I think now (January of already 2024) the time has come for once again an update, along the same thematic lines, as it were subdividing the “scene”.
-REGGAE “CLUBS” (places)
-REGGAE DEEJAY’S/SELECTAH’S
-REGGAE PEOPLE (public, organizers)
-REGGAE ARTISTS AND PERFORMERS.
What has changed in the Amsterdam (and Netherlands) Reggae music scene since Early 2017, now about 6 years later?
TUMULTUOUS
The period 2017-2023 was overall quite tumultuous, but especially the latter years, since the Corona pandemic declared by authorities, since March 2020, It was then that the world – but especially leading politicians – went crazy.
Of course opinions differ about the restrictive corona policies, also affecting the Netherlands. If they were proper or necessary, if there really was a severe virus or a “pandemic”. The quest for ulterior motives by those critical of the policies - or as the CIA coined them: “conspiracy thinkers” - went on, and the (I think probable) ulterior motives will probably have to do with “the rich wanting to get richer”, or “elites fearing losing control”. Human history simply shows this..
The skeptical suspicions of other (non-medical) economical/political motives behind the proclaimed pandemic is "framed" here in the Western media as "Right-wing" or Right-Populist "conspracy theories", yet was widespread in the world, especially among poorer people (also from "the Left").. This framing is a matter of "wishful thinking" by authorities, hiding thus the (actually Right-wing!) vested interests behind such global policies, including multinationals, Big Pharma, Big Finance, etcetera.. All these profited in the period 2020-2022, which should have opened more eyes. Tellingly, I heard the word-play "pLandemic" (with the extra L) first from singer Buju Banton.
Why then - if this is the case - exactly at this time period (2020) such an “elite power grab” through such deceptive policies (hyping up a virus)? One of the more convincing and best-argumented - and non-ideological! - analysis I heard was that this whole Western capitalist system - based on exploitation - could simply not last, due to its very parasitical nature, and imploded/exploded at this point. This might relate to a peaking financial crisis, or the Internet, this digital age, promising world citizens freedom (of information) and connection, answered by “the powers that be” by threatening with more totalitarian control through it. The age-old class struggle, in essence, in my opinion.
While I considered it good and even heroic that people protested against the corona policies, and many sensible counter-ideas have been discussed about it, the theme is by now a well-trodden path, furthermore with decreased relevance and urgency, as the corona policies - some would say: failed deception strategy - seemed abandoned slowly in the course of 2022. Good to still stay vigilant of new "Babylon" schemes, of course. Some say "climate" (as opposed to actual "environment" protection) is one of these.
Let’s therefore try to forget this political/Babylonian foolishness, and focus on “positive vibrations”, namely music, culture, and Reggae, and specifically real lovers of Reggae music in Amsterdam, wanting to enjoy their favourite music, also outside one’s own house.. in other words: a “scene”.
Talking about “own house”.. during some of the several “peaks of lunacy” of the corona policies, also in the Netherlands there were periodic lockdowns – up to 2022 -, with all bars, clubs, restaurants, concert venues, etecetera, having to close for supposed medical (contagion) risk.
This also affected of course the nightlife in a city like Amsterdam, the Netherlands, including eventual Reggae clubs. Several Reggae events (festivals, internationally, other events) were annulled or postponed. Also “regular Reggae deejay-sessions”, to name something common in several European cities, including Amsterdam, ceased for some years, with few, and troubled exceptions. The hospitality sector in Amsterdam was even more tightly controlled (I knew e.g. that closing hours of bars were guarded oddly strict by police) than I thought, and most had to comply to not lose their business/license, although some sought the margins of the possible.
As part of the corona policies, the restrictions due to the QR code for entering public places (especially “fun” places, not for jobs and stores of course), as a conditional – read: discriminatory – opening up of bars and such), affected some “critical” Reggae fans.
I remember – when places could open a bit more,under discriminatory conditions – that certain Reggae parties, or a few concerts, had people not able to enter, for not having a QR code – or jab prove – to show. Even a former anarchic “squatter” place, like OT301 (Overtoom, Amsterdam), complied with this unhappy Babylonian policy.
