History Man peruses old articles at The Gleaner's archive. - Photo by LeVaughn Flynn

From The Wailer's Mr Brown, about a coffin that was allegedly being guided by crows around the streets of Kingston to Mavado dismissing cassava as being too hard to fry, there are many Jamaican songs which mention topical issues, imagined or real.

However, relatively recently, two persons have fine-tuned the fusion of song - or, in this case, the spoken word - and history, presenting pieces that are focused entirely on a single topic and are based on in-depth research.

Less than two years ago, The Informative History Man presented Chronology Volume 1, on which he performs the history of Jamaica Sound Systems, Marcus Garvey History, Miss Lou Tribute, Mrs Rosa Parks, Presidents of America and Biography of Haile Selassie I, among others. And Colby Graham, performing as 'Vintage Boss', has just released Back In Time, done along with singing group, The Jays. On the 13-track album he does Lest We Forget (Icon Ladies), Idlers Rest, Musical War and Sound System Pioneers, among others.

detailed research

However, while History Man started out with a topic which he then researched with the intention of putting what he terms a 'chant' together, Graham was researching material for his proposed Vintage Boss magazine when he moved on to verse.

"We get interested, we do the research," History Man told The Sunday Gleaner. "So if we going to do something about someone, we see him do something that is striking and fascinating, we gather all the information on him, written or orally."

So, when he was researching Bob Marley, History Man spoke to Bunny Wailer, Tatta and Georgie (who "made the fire light" in No Woman No Cry). He went to Big Yard on Orange Street and spoke to Elaine, who grew up with Dennis Brown, when he was preparing to write on the Crown Prince of Reggae.

"Once we have access to the people, we do a verbal confirmation," History Man said.

On the other hand, while doing research for his magazine, Graham said, "over the years you could say they are jottings - poetry in a sense. I jot them down as I go along. I had them with me all along for about eight years. I did a feature on The Jays and told them I have some poetry we could put music to."

The Jays duly listened to and approved of what Graham was doing, arranging time at Studio Mix in Waterhouse with Graham and remaining executive producer of the project.

interviewing older people

Graham, like History Man, supplements his research in books and newspapers with oral histories, walking the streets of Kingston and doing interviews with older people who knew Bun Dung Cross Roads, one of the notable 'characters in Kingston' he speaks about.

"One thing, I make sure I have stuff to substantiate what I say," Graham told The Sunday Gleaner.

And he is clear about the urgency of his project.

"It must be done. Right now the older folks are dying out with the knowledge in their heads. I find if I don't run them down they will leave us ... I am doing what I am doing because I realise how important what I am doing is," Graham said.

History Man told The Sunday Gleaner "we not even a do it fi fame; we a do it because it important. If we nuh do it somebody else going to do it and might not get it right."

latest project

His latest project is the history of poet and broadcaster Mutabaruka, and History Man said, "we do people who alive now, because we see people who alive now a make a great contribution to the music, to the culture and we embrace them."

They are both working on follow-up full-length projects, while Graham is planning to have videos for all the tracks on Back In Time done by the end of March.

It helps that his son is in video production. Some of the persons he mentions will be in the videos, as well as black and white images that are "in keeping with the nature of the title".

"Vintage Boss is just trying to recapture our stuff, which I don't think we are doing the best in preserving," he said.