his now-classic “Pressure Drop,” a song he performed on the Late Show with David Letterman and the Conan O’Brien Show last fall. Then Toots got the crowd moving with “Get Up, Stand Up,” his usual opening song (it’s often confused with Bob Marley’s song of the same name; but where Bob called for revolution, Toots is calling for dancing).
There was a barrier around the stage that kept the crowd at least 15 feet back. During “54-46 That’s My Number” Toots usually invites the crowd up onto the stage to dance and sing: but with the stage barrier, this did not happen!
Unfortunately, the venue (Colby’s Wadsworth Gymnasium) did not allow Toots to exhibit his usual uncontrollable energy. This gymnasium was just too large for the number of people attending the show. Toots can make a club or bar like Portland’s Big Easy shake. He’ll make you fear that the walls are coming down. The crowd is usually jumping around and reggae-dancing their heads off. But somehow the large gymnasium dissipated some of the power of the music.
Toots and the Maytals were noticeably worn after their six-month tour, which included three months in Europe. This is not surprising, since Toots only leaves the stage after giving a spirited performance, and six months of this could be draining on a performer nearing 60.
Of the twelve Toots shows I have seen in the past five years, this one ranks near the bottom. The lack of back up singers, the stage barrier, and a crowd that, frankly, let Toots down, led to this disappointing performance.
Frederick “Toots” Hibbert was born in Jamaica in 1946, and he formed the Maytals with vocalists Jerry Matthias and Raleigh Gordon in 1962. By 1963 they had their first hit with “Hallelujah.” As the leader and songwriter of the Maytals, Toots developed a unique style that mixes tribal call and response, James Brown soul music, and a little rhythm and blues, all grounded in the traditional Jamaican reggae music.
The fast-paced ska rhythms mixed with their simple keyboard chord changes produce a music that, as Toots sings in his song “Reggae Got Soul,” “makes you want to move your dancing feet.” As for Toots’ gospel/soul-influenced singing, it is purely amazing to hear this man scream with such power and control. His music has influenced such modern bands as Sublime, who have paid tribute to Toots by covering his song “54-46 That’s My Number,” written about his 12 month stay in prison for possession of marijuana back in 1967.
Michael McAllister can be contacted at [email protected]