Tinga? Timeless: A Review of Nah Linga by Tinga Stewart

Anyone who pays me even the slightest bit of attention can tell you where it is that the lion’s share of my knowledge lies. I’m someone who (and for good reason in my opinion) definitely focuses on the music and the artists, both in front of and behind the scenes, of today’s modern era and I do that largely because I feel that Reggae, like many genres of music (but to an advanced degree in my opinion) is one in which the ‘current’ constantly goes overlooked in favour of the past. You get to the point where the so called ‘golden era’ of the music is a time where me and probably most of my readers weren’t even on the planet and I don’t think it’s a matter of giving and showing respect to the artists of old, but it’s a matter of disrespect to the artists of today and, arguably, the older artists as well because it was THEY who laid the foundation. However, that being said, I don’t have a problem critiquing the vibes of today (obviously, it’s what I do) and I’m definitely not saying it’s perfect, but to rather broadly and in a clichéd way (in my opinion) attempt to reach some ultimate level of strangeness by applying a statement such as ‘artists (music) were (was) better then than artists (music) are (is) now’, is ridiculous. Why? Two reasons: The first is that “better” is of course relative and the second, especially in Reggae rests in people like the artist who we find ourselves encountered with today, Tinga Stewart. What if there was a person whose music was so seemingly so TIMELESS that it in fact stretched eras? What I’m talking about is an artist who, perhaps outside of the technical side of matters (meaning sales and maybe even activity to a degree), REALLY has no ‘prime’ and they can, in some fashion continue making music through what is a ridiculous amount of time and that music CLEARLY (as opposed to ‘relatively’) shows no diminishment in their abilities: an artist who is just as potent at anytime during their career as they were/are at any other time during their career, TRULY a rarity in the game (and in any game, for that matter). So rare is it, in fact, that while developing the angle for this review, I had to literally stop and come up with a name, lest it be Stewart and Stewart alone and the first that I eventually came up with was Freddie McGregor. Taken at face value (and I do) McGregor is in his early fifties and has been making music for nearly fifty (50!) years and has probably spent the last thirty or so of those years in what is his musical PRIME. You simply cannot demonstrate, beyond most shadows of doubt that Mr. McGregor’s music has suffered as he’s grown in age and I’m not one for predictions (

The interesting things with all of those names, even Cocoa Tea, is that they are VASTLY more popular than Tinga Stewart and probably have been at each and every stop along the way in the their careers, respectively. Yet, I find it no great no surprise at all that I can find quite a few people (my Mother definitely being one of them, one of her (billions) of younger sisters being another), who will claim that, amongst that mentioned lot, there is NO QUESTION that Tinga Stewart’s is the talent which is greatest. Largely resonating within the Lover’s Rock and Roots Reggae crowd, Tinga Stewart has run his career to a level which is one of a very quiet respect and he’s also managed to capture the imagination of youths (like myself) as well and while not being at the zenith of his career in terms of popularity, any forthcoming or secondary forthcoming (meaning like a decade or so down the line) resurgence of the singer, again in terms of popularity, should come as no great surprise in my opinion. And perhaps we’ve found the anchor of such an eventual resurgence as Tinga Stewart now brings forth a new album Nah Linga. Yes, the title is almost painfully lame and probably ultimately chosen because of it’s rhyming with the name of the artist (‘Tinga nah linga‘) even if there is some overlying and prevailing sentiment behind it, and there is a ’soft’ moment or two, but for the most part, the GREAT majority of Nah Linga is BEAUTIFUL! It’s really a strong album. Nah Linga comes via Tinga Stewart’s very own (I THINK) Reggae Emperor Music label, which has been responsible for quite a bit of his material. The album comes digitally through the fine folks at Zojak Worldwide (as is apparently quite a bit of his catalogue, including one WICKED combination album Ninja & Tinga Alongside The Dancehall Greats featuring constant spar Ninja Man (more on that later) which you should go and pick up now) and is produced, of course by Tinga himself and his son Michael ‘Finga’ Stewart (a connection I’m just now making and feeling stupid for not knowing earlier) who is one of the stronger predominately Roots Reggae boardsmen in the game today. With that type of backing, it perhaps shouldn’t be such a surprise (like I said) that Nah Linga is nearly magical and has quite the ‘case’ to my opinion for being the single greatest Tinga Stewart album to date. The album, also to no surprise, finds Stewart in a WONDERFUL form, with the beautiful earthly and raspy vocals, PERFECT for the type of music he sings, still well intact and probably even more fitting for his vibes than when he was a much younger man. The result, as if we needed it (and I’m not complaining) (AT ALL), is yet another MIGHTY representation of modern Reggae in 2009 and in this case, rest assured if it dropped in 1989, 1979 or even 2019, it would have been just as strong.

As I see it, the album is a construct of older and newer singles, which in this case is fine. As I said, Stewart’s popularity isn’t so massive that you’re likely to have heard these tunes into boredom outside of REALLY heavy fans and while I definitely am a fan of his, I haven’t perhaps been paying as great attention as I should have, which is a good thing in terms of the album. If you listen briefly to the very first track on Tinga Stewart’s new album Nah Linga, its Intro, you’ll find the source of my angle on this review as he introduces himself and then goes onto mention that, “this is my fortieth anniversary” and I had to kind of catch myself thinking that it really couldn’t have been THAT long actually, but of course as his musical origins date back to 1969, that is in fact what it is. Perhaps in further celebration of the year, the actual first musical song (kind of), ‘Live In Toronto Medley’. The piece is just what it says it is and as someone who has had the honour of seeing the singer live and in person, definitely it’s something you should seek out and here he rifles through some of his bigger hits (including ‘Aware Of Love’) and some hits of various genres from others as well. It’s not my favourite thing here, but I well appreciate the kind of change up in the vibes (and any excuse to show off the voice is more than okay with me). And then there’s the first sight of anything in the traditional/studio-recorded actual song on the album with the LOVELY ‘Fair & True’ a tune on which Stewart rather timely says that, “as long as Jah permits me, as long as my fans are with me, I know to my heart I will survive”. Indeed! And the tune itself is very well done and expounds on the singer’s commitment to live WELL and honorably and proves to be one of the, if not THE, best tunes on the album by its end.

