Top Reggae Acts Put Together A Simmering Sunsplash '92

Reggae Sunsplash 1992, Thursday, 8 p.m., Paramount Theatre. $19 advance/$20 door. 628-0888. --------------------------------------------------------------- In the midst of the best Northwest start on summer, a taste of sunny island life could be just the ticket for people in a fair-weather mood.

Reggae Sunsplash '92 bursts into the Paramount next Thursday with Jamaican-inspired acts of every stripe. There's something for everyone, from England's chart-topping Aswad to the African inflections of Lucky Dube to the classic love-rock strains of John Holt to the dancehall raves of Barrington Levy.

The tour, which kicked off last month in Honolulu, continues through much of the summer, traveling to 50 cities in the United States and Canada. It concludes at the 16th Reggae Sunsplash Festival in Montego Bay in early August, a weeklong event at the Bob Marley Memorial Center.

That, no doubt, is the best way to catch the Sunsplash vibe. But if you need a hit right now, the outlook is bright for Thursday.

Aswad, like UB40, are pure reggae rockers who happen maintain an address in Britain. They've enjoyed a number of hits on the U.K. charts over the years, including their 1976 debut "Back to Africa."

Aswad has won its most praise for its live act. They toured constantly through much of the '80s, earning a reputation as Britain's most popular reggae act. Their live album - "Live & Direct," recorded in the mid-'80s - has been hailed by many as a classic.

Aswad has kept up with the times, too. Their most recent project, 1990's "Too Wicked," was produced by Gussie Clarke, an important figure in the dancehall sound, and includes contributions from Shabba Ranks, a dancehall star seemingly destined for big things.

Dancehall, a recent development in Jamaican music, marshals a hard beat with looping bass lines and light keyboard inflections to power an exciting style of performance, called slackness, that harks as much to rap as it does to Elvis Presley.

Also on the Sunsplash '92 bill is Lucky Dube, a native South African who first came to prominence about like you'd expect: playing basically Zulu pop shot through with unmistakable strains of mbaqanga, or township jive. He was popular, too - his first five albums went gold.

But then he made a surprising switch and began to play reggae. The lyrical focus of his new sound, in line with a whole tradition of reggae, explored a poignant longing for freedom. Not surprisingly, it led to an outright ban by South Africa's apartheid regime of his first effort, "Rastas Never Die."

Lucky Dube has nevertheless persevered and is now becoming one of the most exciting figures on the live circuit. His act, which brought down the house at last year's Sunsplash Festival, includes Zulu dance steps by his back-up singers called the Slaves.

John Holt, on the other hand, another part of the Sunsplash '92 line-up, represents more tradition. Though reggae music has not been around very long - it stems from radio broadcasts out of New Orleans in the '50s of the tunes of Rosco Gordon, a bluesman with a slightly different beat - it has a rich and varied history.

Holt has been around for much of it. He first emerged in the '60s with the Paragons, an important trio in the "rock steady" vein. Rock steady was a romantic slowing down of the prevailing quick-step ska sound, and in turn was eventually supplanted by the hard-driving rock orientation of reggae.

Holt is probably best known in the United States for writing Blondie's 1981 No. 1 hit, "The Tide Is High." But, since leaving the Paragons for a solo career, he has enjoyed enormous success in Jamaica, scoring some 41 No. 1 singles. He is also very popular in Britain.

Aswad, Lucky Dube and John Holt are not even half of a seven-way bill that also includes the impressive dancehall of Barrington Levy, the pure showmanship of Papa San (who has performed with rappers Young M.C., Biz Markie, Doug E. Fresh and others), the driving groove of house band Skool and the antics of veteran Sunsplash MC Tommy Cowan.

Inside the Paramount next Thursday, look for conditions at the Reggae Sunsplash '92 to be sultry.