One of the many dancers who had a good time at Black Scorpio's 40th anniversary.

WITH FOUR decades in the sound system business behind him, and looking like he has the appetite and stamina for a few more, Jack Scorpio celebrated the 40th anniversary of his Black Scorpio sound system, by retracing part of his musical journey, last Saturday night.

He chose Bramwell HQ in Rock Hall, St Andrew, and some of the sound system friends he has picked up along the way - Stone Love, Pink Panther from Black Kat and Sky Juice from Metromedia - for the celebration.

In the near daylight hours, though, after Sky Juice had taken the house down, with an extended belly jiggling, husky shouting, complete with a split in which he hit the wooden stage with a thump that threatened its very foundations, some of the looking back did not sit well with the audience. They were impatient with Twitch and Commander Shad in the live performance segment, after showing their delight with Nesbeth.

It was a dancehall celebration in the sense of the word before the genre got into spectacular lighting effects (though a couple strobes flashed from Stone Love's boxes) and streaming on the Internet (the 'videolight' was not left out though). Bramwell HQ is enclosed by zinc and bamboo and is dark - the zinc making a good slapping place to signal the audience's appreciation and the dark wonderful for couples to get close, which they did.

And, they slapped the zinc for the riotously ribald MC Sample Man, whose jokes were an entertainment package all in themselves.

Throwback rub-a-dubs

In the earlier hours of a long celebration, Stone Love warmed up the early folk in what turned out to be a less than ram-packed, but still substantial crowd, with throwback rub-a-dub selections, though not so far back to qualify them as oldies. There were people who remembered and responded to Stone Love's version of Forever Young - with Wayne Wonder and Buju Banton. Scorpio giving the Immunogiser drink a plug before Pink Panther took over at 2:30 a.m.

Panther set out to 'juggle', noting that many people thought he could only clash, 'coming up to the time' with the laid-back groove that dominates much of dancehall music being made currently Gee Whizz's Life among the songs that moved the crowd.

In his turn onstage selecting tunes, Scorpio spoke about hearing Pliers for the first time there and played the first song he produced with him, Bias Them Bias. He showed that he was not stuck in his glorious past, dropping Mama, You Alone on dub.

Respect soars high

Upon introducing Sky Juice, Scorpio noted that some selector "only play from pouch", while persons like himself and Sky Juice used to lift the sound box. "People fi respect people like you, because you is one of the man who lif' soun' box all over Jamaica until you get big and travel the world," Scorpio said to Sky Juice.

By the time he had wrapped up his combination of selecting, coordinating with the man at the turntables, and showmanship, about an hour later, Sky Juice's respect was sky high, the sweat streaming down his face as he walked through the crowd to receive numerous congratulations.

Nesbeth earned forwards for his Boardhouse to "guns out this morning", Baby Doll showed enough to indicate promise, while Echo Minott and General Trees' combination had the older patrons especially in a good mood.

When The Gleaner left Scorpio's 40th anniversary, it was just past 5 a.m. Bescenta was hitting home with the audience and it seemed that a good celebration, which stumbled on a couple performances, was gearing up for the real 'morning ride'.