As there were also travel restrictions for Jamaican artists, there were also limited Reggae concerts, especially in Europe (some US states like Florida still allowed concerts) in the period 2020-2022.
This was a blow, and hiatus, - perhaps even a trauma – but there was also a lively Reggae period before it- from 2017 to February 2020 – without such restrictions, and the period after 2021 to now, when public life – also of reggae events – “scrambled up” so to speak, i.e. increased again. Pick Myself (or Itself) Up from the ground, as the song by Peter Tosh goes..
Somehow the Amsterdam Reggae scene was kept alive also during corona closures and restrictions ., for – I think – interesting psychological/sociological reasons.
LIVE ONLINE CULTURE
All culture, must be kept in mind in this inevitable digital age, including modern subcultures, but also folk and pop cultures, can only thrive with actual and regular human contacts and gatherings. That is my (informed) opinion, at least. In fact, a free interaction of humans. Both the totalitarian tendencies the corona policies exhibited, as the increased digitalization in the West – with powerful parties behind it (big tech/technocracy) - impacted this. The latter - Internet – became by necessity a replacement of actual “music events” (dee-jays’ or live shows), with more people joining live “online events”, and real-time communication through comments.
Maybe it existed before, but it - known as: online streaming - certainly got a boost with those 2020-2022 “lockdowns” or, in some places, even evening curfews (for a type of influenza, I repeat). People were urged, but even forced to stay home. Also in the international Reggae scene, and from Amsterdam some dee-jays played Reggae live on e.g. Facebook pages. Also I, myself.
While contradictory and – of course – not “the real thing”, these online events could offer some comfort, nice distraction, and good music and variety of taste within Reggae, but also.. connection, and promise of “the real thing”: actual events with other people you can actually feel and smell (in theory.. I mean, haha), and direct sound waves from bigger or better loudspeakers “pumping” Reggae than you have at home.
I learned during my study that the Internet actually developed within US military circles, but luckily it spread outside of that elite context, and the freedom of information could not be tamed or controlled as much as "the powers that be" wanted..
Still.. actual culture requires physical gatherings, in my opinion. In that sense I agree with some critics of the corona policies, such as in the Netherlands Willem Engel, who called them – incl. lockdowns, gathering restrictions etc. - also an “attack on culture”.
REGGAE PLACES
From 1917 to Early 2020 there were still some Reggae clubs active in Amsterdam, notably and most regularly Café The Zen, then in Amsterdam East, also organizing events outside that club/café (under the name Zen Social: or rather ZenSocial productions). Small-scale shows were also regularly held in Café the Zen itself, or otherwise dee-jay events of Reggae dee-jays, especially with many people attending in the weekends. This was alive and still going strong!
Memorable for me was, e.g., the organized trip from Amsterdam to the island of Texel (NW Netherlands) in 2017, with the whole Café The Zen (read: Amsterdam Reggae)-community, with there shows of Warrior King from Jamaica, Marla Brown (daughter of Dennis, living in Britain), and Netherlands Reggae artists coming over. This is a lived culture, with actual physical presence. I even flirted with Marla Brown, or she with me? (just joking..)..
In 2017 and the years after, great artists like Fantan Mojah, Keida (from nice song Ganja Tea), I-Taweh, Lenn Hammond, Kushite, Khalilah Rose, and Vivian Jones, or national Reggae acts, like Jampara, Imishango, Zed I, Joggo, Miriam Simone, Lyrical Benjie, King I I Opo, or Rapha Pico .. really too much to mention - – perfomed or reappeared - in Café the Zen, while ZenSocial organized concerts by great Reggae artists like Everton Blender, Junior Kelly, Akae Beka, and Bushman, in concert venues/halls the direct surroundings of Amsterdam (Zaandam, Amstelveen).
These regular events – plus the very real sense that we were part of a Reggae community in Amsterdam – was later brutally disrupted by Babylon authorities attacking the vey lifeblood of it: freedom.
