Groundation - We Free Again [2 LP]

We Free Again is Groundation's fourth album, the album where a group of jazz musicians who had ventured into reggae finally made it seem like they didn't belong in any other genre.

By 2004, the strange origin story, of Sonoma State jazz students led by Harrison Stafford deciding to make roots reggae instead, had ceased to be a curiosity and become a real style. This album is where that coherence really takes hold, with the brass arrangements and extended jazz harmony blending so naturally into the one-drop that the two influences no longer sound like separate ingredients. Reggae veterans Apple Gabriel and Don Carlos both appear, adding a lineage that the band had clearly earned at this point rather than borrowing.

The title track is the emotional heart of the album, with Apple Gabriel and Don Carlos trading lines over a rhythm that builds with real patience. Wish Them Well is the album's gentlest moment, generous rather than sentimental, Praising allows the horn section to stretch out with genuine jazz improvisation before settling back into the groove, and Dem Rise ends with the kind of slowly building momentum that has made Groundation's live shows so beloved.

A joyful album from a band who, at this point, no longer needed to explain what they were doing and just did it.