VA - Sugar Minott's Hidden Treasures (1999)

The third release from the up-and-coming Easy Star label is a fine compilation of 20 tracks from Sugar Minott's Black Roots label, almost half of which are previously unreleased. Reggae producers are judged according to two criteria: the sound they're able to generate in the studio, and the quality of the artists they're able to attract to their stables. Minott (a great singer in his own right) has always excelled on both counts. The roster on this collection reads like a who's who of modern reggae -- Horace Andy (with his hit version of the Bill Withers R&B classic "Ain't No Sunshine"), Garnett Silk, Yami Bolo, Barrington Levy, and Junior Reid all put in appearances, as do such lesser-known names as Don Angelo (whose aching "You Girl" is one of the album's highlights), Branches, and the African Brothers. Surprisingly, the production quality is uneven -- most songs rock with the heavy, rolling grooves that Minott has always seemed able to summon up at will, but the vocals are poorly recorded in a couple of cases, and there's a very strange mid-song fade on Tenor Saw's "African Children" that sounds more like an engineering mistake than a production flourish. Even with the occasional glitch, though, the high quality of the material shines through. Recommended.~Sugar Minott's Hidden Treasure Review by Rick Anderson