For the regular visitors of Café The Zen (like me) there was another shock or disappointment preceding this, as Café the Zen announced its closure (something with real-estate, rent costs, I understood) as of March 2020, when the whole corona hype was still a rumour. Very coincidental, but it – intended or not – softened the blow coming thereafter..
I was already starting to look for alternative Reggae places in Amsterdam, when the lockdowns coming in the months after confined me and my social life even more. I had a few private parties with dee-jay’s playing Reggae in that period, just to not always play Reggae I like just at my own home. I enjoy that, to be sure, but I think alterations of spaces and environments for humans are a psychological necessity: you dance among friends and strangers in another place – another “world” temporarily – and then return home for your usual, “homely” things, or relaxing with some fun YouTube film or documentary, either way as your own after party.
The lockdowns disrupted that natural, organic process and made “staying home” obligatory, rather than a respite or refuge. I guess it’s like having sex: it’s not relaxing and fun anymore when you are obliged/forced to.
Café Frontline, near Amsterdam’s Red Light district (with Surinamese owners) stayed open for a while (up to and “in-between” lockdowns) in the period 2020-2022. I was required – as I would in all other bars in Amsterdam – to fill in my name at the Café at one point: a place (Café Frontline) I have visited regularly for years. Not just an intrusion of privacy, but also making you feel guilty for going out: wicked policy, with the virus as excuse. All freedom and spontaneity troubled, though we always tried to hold a good Reggae vibe anyway. And forgot those bothersome policies when sweet Reggae played!
Other places were “visited” so to speak by Reggae selecta’s/dee-jay’s until the lockdowns got stricter, and after strict policies loosened. Selecta’s once playing in Café the Zen – like Jah Sisters - could play in some places in Amsterdam, like Kashmir Lounge, Hunter’s Grand Café, Molli Chaoot, or Bret.
JAMAICA LOUNGE
Another Reggae place I paid more attention to after Café the Zen closed was Jamaica Lounge, in Amsterdam-West. I went before a few times, noticing a bar-like atmosphere with not too loud music, albeit relatively good music (often Jamaican Reggae, because of its Jamaican owner Jimbo)..
In Late 2019 and after, the sound was improved (volume, acoustics), more to “club level”, and I could listen to some good Reggae there, interrupted by lockdown periods as Jamaica Lounge had to comply with it and was closed. Despite this, and when possible, Jamaica Lounge organized sometimes events, and I got more attention to them after Café the Zen closed.
Dependent on the occasional selecta’s/dee-jay’s or music played it was often okay (Roots Reggae or New Roots regularly), now with better sound, those nights at Jamaica Lounge – in Amsterdam West, although sometimes more Dancehall than Roots.
(Photo above: Jamaica Lounge on the De Clercqstraat 117, Amsterdam-West)
I got to know the owner Jimbo better, appreciating how he was music and Reggae-minded (also regarding older Reggae from his youth), and it thus offered some kind of a steady Reggae club for me. Furthermore, Jamaica Lounge not too far from the part of Amsterdam where I live. If I am not too lazy – or my bike broke down – I could even walk to Jamaica Lounge, haha.
Other places with sometimes Reggae music were the Molli Chaoot café in Amsterdam De Pijp/ Old South (a former squatter's café), and some “free-havens” in and around Amsterdam (NDSM, Ruigoord).. Some of these were UK/Euro Dub-minded, but always with some room for Jamaican Reggae.
Unfortunately, those in name “free havens” in Amsterdam and around, started by free-spirited people, often with links to “hippie” pasts, like Ruigoord or some other places within Amsterdam, could not escape the totalitarian corona policies, as they were forced to comply with the rules or measures that made no sense (forbidden outside parties: influenza-like contagion is improbable – almost impossible - with outside air, even if harmful enough to make such a fuss about it)..
The Amsterdam Reggae scene never stopped, though, and not just digitally/online, or virtually in one’s own home. The policies had an isolating/dividing effect which I from my historical and sociological studying justly predicted (not that I am so wise: just dry historical analysis). When public life is not fully “free” for citizens, people tend to withdraw to smaller social circles of trustworthy persons, often family or closer friends. Often also ethnically remarkably homogenous, despite the over 140 nationalities residing in a city like Amsterdam. This limits real cultural “scenes”, and I find this a pity. A small circle leads to a smaller mind, and just aids “divide and conquer” policies of authorities..
