"Rico's Message" - Rico Rodriguez

“Rico’s Message” (PDF) from the Rico & The Rudies album, Blow Your Horn

Rico Rodriguez first collaborated with Jamaican singer and producer Dandy Livingstone on the original 1967 version of “Rudy, A Message To You,” which the trombonist would later revive in 1979 with The Specials. Livingstone’s success with reggae music in the U.K. led him to Trojan Records where he produced a series of hits and vanity projects, including the 1969 album Blow Your Horn which featured some of Rodriguez’s original compositions - a partnership that would later be mirrored by the success of James Brown launching Fred Wesley’s solo career. The album’s opening track, “Rico’s Message,” could have been an answer to Dandy’s hit song or perhaps simply the trombonist’s own creative interpretation on the future of reggae.