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Singer Tarrus Riley's newest album, scheduled for a March 2009 release, will feature collaborations with Jnr Gong, Etana, Allison Hinds and Demarco.
It's the crooner's first album in three years, and currently Riley is recording at Grafton Studios in Kingston.
"We are 50 per cent complete, at least. We have come a far way," manager and producer Dean Fraser told Splash.
They are currently working on a track with soca songstress Alison Hinds.
"We hope to do a collaboration with Hinds. So we are writing the song right now," said Fraser. "And we are going to do a song with Jr Gong. We have other plans we are thinking about, including a collaboration with Tarrus, Etana and Dwayne Stephenson."
Fraser was unable to disclose the title of the album at that moment (he forgot it). "You know the record label just ask me that. I can't remember."
The Riley team wants a Grammy with this one. "We hope that come 2009 we will definitely be there," said Frazer of his artiste who rose to popularity with Parables (2006). That album was not an instant hit, but snowballed with some of the biggest reggae tunes of 2007; including the eventual Song of the Year for 2007, She's Royal.
This year VP Records reissued Riley's first album, Challenges (2004). Frazer asserts that Challenges was Grammy worthy but no one heard it. "The first album really and truly was a wicked works. And is only now start to creep up on people. We regret it still," he was alluding to the fact that re-issued albums are ineligible for Grammy nominations. "But a lot of times, really good albums are not nominated. We hope that come 2009 we will definitely be there."
But don't expect the next album to be similar to previous releases. "We are not trying to compete with Parables or anything like that but we should come up with something unique and musical," noted Frazer, most known as a renowned saxophonist.
A departure from the norm may see the inclusion of the trendy T-Pain voice effects.
"Maybe, we will use it on one song. He has a combination with Demarco and we might do a little bit of that just for variation and to keep the thing on a level. We don't want to appear as if we are very old fashioned and don't want to include (effects). So we have to give them a touch (of it). So that dem understand that we understand dem."
The album will have mostly original tracks and utilise local musicians.
"We have to keep the music rich and rolling over and of course we have the support of the Jamaican musicians," he said.
There will be a few covers. Fraser would not disclose the names of the covers.
"On this album we are doing two cover songs... (also) there is a Bob Marley rhythm that we are going to use. But otherwise straight original tracks," Fraser concluded.
By Steven Jackson
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