Studio work and bands practicing more or less continued, despite restrictions, so some Reggae musicians could still assemble in a limited sense. As long as they did not start to resemble “parties”, I suppose. I myself practiced with some other musicians, in rehearsal spaces in Amsterdam, often called “studio’s”, colloquially.
EARTH WORKS
One of those actual “studio’s”, that is: with extensive (updated) recording equipment, in Amsterdam, slowly developed into a more social space – despite the anti-social policies – with people actually gathering, first on a small scale: the Earth Works studio, led by Ben King, having recorded several Dutch and international Reggae artists in previous years, and having become a nice gathering place in “freer” times before 2020. (Website: https://www.earthworksamsterdam.com). It specializes in Reggae. It remained by necessity “low-key” during lockdown/corona periods, but Earth Works studio changed location from Weesp (just East of Amsterdam), to the North of Amsterdam (Buikslotermeerdijk), on one of those cultural “free havens” terrains, called ADM/Groene Veld. When freedom returned, it had become as much a gathering place as a studio for recording or rehearsing, at least offering some “community” sense (with dee-jays/selecta’s playing and “open” parties), but by then it was already 2023.
Despite its somewhat marginal location in the Far North of Amsterdam (the city virtually ends there), it became a nice, positive gathering place for people of different parts of the Reggae scene: both those who frequented Café the Zen (Roots and New Roots lovers), and the “squatter” scene (including Roots, but also Dub/Steppers lovers), of different ethnic backgrounds, and including some creative artists as well.
I visited Earth Works studio’s several times (already a few times when it was still in Weesp), and liked the vibes. Good that there are such “open”, creative places, anyway, despite its marginal location. Good recording equipment too, by the way, for those musicians interested. For quite reasonable prices, when compared to other studios, and aimed at especially Reggae music.
Now, as I write this, Late 2023, Earth Works studios is still very active, as is Jamaica Lounge, and ZenSocial organizes events again, and since around 2022 Jamaican Reggae artists started performing in Amsterdam and around again. Nice (even great!) concerts by Lila Iké and Nkulee Dube (Lucky’s daughter) at P60 (Amstelveen, just South of Amsterdam) I could enjoy in mid-2022, organized by ZenSocial productions. ZenSocial continues to organize and plan events, by the way, for Early 2024 (see: https://www.facebook.com/CafeTheZen/.
This made me realize that “we are free again”, to quote a song By Burning Spear song from his Studio One days..
Jamaican artists also have meanwhile performed in the bigger concert venues Paradiso and Melkweg, and Reggae festivals took place in the Summer of 2023. I visited several, also in Amsterdam: Reggae Sunsplash and Reggae Lake, including good concerts by big Jamaican or Reggae names (Kabaka Pyramid, Richie Spice, Burning Spear, Capleton, Steel Pulse), and local artists. Some I even saw for the first time (Barrington Levy, Twinkle Brothers, – old school -, and Mortimer – new school Roots).
We are indeed “free again”. Yet: for a city of now over 800.000 inhabitants: the biggest city in the Netherlands, Amsterdam has very few “steady” Reggae places, with regular Reggae to count on. Not much beyond Jamaica Lounge (not far West from more central Amsterdam, but still off-route for many) or Earth Works (also called: Dub Hub) at the brink of Amsterdam-North. Besides this, occasional Reggae parties in other rented places (clubs, community houses) for the occasion.
Better than nothing, of course, but too little in relation to the actual number of Reggae fans in Amsterdam.
