Prince Jazzbo – Natty Passing Thru / Ital Corner

Prince Jazzbo, as well as being one of the more under-rated DJs – at least outside of the more passionate and knowledgeable reggae circles, also has a large footprint of both wonderful and poor album covers.

This is one of the wonderful ones.

‘Natty Passing Thru’ was first released in 1976 on Black Wax records, and was later re-released under the name ‘Ital Corner’ on Clocktower Records.

The first release on Black Wax records can be seen in the image at the top and featured a bold cover design featuring a dreadlocked face.

The release that came later on Clocktower records featured a New York style street populated by various dreads hanging around on ‘Ital Corner’. The Clocktower logo is prominent in the upper left corner of the record sleeve and the artwork was credited to Brad Osborne and Jamal.

It is quite rare for a re-release to feature artwork that is as good and as arresting as the original – I personally love the urban 70′s feeling that seeps out of the artwork on the Clocktower release and the fact that the streetlight on the album cover gives off the impression that it is only illuminating a fraction of what is going on in the busy scene – it’s like discovering some hidden part of a city, and only getting a glimpse.

The 1981 re-release also featured a red, gold, and green border (as seen in the image above).

Both releases are effectively the same album, but the track-listing is in a different order on each. The music is incredible and Prince Jazzbo DJs over a selection of Lee Perry produced Black Ark tracks. This is one of the few DJ albums to be released that was based entirely around Lee Perry’s Black Ark productions (Jah Lion’s Colombia Colly springs to mind as another).

Track Listing – ‘Natty Passing Thru’ [Black Wax release]

• Dreadlocks Corner
• Story Come To Bump
• Natty Passin Thru’ Rome
• Hold My Hand
• Prophet Live
• Ital Corner
• Bloody Dunza
• Weepin’ And Wailin’
• Live Good Today
• Life Is Gonna Easy

Track Listing for ‘Ital Corner’ [Clocktower release]:

• Ital Corner
• Natty Past Through Rome
• Prophet Live
• Prophet Dub – Satta
• Live Good Today
• Dreadlock Corner
• Coming On Strong
• Blood Dunza…
• Weeping And Wailing
• Story Come To Bump

Listen to ‘Story Come To Bump’ by Prince Jazzbo:

Listen to ‘Ital Corner’ by Prince Jazzbo:

The good news is that this album is still pretty easy to pick up on CD, or as an MP3 download (for some great pricing).

• Get it from Amazon.com
• Get it from Amazon.co.uk
• Get it from iTunes [US]
• Get it from iTunes [UK]