Trinity – Three Piece Suit (1977)


Tracklist:
Song Of The Midnight Hour
Queen Majesty
Render Your Heart
John Saw Them Coming
Strictly Cash
Rasta Dub
Kingston Two Rock
Mr Bassie
Three Piece Suit
Mohammed Ali
U Brown – Nice Up The Yard *
Jamaican Dollar *
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Release history:
Joe Gibbs LP #none 1977
Joe Gibbs Europe LP #JGELP 006 2006
Joe Gibbs Europe CD #JGECD 007 2006
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Producer : Errol Thompson & Joe Gibbs
Engineer : Errol Thompson

Vocals : Trinity
Drums : Sly Dunbar
Bass : Lloyd Parks & Robbie Shakespeare
Guitar : Eric Lamont & Bo Peep
Organ : Harold Butler & Franklyn Bubbler Waul
Piano : Franklyn Bubbler Waul & Errol Nelson
Alto Saxophone : Herman Marquis
Trombone : Vin Gordon
Trumpet : Bobby Ellis
Tenor Saxophone : Tommy McCook
Percussions : Sticky & Ruddy Thomas

Studios :
Recording : Joe Gibbs (Kingston, JA)

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Deejay Trinity, born February 10, 1954 in Kingston, was a keen follower of soundsystems such as Tippertone, El Paso, Kentone and King Tubby’s HiFi, to name but a few. At soundsystem Vee Jay the Dubmaster he started his career and there stayed for some four years. It’s not sure whether he recorded his first tune for producer Derrick Harriott (‘Owner Fi De Yard’) or for Channel One boss JoJo HooKim (‘Step Up Yourself’), both tunes released in 1976.

After doing some more tunes for JoJo, he switched to the then in-demand producer Joe Gibbs, where he recorded his most popular tune Three Piece Suite in just one cut! The tune utilized the riddim of Marcia Aitken’s updated version of Alton Ellis’ Studio One hit I’m Still In Love. The whimsical version by teenage schoolgirl duo, Althea Forrest and Donna Reid — ‘Uptown Top Ranking’ — was virtually ignored when first released; the preferred cut was Trinity’s piece on the riddim! A slew of fine singles followed: John Saw Them Coming, ‘Starsky and Hutch’ and ‘Judgement Time’. Joe Gibbs released Trinity’s debut LP in 1977, predictably under the title ‘Three Piece Suit’.

At the time of this album’s original release deejay Trinity was — alongside fellow deejays Dillinger and Ranking Trevor — at the height of his powers and popularity. After his stay at Joe Gibbs’ he went on recording for Prince Tony Robinson, Alvin Ranglin and he also released some self-produced albums. In 1987 he resurfaced as Junior Brammer – a fine vocalist – and under that moniker he put out two vocal albums.

The ‘Three Piece Suit’ album has been a sought after piece for a long time. Now Crazy Joe Records in France has re-released this classic deejay album in truly fine style. The digipack format includes two wicked bonus tracks, and comes in the original, amusing sleeve art. The sound quality is excellent, probably they have used the original tapes.

The ten album songs offered here utilize the classic Jamaican riddims which Joe Gibbs used for tons of his productions. Queen Majesty is Rocksteady style, riding the riddim of the same name. Strickly Cash tackles another rocksteady riddim, the Jamaicans ‘Ba Ba Boom’ tune. ‘Heart and Soul’ was a hit for Junior Byles, here Trinty lays down a wicked rendition called Render Your Heart. Bob Marley’s ‘Hypocrites’ riddim is used in full effect on John Saw Them Coming. Jacob Miller, by the way, delivered a stunning version on the same riddim for Joe Gibbs as well. Studio One’s Coxsone Dodd released several tunes on the ‘Rockfort Rock’ riddim. Joe Gibbs loved the riddim and Trinity voiced his cut calling it Kingston Two Rock, complete with some bizarre sound effects. Muhammed Ali is cut across the ‘Joe Frazier'(!) riddim.

The bonus tracks are two 45’s on Joe Gibbs’ Belmont label. The first one — Nice Up The Yard on the ‘Boxing’ riddim — sees Trinity in combination with U Brown, while the second tune is a hard roots tune on Gibbs’ cut to the Gaylads ‘Hard To Confess’.

information compiled and reproduced without permission from reggae-vibes.com and Roots Archive.org

Even if the music on this disc sucked, you will still have one of the coolest album covers ever. Thankfully the tunes are of an equally high standard. The song Mohammed Ali scares me though, and its necessary to turn on all the lights in the house and check all the cupboards for gremlins. You might notice “Nice Up The Yard” has the same chant as ‘Soul Makossa’ that would later be reappropriated by MJ who would then give “permission” to meritless/talentless pop divas to use “his” material..

When I get married, I am going to list “dub toaster” on the gift registry. An original copy of this LP will suffice nicely.

Don’t worry, it’s very unlikely this situation will ever occur in real life.

Enjoy this THREE PIECE SUIT!

Trinity – Three Piece Suit (1977) in 320kbs em pee tree

Trinity – Three Piece Suit (1977) in FLAC LOSSLESS AUDIO

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0 Comments

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