REGGAE DEE-JAY’S/SELECTA’S
Those dee-jay’s/selecta’s from mainly the Café the Zen days (2008-2020) in Amsterdam East were luckily not demoralized enough to continue, and when the measures loosened, started to play records again at social, public events: Jah Sisters (Sound Cista, DJ Jessi), Empress Donnalee, DJ Rowstone, DJ Ewa, Mystic Tammy, Ras Sjamaan, the Polish-French Zen Rockers posse (Vega Selecta, a.o.), Loddy Culture, Selectress Aur’ El (many of these people I interviewed for this blog as well). Some from the “squatter” scene (I call it that, haha) meanwhile had become more active, such as Pinedub, Jah Code (Carly), and new names like Eve Lien Dubwise (recently interviewed for my blog), with good musical rootical selections. The latter, Eve Lien, had a more Rootical taste, but some – a matter of taste – played at times more UK Steppers or Dub than Roots Reggae. Not my favourite subgenre within the whole Reggae field, but that is just my personal taste. Some of these selecta’s, of different backgrounds (Polish, French, Surinamese) also played at Earth Works studio, on some parties.
I myself took throughout 2023 some of my vinyl albums too to play as selecta at places like Café Havelaar (central Amsterdam), bar Molli Chaoot (Amsterdam-Old South) or Earth Works studio (Amsterdam North) on a few occasions. My Reggae vinyl collection is quite varied (incl. some Studio One), but a bit concentrated on the Channel One/Rockers period between 1976 and 1983. Each selecta specializes, I guess.
I noticed this also with the different selecta’s now active again in Amsterdam: different specialities: from Classic Reggae, to New Roots (Sizzla, Fantan Mojah, Morgan Heritage, Lutan Fyah, etc.), to Dub and Steppers. King Shiloh travels around and is well-known, but also made a move toward Steppers lately, unfortunately at the cost of Roots, which is on the other hand not absent. Covenant soundsystem, or Shashamane Sound, and other dee-jay combinations with a longer history in Amsterdam and around, and newer “sounds” like Shamba Lion (also Haarlem-based), still focus on Jamaican Roots though, as do Empress Donnalee, Jah Sisters (more New Roots), DJ Ewa, Mystic Tammy, or DJ Rowstone (partly Dancehall too). Some of the mentioned selecta’s combine Steppers with Roots more evenly (e.g. Jah Code). Newer influences also reached a veteran sound in Amsterdam like Shashamane Sound, though, as they (besides Jamaican Reggae), also played modern Dancehall, such as at a recent party – Late 2023 - at the Jamaican Lounge.
Some of these selecta’s/dee-jay’s keep up with newer releases since pre-corona days, as studio work in Jamaica luckily continued after 2020, and artists like Lutan Fyah, Richie Spice, Bushman, Sizzla, Luciano, Hempress Sativa, Aza Lineage, and Jah Mason still could release good songs in the period 2020-2023. Some of these with lyrics critical of the corona policies. Such critique is seldom heard in Western pop, but for historical reasons Caribbean people tend to be more critical of government policies and authorities (as most people in poorer countries, in fact).
REGGAE PEOPLE
Over time I got to find out how there were relatively many Polish people in the Amsterdam Reggae scene. This remained so, and possibly is a result of underground Punk-Reggae connections already existing during Communism in Poland (before 1990). The connections with squatters and anarchist movements are evident as well of this part of the Reggae scene, resulting in Reggae parties with international people, from various European countries, sharing a free, “squatter” spirit: from Italy, Poland, France, Spain, Serbia, Greece, a.o. In fact, I think this is also a nice, open-minded scene, with a real love for Reggae, albeit partly more the Steppers and Dub parts of it among some. Some in this “squatter scene” – to name it simplified – still play and prefer real Jamaican Roots though, and specialized in it, notably vinyl players.
There are however no strict barriers, as this “sub-scene” often mixes, also as dee-jay’s on parties, with the other part of the Reggae scene, like the erstwhile Café the Zen community, with many people of Surinamese descent, but also Africans, Antilleans, and others. UK Steppers or Dub seems less popular among this group, New Roots (Tarrus Riley, Richie Spice, Bushman, Sizzla, etc.) all the more.
The nice thing about a free culture is that these groups share a love for Jamaican music in the broader sense, and are not opposed, but sometimes intermingle as well, resulting in interesting parties or mutual inspirations.
