World Music Ensemble

Bam Bam / Murder She Wrote
Frederick 'Toots' Hibbert / 
John 'Chaka Demus' Taylor, Everton 'Pliers' Bonner, Lloyd 'Gitsy' Willis, Lowell 'Sly' Dunbar

Money In My Pocket
Dennis Brown, Joel 'Joe Gibbs' Gibson
instrumental transcriptions by Niveen Wahba

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
Michael Rose

Right Time
Lloyd 'Judge' Ferguson, Fitzroy 'Bunny' Simpson, Donald 'Tabby' Shaw, Joseph 'Jo Jo' Hoo Kim

Bredda Gravalicious
Winston 'Pipe' Matthews

Double Barrel / Jokerman
Winston Riley / Bob Dylan

Punky Reggae Party
Bob Marley & Lee 'Scratch' Perry
instrumental transcriptions by Niveen Wahba

Sesame Street
Joe Raposo, Bruce Hart, & Jon Stone

This performance is presented in tribute to the legendary drummer/producer Lowell 'Sly' Dunbar, the 2025 University of Minnesota Institute for Reggae Studies Lifetime Achievement Honoree.

Scott Currie earned bachelor’s degrees at Swarthmore College (Physics and Political Science) and the State University of New York College at Old Westbury (African-American Music), master’s degrees at City University of New York (Education) and New York University (Ethnomusicology), and his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology at New York University. His most recent research projects explore the nexus between rocksteady rhythm-section conception and roots-drumming traditions in Jamaica, and the festivalization of jazz in America and Europe. Before joining the faculty of the University of Minnesota, he taught jazz history, world music, African-American music, Afro-Caribbean music, and Afropop at the Eastman School of Music, the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), and New York University. In addition, he has served as associate director of the Vision Festival, an independent avant-garde arts festival in New York, and founded the Sound Vision Orchestra. He has performed on saxophones with such artists as Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Alan Silva, Marty Ehrlich, J. D. Parran, Other Dimensions in Music, and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari.

Our fall concert program celebrates the musical legacy of one of the world’s most influential artists of all time, Lowell ‘Sly’ Dunbar, featuring a program of songs selected from the playlist of his most influential recordings, which he presented on the occasion of his Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony the University of Minnesota’s Third Biennial International Summer Institute for Reggae Studies (19-24 May 2025). We also are most honored to open this concert with a salute to the late Jimmy Cliff featuring our distinguished special guest vocalist/keyboardist Matthew Silpot, whose tireless work – as Music Education Officer in the Jamaica Ministry of Education and Youth – helped forge and develop the vital links between the University of Minnesota School of Music and our sister institutions across Jamaica that inspired this ensemble’s ongoing engagement with reggae music.