An Interview with Donald Manning of the Abyssinians

Donald Manning: Well, we have to give thanks for that.

LG: What adversity have you had to overcome to be here today?

DM: Everything is hard, but if you put some effort into it, it becomes easy. Even going to bed is not easy, because a plane can crash into your house and kill you. Have to think about God in every way.

LG: What are you most proud of in your life?

DM: What I am most proud of? That I know Jah Rastafari, because that is my strength of my walk of life: knowing truth and right. If you don't know where you are going, you're not going to know where you're coming from.

LG: True. I was at the show at Maritime Hall with Ras Shiloh, Ras Michael and The Abyssinians---a great show. What new talents impress you these days? What new music are you listening to or inspired by?

DM: In this time? I cannot say I don't think about the new music, but all of this music…they are singing the old rhythms that we did from in the 60s and the 70s. So they are doing them---not creating new music… only putting different lyrics on it. And they are not putting them to get positive like we used to do it---Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson, John Holt, Paragons and Mighty Diamonds. You know? When we used to do those things, we used to have some good things set up but these artists that I see now, a lot of them, them singing on 4 chords and them only singing one chord. Them don't change so them don't know. A lot of them don't know when it is good from when it is not. But I still can't put them down 'cause this world is where we're living and everyone has a season and find that they can get theirs.

LG: It's interesting that you say that a lot of it comes from the 60s, I hear that all the time. Recently, I listened to the Reunion album---which I think is fantastic---and fundamentally, the harmonies on this album mirror the harmonies in the older music. How do you keep that timeless quality?

DM: I'll show you now. This album here, Reunion, we have seven tracks on it that the original members of The Abyssinians sing. So it must sound close to the Satta Massagana that Heartbeat has, because we are the same persons doing it. Some of the tracks, I did them by myself and I got help on a couple of them, but seven of the tracks are original, so it must sound as close to what was there before. But we still have good quality because we know what we want, so we have to put it on and if it don't sound good, we got to change it until it sound the way you need it.

LG: It was wonderful to see both the older and younger reggae fans enjoying your show at Maritime Hall---you always bring a positive message to the people.

DM: My pleasure, and I'll come again.