Double 12″ Spin #81 – George Nook & Trinity / George Faith & C. Patterson and Larry Marshall –

A. George Nook & Trinity – If You Should Lose Me
B. George Nook & Trinity – Losing Version
Label: Starlight Records – SLD 502

More info @ Discogs

We start with a 12″ on Starlight Records, out of Harlesden. Starlight was more than a label, it was a shop and a proper UK reggae hub, founded in 1976, and it ran alongside sister imprints Black Joy and Black Music. On this pressing George Nooks gets his name butchered as “Nook” on the label, a small but telling reminder of how sloppy some of these credits could get back in the day. His cut here is a version of Barbara Lynn’s 1962 soul ballad You’ll Lose a Good Thing. The songs was produced by Linval Thompson, but on some pressings credited to Lord Koos. The vocal glides right into deejay Trinity’s chatter on the flip, one of those seamless combinations that made the format so satisfying.

Nooks himself has one of the more layered careers in the business. He came up as deejay Prince Mohammed before switching lanes to become one of the defining voices in lovers rock and gospel reggae under his own name. He cut his teeth in his local church choir, won talent contests around his parish, and stepped into the commercial circuit by the mid-1970s. As Prince Mohammed he was tight with Joe Gibbs and Errol Thompson, riding the 12-inch discomix wave that defined that era, dropping toasts over Dennis Brown’s Money in My Pocket and How Could I Leave, plus Forty Legs Dread, his deejay take on Culture’s Zion Gate. He also delivered full deejay albums, African Roots for Linval Thompson in 1979 and Inna Him Head for Joe Gibbs in 1980.

By the turn of the decade he’d shifted his focus to singing, and people started drawing comparisons to Dennis Brown. His roots vocal cut of Little Roy’s Tribal War for Joe Gibbs came out in 1979, followed by his debut solo set Today in 1981. He brought Prince Mohammed back briefly in 1982, laying deejay verses on June Lodge’s crossover smash Someone Loves You Honey. Through the ’80s and ’90s he kept working steady, linking with producers like Donovan Germain, scoring a hit with a cover of Al Jarreau’s We’re In This Love Together. Come 2001 he moved fully into gospel reggae and started his own Total Records imprint, a direction that’s carried him through to now.

Deejay Trinity, born Wade Brammer in Kingston, is the older brother of Clint Eastwood, another deejay who made his own mark. Trinity cut his teeth on sound systems like El Paso and Stereograph before breaking through properly during the mid-’70s roots boom. He passed away on April 9, 2021, from complications tied to diabetes.

He’s remembered as one of the architects of the late-’70s deejay explosion, but Trinity kept a whole other career going as a singer too, releasing as Junior Brammer on albums like Telephone Line and Hold Your Corner, while crediting some vocal singles to his own name, Wade Brammer. He started out recording for Yabby You, but his real commercial breakthrough came working with Joe Gibbs. His single Three Piece Suit, built over a re-cut of Alton Ellis’s I’m Still In Love With You, landed during that late-’70s run. From there he toasted for everybody who mattered, Bunny Lee, Winston Riley, the Hookim brothers, and put out full albums like Three Piece Suit, Shanty Town Determination and Rock In the Ghetto. Later on he kept his career alive through European roots labels, staying active on the international circuit right up until his health gave out.

A. George Faith – Love Is
B. C. Patterson And Larry Marshall – I Admire You
Label: Warrior Records – WAR 147

More info @ Discogs

Flip the disc and it’s George Faith with the sweet Love Is, but the real gem sits on the B-side, Larry Marshall’s I Admire You, backed with King Tubby’s dub cut Watergate Rock, one of Tubby’s early dub excursions. The label credits Carlton Patterson alongside Larry, but Carlton wasn’t singing on this one, he produced it. Patterson built a respected catalog through the foundational roots years of the ’70s and is best known for founding the Black & White label.

George Faith, born Earl George Lawrence in Rae Town, Kingston, on July 6, 1946, made his name blending soul phrasing with foundational reggae riddims. He came into the industry in the early ’70s and found real chemistry with Lee “Scratch” Perry at Black Ark. Recording first as George Earl before settling on George Faith, his extended discomix version of William Bell’s To Be A Lover (also known as To Be A Lover (Have Mercy)) became an international hit in 1977, with Dillinger’s toast woven right into the mix. That single anchored his debut album To Be A Lover, put out through Black Swan and Trojan.

After Perry, he moved on to work with Alvin “GG” Ranglin and Phil Pratt starting in 1978, often recording as Earl George during that stretch, cutting albums like Loving Something and Soulfull, and later Since I Met You Baby in 1982. He put out Just The Blues in 1992 and kept touring the Jamaican hotel circuit and further afield, in Canada and Brazil, until illness caught up with him. He died of cancer on April 16, 2003, at 56.

And then there’s Larry Marshall, born Fitzroy Marshall on December 17, 1941, in Lawrence Park, Saint Ann Parish. American R&B singers like Ben E. King shaped his style early on, and he cut his first sides for producer E. Henry, plus work for Philip Yap and Prince Buster. He was cousin to Aston “Family Man” Barrett and Carlton Barrett, the rhythm section that anchored the Wailers.

Marshall joined Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One camp in the late ’60s and became indispensable there, working as singer, songwriter, arranger, and assistant engineer under Sylvan Morris. Teamed up with Alvin Leslie as Larry & Alvin, the pair cut the classic Nanny Goat in 1968 and followed it with the big Jamaican hit Throw Me Corn in 1971. Dodd pulled Marshall’s recordings together for the solo set Presenting Larry Marshall in 1973, but Marshall walked away from Studio One the following year. When Sylvan Morris left, Dodd offered Marshall the head engineer job, but Marshall turned it down over the money.

So he went independent, launching his own Marshall imprint. In 1975 he dropped the album I Admire You, a strong record that he never quite managed to build on commercially. He cut more singles through the mid-’80s with Gussie Clarke, including fresh versions of Throw Me Corn and I Admire You, and kept releasing albums into the late ’80s and early ’90s. Financially, though, Marshall never saw much return on all that catalog. He eventually settled in Miami, working construction to get by, and passed away at home there on August 24, 2017.