In the late 70's in the UK, there was a short-lived, but strong musical movement called 2 Tone. The leading force was the Specials hitting No.1 in the national chart in 1981 with a song "Ghost Town" describing a desperate life of the youth at the time. The sense behind the words of the "2 Tone "was to weave black, reggae, and white, punk, elements into one style of music both of which were growing fast as rebel music throughout the late 70's.

"If you mixed up black and white like the American did, it becomes grey, you know. A great example was their... so-called fusion music."

The editor of New Musical Express, Neil Spencer, at the time was laughing and explaining the sense of the 2 Tone when I was interviewing him in the mid 80's.

"But those guys of the 2 tone were completely different. In the music of punky ska, there were clear elements of black and white which was the fruit of the first political movement by music people here called RAR (Rock Against Racism).'

Reacting to a racist statement of Eric Clapton, practically commented the UK was a white country, in his gig ironically right after him first hitting No.1 in the US chart with covering Bob Marley's "I shot the Sheriff", this movement was born to change a trend of racism. There were so many reggae and punk bands actively involved in this movement and one of the bands taking a big role was the Clash who then gave a big influence to a small boy called Wil Dog who would be forming a band called Ozomatli years later in the mid 90's far from Britain.

"The Clash was my favorite band and got me into reggae, hiphop... and everything. I've been to every Clash concert in LA ever since I first saw them with my dad when I was 6. My day was..., to be exact, a revolutionary communist, and he liked them because they were political and... When I was 10, I met the guys of the band in the back stage, you know. I've got adifferent view from my dad, but I love rebel music."

That was the reason why him showing the Clash's classic album, "London Calling", in a photo of the inner sleeve of Ozomatli's debut album. If 2 Tone was the fruit of RAR and the fusion of black and white, then Ozomatli is another fruit of the same far from Britain and the fusion of all the colors which truly reflects the real US.

Named after the Aztec god of dance, Ozomatli was born through a political struggle of Wil Dog, used to be a leader of Los Angeles Conservation Corps., and his comrades in LA to protest poor working conditions. After him being fired, he started sit-in with the members of LACC at LA Emergency Response Unit headquarters in Downtown and a series of jam sessions with his friend musicians to raise money for the movement. It was simply a band for benefit gigs, but they never stopped as the rumor of their exciting live spread fast all over LA and there was something else as well.

"I used to play with Chali 2na and Cut Chemist when I was a high school student... A live hiphop band, it was, and, ever since, I played in several bands like Somos Marcos named after a revolution... Well, it didn't last that long and I was going nowhere. But, because I started this band, Ozomatli, I wanted to make something with this, you know. I just wanted to go out and work. So when I started this band, I put all of my energy into it and there was the only way to commit the guys to this band... That was to keep 'em busy and playing live as much as possible!"

On the process of it, the band was shaping itself up as a multi-racial 10 piece band. The leader and funky bassist, Wil Dog, and the DJ, Cut Chemist, are white and the rapper, Chali 2na and the percussionist are Afro-American, and the horns, the guitarist and the drummer are Latinos with a Japanese tabla player. In their home, LA, sometimes they have additional members on stage, but the key is this multi-racial combination. I suppose, if the 2 Tone was the thing in Britain in the late 70's, this more multi-racial band is the future of the States reflecting the true life there.

If you get a chance, do check all the bands from the US. Are there any multi-racial bands? You may find a few, but it is so hard to find one in the hit chart. Considering the fact that the U.S.A. is a country of immigrants from all over the world, there has to be something wrong. This does not refer to all of the cities of the US, but, in fact, some reports say that the white is no longer the majority now in LA and supposedly most of the major cities are the same. Then why we could get very little chance to face a multi-racial band.

But the construction of the band is not a major issue. The most amazing thing about Ozomatli is their music which weaves in all the factors of various races and cultures in one. The beat is rough and tough with elements of rap, hiphop, funk and acid jazz or whatever funky and groovy, and the rhythm is wild and kickin' with reggae, merengue, salsa, soca, rumba as such ranged from Latin to Africa or Asia. The most of the songs are sung in Spanish with rapping in English which make a complete fusion of all of the races and cultures which is nothing but the reality of the US.

If the guys of the band don't mind me calling them this way, they really are the leading force of a "rainbow" movement, having more colors than just B/W, as the answer to the 2 Tone from the UK. They surely are alternative and also their existence itself is so important as a political force to change the cultural hypocrisy of the States. In fact, I remember, one of the guys, touring with the band in New York when I saw their live at The Central Park, saying, "You know, Ozomatli plays people's music." That's right. The most of those mass productions in the major charts are nothing but merely a disposable waists of a music plant. The music has to come in and out of the real people and that's what Ozomatli has been doing.

Their gig never starts from the stage, but the floor where people are eagerly waiting to have a good time with this wicked band, Ozomatli. Lead by a big marching drum of Jiro Yamaguchi, a Japanese tabla player, Chali 2na, Cut Chemist, Wil Dog and more come through the door or gate playing percussion in their hands with the horn section making wild notes. The audience start shouting, clapping their hands or dancing back instantly to their primitive but strong rhythm and chanting. It was like witnessing an "organic" micro wave boiling water and everybody gets wild to this colorful and hybrid music of the 21st century which is captured at the beginning of the debut album. Indeed Ozomatli has nothing to do with a studio unit making music with bloody computer, but is a kickin' live band with blood, sweat and tears!

