Jah Wobble

Born John Wardle, Wobble was an old friend of Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten. When the Pistols broke up, Rotten formed Public Image Ltd., and Wobble became the bass player. After the group's first few albums, Wobble had a falling out with Rotten (now Lydon) and guitarist Keith Levene and departed for a solo career, also collaborating with artists such as Can members Jaki Liebezeit and Holger Czukay and U2's the Edge. Wobble's solo repertoire ranges from pop to pseudo-reggae to "difficult to listen to" experimentation. In the late '80s, his career took a downward direction, and he had a job sweeping train stations. He began listening to music from places like North Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe and formed Invaders of the Heart with guitarist Justin Adams.

The single "Bomba" brought Wobble back to the public eye in 1990, and he collaborated with Sinéad O'Connor and Primal Scream in addition to releasing the Invaders of the Heart album Rising Above Bedlam in 1991. Three years later, he released Take Me to God, which featured a number of guest appearances from the likes of Gavin Friday. In 1995, he released Psalms, which was followed in 1996 by The Inspiration of William Blake. In 1997 Wobble formed his own label, 30 Hertz, to release Jah Wobble Presents the Light Programme. Umbra Sumus appeared the following year. In 1999, Wobble released Deep Space, which featured appearances from Bill Laswell and Jaki Liebezeit.

In the new century, Wobble became prolific. His first release was Full Moon Over the Shopping Mall, issued in the spring of 2000, followed by Molam Dub that fall. Passage to Hades with Evan Parker appeared in spring 2001. In 2002, Wobble began a series of interconnected — sometimes short-lived — collaborative groups to execute specifically minded projects. First, Temple of Sound — with Natasha Atlas, Nina Miranda, and Shahin Badar — released Shout at the Devil. That same year, Solaris: Live in Concert reunited Wobble with Laswell and Liebezeit, along with pianist Harold Budd and cornetist Graham Haynes. Reed and woodwind master Clive Bell and trumpeter Harry Beckett assisted Wobble with the nocturnal club jazz that was Fly later in the year.

In 2003, he resurrected another previous group he called Deep Space. This version contained original members Philip Jeck and drummer Mark Sanders with bagpipers Bell and Jean-Pierre Rasle, Beckett, guitarist Chris Cookson, and singer Cat Von Trapp. They released the full-length Five Beats. Bell, Rasle, and Cookson would continue to play with Wobble throughout the decade no matter the band, as evidenced by the ambitious English Roots Music (credited to his Invaders of the Heart project with Liz Carter on vocals). He also cut the soundtrack to the French film Fureur (Fury) for EastWest. Wobble and pedal steel legend B.J. Cole, with Bell, Cookson, and Beckett, cut the nocturnal jazz-dub recording Elevator Music, Vol. 1A in 2004. Later that year, Trojan Records honored Wobble with a career-spanning three-disc retrospective, I Could Have Been a Contender. The dub effort MU was issued by Trojan in 2005.

In 2006 there were two Wobble offerings: the completely solo Alpha-One Three (titled for his taxi driver handle), which appeared in July, and Jah Wobble & the English Roots Band in November. The latter is interesting because after English Roots Music, these musicians became a band apart from Invaders of the Heart. This latter album was recorded live in one take in the studio to reflect the fearsome live energy of their concert performances. Trojan Records issued another of Wobble's wild takes on dub with Heart & Soul in 2007. This recording also brought Gregorian plainsong, Appalachian folk, and gospel into the mix, creating a past-future effect.

The wildest was yet to come, however, as he brought dub to the East by employing Cookson, Sanders, and Bell alongside a group of Chinese traditional musicians to create the inimitable and provocative Chinese Dub in 2008. Car Ad Music, with Cookson, Bell, Beckett, and percussionist Neville Murray, was issued in 2009, and the (mostly) solo Welcome to My World arrived in 2010. Also in 2010, Wobble moved his dub fusion toward Japan with The Japanese Dub, recorded with the Nippon Dub Ensemble (Joji Hirota and Keiko Kitamura) with Bell and Robin Thompson guesting.

Wobble was no less prolific in 2011, recording a pair of albums that are, as has become his wont, radically different from one another. The first, 7, issued on Pressure Sounds, was recorded by his Modern Jazz Ensemble as a tribute to his some of his jazz heroes — Miles Davis, Donald Byrd, Weather Report, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, etc. The personnel include Cookson and Bell but also Marc Layton-Bennett (drums), George King (keyboards), Sean Corby (trumpet & flügelhorn), and Shri Sriram (tablas and bowed bass). The second offering of the year was a collaboration with guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and celebrated post-punk revivalist Julie Campbell called Psychic Life, which was issued on Cherry Red in November. ~ Steve Huey & Thom Jurek, Rovi