These two groups – already existing “before corona” - come for instance together at the Earth Works studio in recent years, but before 2020 also sometimes. Branches of the same tree, so to speak.
ZenSocial from former Café the Zen) and Black Star Foundation (led by Michelle and Den Den) remained as Reggae-aimed organizations, and kept on organizing events, when possible. Of course they had to comply with corona policy rules, else “Babylon” would bother or limit them, but after the lockdowns, nice events were organized again, such as nice concerts, especially since 2022.
REGGAE ARTISTS AND PERFORMERS
Well, like their Jamaican counterparts, Reggae artists in Amsterdam were limited regarding live performances at the peak of corona plandemic madness. In-between and after the lockdowns, they performed here and there, sometimes on sound. Some continued – like other artists – with studio work, or composing, practicing their music. True artists remain artists, and do not do it for the money. Some demeaning comments once made by British politicians supporting the corona policies that “musical artists can always find other work”, show both disdain and misunderstanding of true artistry. Some people just have to make songs. Like Pablo Picasso had to make paintings, even at the cost of a stable life.
I am one of those people who “have” to make songs too (songs I like to make, the personal appreciation I leave to others), striving for free artistry, and also confined during the lockdowns I paid more attention to varied ways of making songs and composing, with own instruments, equipment and DAW (“home studio” would be too big a word, haha). It offered me a nice creative respite and comfort. I even have a message with my lyrics, haha. While the way I work (home recording) seems solitary, I like to work alone; often for the mere freedom it offers, but also because I do not like nepotism and money: two evils tormenting the music industry (in the Netherlands and elsewhere), and therefore use the digital age (YT channels a.o.) to my advantage, for my self-expression. Check: https://www.youtube.com/michelconci, if interested.
That's me.. Yet I can also imagine that with good friends or trustworthy people, recognizing your soul, it would be nice to make music together, as some in Amsterdam do.
As of, say 2023, several Netherlands-based Reggae artists remained active (as they were already before corona), and released recently new material. Interestingly, also with the Earth Works studio in Amsterdam-North in some cases a role in it (recording, producing).
Rapha Pico, Lyrical Benjie, Miriam Simone, Imishango, Shiwa, Samora, Mo Ali, the bands Flavour Coalition, Dejavu (including also selecta Rowstone), and others can be mentioned, while residing outside of Amsterdam, Black Omolo, Zed I, Strawl, also released some good songs, or meanwhile gave good live shows in Amsterdam, showing increased professional standards over time, as is natural. Many have positive "message" songs too, lyrics-wise, even with some topical themes slipping in.
Both Samora and Mo Ali (orig. from Sudan) impressed me with good songs and tight, groovy musicianship of their bands during their performances at the Reggae Lake festival in 2023 (Amsterdam South East), as did Imishango, or Zed I, recently. Rapha Pico and Miriam Simone also came with good new songs in recent years.
Professional and skilled Reggae instrumentalists – session musicians, as they are called - are certainly also there in the Amsterdam Reggae scene, offering tight-sounding music for artists they accompany, approaching quite closely the Jamaican reggae standard. Totally reaching this standard is impossible, so it is no diss from my part. The best and realest Samba will always be from Brazil, the best and realest Flamenco from Spain, and the best and realest Reggae from Jamaica. It is their organically developed culture, and more deeply enshrined in it. This one notices in inimitable drumming styles – or bass-drums-vocals interactions, that can’t really be copied outside of Jamaica, only approached.
Yet, as an art form Reggae became international, as other music genres, and can still reach quality, also outside of Jamaica, as some nice, international examples show.
Leaving the thorny and overly perfectionist issue of “Jamaican level” aside: there are at this time nuff groovy and good Reggae drummers, guitarists, keyboard players, horn players, and other instrument players (old and young) in the Amsterdam/Zaandam region, such as people like veteran drummer “steady” Freddie Poncin, having played with several Jamaican artists to their satisfaction, skilled bass player Kay Hasselbaink also plays Reggae well, and with Ras Maiky (based in Zaandam, near Amsterdam) there is also a good, Reggae-specialized percussionist.