As I alluded to previously, by far Tinga Stewart’s most well known musical sparring partner over the years has (shockingly) been legendary Dancehall badman Ninja Man and while even more surprisingly the Ninja isn’t on board to celebrate his friend’s fortieth anniversary, that doesn’t mean that Tinga goes at things alone on Nah Linga. Besides having his son producing, he is also joined by three very different artists. The first is Black Queen (who needs a new name, damn hard title to Google) who actually doesn’t join Tinga Stewart but is joined by him on the tune ’Real Lover’ which is a song which I always knew (well not really) to be her tune (it’s actually a remake of Bobby Darin’s tune ’Dream Lover’) and I’ve never heard it with Stewart on board but he well helps it. It’s definitely quite gimmicky and when the Queen does reach the mic she does so very Ce’cile ‘Changez‘-ish, but it CAUGHT me! It grows on you quite quickly and its presence here certainly doesn’t hurt. Moving back into the more expected, there’s the very nice ‘Hail The King’ which features (BROWN’S TOWN NATIVE!) Ras Myrhdak. This one just kind of ROLLS through and does so addictively as both Stewart and ‘The Prince of Fyah’ go after this one (in their own ways) in the name of praising His Imperial Majesty and they succeed BIGTIME on so many levels. Stewart is also joined by another timeless talent later on Nah Linga as Sugar Minott makes a WONDERFUL appearance on ‘I’m Willing’ which is a tune that is a winner even before you hear it based on personnel alone and the two veterans definitely do not disappoint on the beautiful lover’s piece. Still, it appears to me that Tinga Stewart actually does even better when he’s on his own and free to mold things as he sees fit and does so with some very poignant ‘message music’. The greatest example, in my opinion, comes on the tune ‘Praise Him’ which comes across Finga’s DIVINE riddim of the same name (big Chuck Fenda tune name ‘The Prayer’ on that one also) and absolutely captivates! I LOVE this song! It, again, gives utmost praise to His Majesty and at the same time you can slow dance your way ALL over this tune. Both entertaining and educating in my opinion makes it THE highlight of Nah Linga. You’ll also enjoy the inspirational vibes of ‘Make The Best Of Today’ which explains itself and really shows off some of the best lyrics on the entire album; check ‘Put Down The Gun’ which finds Tinga going all Musical Youth on the people and really wanting them (especially the young ones) to put down the guns and stop the violence in general. Yes, it’s pretty gimmicky and no, it’s not one of my favourites, but the message still reigns very nicely to an unarguable degree. Speaking of the youths, they (we) (only 28), are definitely a subject constantly referred to on Nah Linga and you see that subjectry rise again on ‘Now A Days Youth’. This one is just about a commentary in Stewarts eyes of all the negative things he sees (including apparently he has a HEAVY problem with the ‘sagging’ of the pants) (and I agree) going on with the kids; there’s also ‘Too Much Hype Up’ which is more of a musical critique (and one, like I said, that I’m able to accept to a degree) and although I do disagree with a few of the things he says (Stewart REALLY harps on the off-key singers, but I consider BOTH Sizzla and Norris Man to be off-key at times and when they’re great, it works and really what in the hell ‘key’ governs Jah Cure’s singing???). And later there’s also ‘Caan Cool’ which is more of a warning than a lament to my ears and ‘Respect Your Parents’ which goes without saying (HOPEFULLY), but it’s one more aimed at the parents who are FUCKING UP and thankfully isn’t included and basically prevents my critique of Stewart ‘picking on’ the younger generation: He does acknowledge that some time parents just screw it up. And not to be forgotten there’re also a couple of nice love tunes down the stretch with ‘Believe Me’ and the closer ‘She Smile’. The former is a BIG romantic vibes and very much so comes in the vibes of material with which Stewart has been successful and impressive for his entire career thus far. And She Smile is much the same (although less ‘unique’ to my ears) and puts a very nice ribbon on this outstanding project.

Overall, I mentioned them for other reasons, but I’ll use them again for this sake: If you aren’t or haven’t been typically a fan of Tinga Stewart’s but the Cocoa Tea, Beres Hammond and Sugar Minott type of vibes do appeal to you (then how in the hell do come across Sugar Minott and ignore Tinga Stewart?) the you’ll definitely react nicely to what’s here. More traditional fans (than me) may have a problem with the predominately Roots material and not the even split of Lover’s and Roots Reggae, but I think that this one is done well enough to satisfy those heads also. As I mentioned earlier, what you have in Tinga Stewart, WHENEVER he brings something, is an artist who can appreciated RIGHT NOW as strong as he ever has been able to in his entire career. After forty years in the business, Nah Linga, is more than just adequate and it may just be his finest release to date. Happy anniversary Mr. Stewart.

Rated 4.25/5

Reggae Emperor Music/Zojak Worldwide

2009

Tinga Stewart @ Myspace