From Jamaica With Love

When Gregory Isaacs’ publicist surprises you with the announcement that the elusive reggae singer from Jamaica will be available for a phone interview in one hour, you don’t ask to reschedule. You take what you can get. You may never get another chance.

Isaacs is notorious for his nonchalance when it comes to appointments of all kinds. He once was five hours late for a video shoot and nine hours late for an album cover photo session. Last year in England, when Isaacs hadn’t appeared by 2 a.m. for an earlier show, an anxious fan asked the promoter if the singer was in the building. “No,” he was told, “but he’s definitely in the country.” Isaacs showed up at 4 a.m. and performed, by at least one account, brilliantly.

Furthermore, he does not seem to enjoy or value encounters with inquiring reporters and rarely is loquacious when it comes to fielding questions. Last week, on the phone from New York City, he answered most questions with one or two sentences. He didn’t seem particularly angry or annoyed, just . . . indifferent.

Reggae, though pegged in the ‘70s with “next big thing” status in the U.S., never really captured the mainstream imagination. Asked why, Isaacs answered curtly and without irony:

“Lack of promotion.”

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And what about his own relative lack of commercial success? Success “just hasn’t happened, so I just go along with it.”

He’s a much bigger deal in his beloved home country. Emerging from Kingston in the early ‘70s, Isaacs was credited with helping launch a wing of reggae called “lovers’ rock.” While the music of Bob Marley and others often was laced with politics, Isaacs wrote and sang mostly romantic songs in a wonderfully languorous voice that can highlight plaintive lyrics. His music continues to be poetic and sensuous rather than lustful, ribald or angry. He has been called “Jamaica’s Sinatra.”

He said he was influenced not only by fellow lovers’-rock exponent Dennis Brown but also by such American soul singers as Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. But, he reminded, political comment and his music aren’t always mutually exclusive. In the late ‘70s he wrote two potent songs, “Black Liberation Struggle” and “Word of the Farmer,” about oppression and injustice, and in the early ‘90s he recorded a song about the Gulf War called “Rude Boy Saddam.”

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Besides, he noted, “only love can conquer war.”

Isaacs has released more than 70 albums and 500 songs during his career, and some critics have complained that he hasn’t been as discriminating as he should in terms of material. But Isaacs says he writes songs daily and works quickly in the studio. How long does a typical album take to record? “It all depends on the vibes.”

And what’s in store for this man who seems to march to his own internal clock?

“To uplift those who need uplifting.”

* Gregory Isaacs sings Wednesday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. 8 p.m. $19.50. (714) 957-0600.