I am also a percussionist, but play several genres, having switched between Afro-Cuban, African, to Blues, Funk, and Rock, besides also Reggae (jamming/playing live also, not just for own recordings). Ras Maiky, however, played with mainly a lot of different Reggae artists, also Jamaican ones, over the years.
These Reggae session musicians in and around Amsterdam combine under different names (Tuff Sound Band, Unstoppable Force, Royal Roots band, Noble Chanters, Roots Lions, for instance), accompanying the mentioned artists usually aptly.
So as Lucky Dubé sang, “you can’t stop Reggae”: Reggae artists who are for real will continue, despite “anti-concert” or “anti-nightlife” – some say: “anti-culture” policies - by Babylon/authorities in especially the period 2020-2022.
Most artists I know from before 2020 in the Amsterdam seem thus to have “scrambled up” after the lockdowns, surviving, especially artists (who kept recording). In some cases (especially for event organizers) this inevitably meant complying with restrictive policies perhaps more than necessary. A matter of dignity and honour, and while it is easy for me to lambast these choices as cowardice or “uncle tom”-like..on the other hand: rebellion by a few, while most comply, of course has no effect, and brings only persons and their livelihood in troubles, while the system keeps winning. So understandable to survive.
ON BALANCE
“You can’t comply yourself out of totalitarianism”, wise people said, but luckily the authorities stopped the harshest totalitarian policies themselves, after an odd period of jab/”vaccine” propaganda up to and in to 2022..
The damage has already been done, but the Reggae scene as a whole fortunately survived, albeit with scars and traumas. It affected some on the personal level. Private “house” parties became more common after March 2020, but are after all by definition exclusionary and discriminatory, and some insecure people needing confirmation limited such private house parties based on ethnic preferences, family ties, or longtime close friends. Insecurity and ego, as it caressed one’s own ego with on the one side ethnic/national “pride”, and on the other side a celebrated capacity to make “cool” friends.. Mi no like that..
In human psycho-social development – besides – confirmation precedes inspiration, so we actually went back to “private confirmation parties”.. and the Rastaman a seh: Forward Ever and Backwards Never.. Only because of political fiction..
This favourist behaviour also stimulates nepotism – favouring friends over others for honourable positions - : already a problem in any music industry. Mi no like that, neither.
Yet even those “home parties” could be in other cases well-intended and non-discriminatory, I also noticed, but there was still limited space or the matter of sound volume (neighbours!).
Either way, they are usually a resort in totalitarian/dictatorial contexts (Iran has many semi-hidden “house parties”, for example), and serves to isolate and divide the population. The age-old strategy of the “powers that be” to divide-and-conquer or divide-and-rule, and quell popular resistance against injustice.
Critique of or by fanatical proponents - also found in the scene - of the rights-trampling corona measures caused some contacts to be broken, or “unfriending”, to use FaceBook lingo, but these were usually not close friends, but rather acquaintances, who only seemed to share a love for Reggae, but turned out to have different worldviews or political stances. In my experience, mostly people from wealthy families (rich fathers) supported the corona policies, and much less poor people (Black or White), making me mistrust them even more, haha.
So a free, open cultural life – like an urban Reggae “scene” - with friends, but also acquaintances or strangers you do not really know that well, can have “confusing’ disadvantages: with some you share not much more than liking some Reggae songs.. and even that they might listen to differently (to lyrics or not), haha. Surely there are (as in wider Amsterdam) “backstabbers”, big ego's, wicked/badmind people, "crypto-racists" or even psychopaths among them (as everywhere, but relatively most in top business and politics). On the other hand, this variety also has the advantage that you can equally find positive, loving people, kindred spirits and new good friends - or even just interesting, funny people - (through Reggae!). You gotta live and learn.
However, I consider that peanuts, and a small price to pay for freedom and a truly democratic cultural life, including interesting cultural differences. I thus personally overall still favour an open, free, public, pluriform, and rich cultural life in societies, to be able to mingle freely with anyone, stand in front of different type of speakers, in different clubs, attending any event one wishes, going to any place at any time, etcetera. Too many boundaries, inna Babylon.