"(When Ozomatli started) At least we did 2 gigs a week and sometimes 4 on Saturday night... We played anywhere... yeh, everywhere in LA. We never were payed, but were young enough to play and wanted to play and learn. Yeh, we did lots of free gigs and benefit concerts and made a demo from our live performance with a cover of nice lookin' logo on cassette to send to every single one of the festival organizers. And... after a while we start getting paid a little bit but, then again, after having a paid gig, we did a free gig, you know, 'cos people need to hear us."

Wil Dog has the same old but true punk attitude like the early Clash and Ozomatli eventually opened up their way to the mass.

"Not much rehearsals, you know, but just playing and playing. Like all of the dance steps we do on stage, we never practice that. Seriously, never, you know. We leant it and everything on stage and kept playing. Then the guys of the band got into it and we have made some songs on stage too. Like suddenly somebody was saying, "Why don't we do cumbia!" on stage, then Raul, the guitar player, started cutting the rhythm of it and I gave the groove to it with bass and the horns were adding a line to it. We just jammed it,you know."

�@ Perhaps the result of it is the 3rd track of the album entitled "Cumbia De Los Muertos" which starts with rather reggae-ish guitar cutting and B line. The main part sounds like cumbia, but in some parts, you could catch up with a dub-wise reggae vibe with Chali 2na's toasting like rap. Nobody knows what to call this kind of music as the whole lotta things are fused in here, but one thing is certain that all of the factors of the music and people living in the States are crystallized and sparkling bright with music.

With their tough and rough live performances, Ozomatli was becoming the most happening thing, not just band, in LA for a short while and when they pressed their first 4 track EP by themselves at the end of 96, without any ads as such, they sold 15,000 copies instantly which was leading their way to one of the semi-major labels called Almo Sounds.

"We were not thinking of a record deal as such at that time, but all of a sudden, there were some record companies coming to us sayin' "Would you like a free dinner?". Why not, man? But most of them were just like a bunch of bullshit, you know. They were sayin' "We'll buy you this and that..." and how rich we would be with 'em. In fact, the Capitol Records bought me a bass amp.! None of them, apart from Almo, showed us what they wanted to do with our music."

Eventually they made a deal with Alomo and recorded the debut album. In the credits, you could find a name of Los Lobo, David Hidalgo, a genius musician.

"We opened up for them at Greek Theater in LA and did a 2 hour jam with the Latin Playboys on a radio and we knew him. Initially we were looking at him to produce the album, but eventually decided not to. But we still wanted him to play with us 'cause he plays hundred musical instruments so good."

Also you could find a name of Dave Ralicke, a trombone player of a well known ska band called Jump With Joey. In the early stage of Ozomatli, in fact, Wil Dog approached to the drummer of this band, Willie McNeil, the leader of an acid jazz band, Solsonics as well, to produce their demo, but, Willie was sayin', "They don't need a producer, you know. The whole of the ideas were there and they knew what they were doing."

But for this debut album, the guys decided to work with a producer, T-Ray, with a fame of Cypress Hill.

" We did a trial of the cumbia with him first just to check him out and everyone got along with him... He is not a musician at all, but a producer. Then again he's like a microscope about the sound and has a hiphop background which we wanted. Yeh, we wanted hiphop sound but playing our instrument... Real big and loud sound with heavy bottom and dirt kinda..., you know. Well, but the album is a bit cleaner than I would wanted to be."

Still all of the 12 tracks of the album sound wicked, wild and kickin' from the top to the bottom and the vibe of this multi-racial hybrid but organic sounds are perfectly sealed in. A good news for us in Japan is that there are another 2 extra tracks added to those 12 tracks for the Japanese press. There is no doubt that this is an album to buy and have a party with.

Nevertheless I should suggest that you should go and see Ozomatli live if there is any chance. Once you face to them playing in front, you just could not help moving your body, dancing to the rhythm or yelling with the music and would find a joy of positive music. No matter what kind of music you are into like hardcore metal or slash or anything, it doesn't matter. That's the reason why Ozomatli is being called as the most happening thing in LA.

The biggest audience they played for was about 50,000 when they were taking a part in a festival of hardcore bands and, by themselves, it was about 30,000 when they played for the United Farmers march in Watson Ville, in California. Even they went to Cuba and put serious Cubanos into a storm.

"To raise money to go to Cuba, we did a benefit for ourselves! Amazing man! People came with money and one gave us US$500 check and... eventually we got US$12,000. It was a political thing like Ozomatli's political & music journey, you know. And... we went. There was just one gig prepared, but we didn't even know if it was arranged or not, but we were there. When we played for that show, everyone went crazy and people were asking us "We've got a show for you." We played for 20 people to about 6,000 taking a part of an International Youth Festival. Hearing about that, we just were asking people to find a way to get in there and we did! We were representing LA and they thought there were hundreds bands like us in LA."

Wil Dog was laughing and saying it was a result of a typical American hustle, but, Cubanos loved Ozomatli and became the most popular band from LA in Cuba.

"Our audience are mixed up, but mostly depending on where we play, you know. Like in Orange County, mostly white people and in East LA, all Latinos, in Hollywood all mixed."

Indeed, Ozomatli hit everyone. Whether you are a communist or a capitalist or whatever, it doesn't matter. Black or white or yellow or read or dead or alive, once you experienced it, you could never leave. Certainly, the color of the skin or race as such has got nothing to do with music, but, the bright color of music itself are important. Then Ozomatli has got all of the colors of music and positive energy and words which is the ideal format of global music of the next century.

written in Tokyo in October 98.