CONCLUSION
So, the main and positive conclusion is that now, at the end of the year 2023, and the start of 2024, the “Reggae scene” as such is still well alive in Amsterdam and the Netherlands. Many people make Reggae, and events are regularly organized, often in cooperation with concert venues.
On the down side, there came unfortunately no steady replacement – a fixed location - for Café the Zen, once in Amsterdam East, with e.g. a stage for performing and regular, weekly activities. This was also welcomed then for "upcoming" artists, starting on smaller stages, giving them opportunities to perform for people. Earth Works studio in Amsterdam North, though in a less accessible, outer part of Amsterdam, still became something like a replacement. It has a nice studio, but not really a “stage”, though.
To quote another Reggae song, the Reggae organizers are “forced to live just like a Gypsy” (Bunny Wailer’s Blackheart Man).
Amsterdam’s city authorities showed an ugly, undemocratic face during the Corona policies in 2020 and 2021, with police violence against demonstrators (such as on the Museumplein/square.. some Reggae played there too from ghetto blasters, I recall).. This (police violence against peaceful demonstrators) I did not even expect to witness in the Netherlands, and reminded me of stories during dictatorial Fascist/Francoist Spain (up to 1975), heard from my mother and Spanish family. Amsterdam seemed to have become increasingly authoritarian. The prohibitting in 2023 of "smoking weed" in parts of old-central Amsterdam (Red Light District) is also a sign of that (while you can - from a bag - still drink rum or whiskey in the same streets.. nonsense law)..
Despite its still “cool”, liberal image in much of the world (due to the marijuana-allowing coffeeshops, mainly), Amsterdam at present does not seem very Reggae-minded as a city. You really have to search for Reggae music and places.. you don’t find it always automatically.. Some bars or clubs play at times Reggae, maybe. Only a few regularly, at present (Jamaica Lounge in Amsterdam West, due to its Jamaican owner), and some (like Molli Chaoot) are quite Reggae-minded, besides marginally located Earth Works.
Yet, as this update shows: there is still an active and willing Reggae scene, consisting of varied people, wanting to organize events/parties, go to them (many preferably every weekend), or to perform their music or play their records.
In that sense there is still kind of a Reggae community in Amsterdam, with many people knowing each other. Okay: there are a few personal tensions or conflicts between persons as in all groups/communities (even within families this occurs, after all), but mostly “good vibes”..
Amsterdam has relatively many “Black” inhabitants of Surinamese descent (besides directly from Africa itself), and in a broad sense Suriname has some similarities with Jamaica historically (North European/Protestant colonizer, slavery, African roots and retentions, partly from Ghana, in both cases), but is neither totally similar.
To draw a parallel: in the percussion world, percussion players like myself trying to add more Afro-Brazilian (drumming) patterns to the Afro-Cuban patterns I already knew, got surprised that the “percussive transition to Afro-Brazil” was not as easy and smooth as I assumed from supposed historical similarities between Cuba and Brazil (Iberian colonizer, slavery, African descent, incl. a shared Yoruba and Congo heritage). Now I can play also some Samba drum/rhythmic patterns, but it still required some intense studying.
Nonetheless, the Caribbean/African Diaspora connection/similarity of Surinamese people is certainly there and helpful to a degree, also in approaching the Jamaican Reggae standard playing the music, or simply “feeling” the music. Reggae is originally “sufferers” (poor people) music, with many socially critical messages, and is also strongly spiritually influenced by Rastafari. That attracts many people too.
On the other hand, the art form of Jamaican Reggae always attracted varied people of different ethnic backgrounds (Black, White, Asian), also in Amsterdam, with most having at least a sincere affinity with the sufferers and Rastafari message of Black people, though some might listen more to the lyrics than others.
That’s also the beauty and positivity of a free, living culture, with people actually meeting in public places. People of different backgrounds coming together because of the love for a music and culture, getting to know and learning from each other (our shared humanity), while becoming aware – okay: some faster than others - of the “real enemy” or oppressors of common people’s freedoms and rights.
