From the pit
There are rooms built for symphonies, and then there is Black Uhuru at Lincoln Center — the Waterhouse harmony group standing on one of the most prestigious stages on earth, playing the music the establishment spent years pretending wasn't serious. Black Uhuru won the first Grammy ever awarded for reggae. Decades later that win reads less like a trophy and more like a door they kicked open for everyone who followed. Uhuru is a word for freedom, and standing in that pit you understood the name as a thesis rather than a title. The harmonies are the whole architecture of this group — foundation weight that most modern acts can't reproduce because it was built in a specific place, at a specific time, by people who lived it. When the low end hit that hall, you felt the building do math it wasn't designed for. I've photographed reggae in beach bars and basements and parking lots; shooting it under Lincoln Center's lights is a different assignment entirely, and the contrast is the story. The crowd knew every word, which is its own kind of documentation — this catalog never left the people even when the industry moved on. These images are roots royalty on a marble stage, credit to Anil Batra behind the lens, and a reminder that the foundation still fills the biggest rooms we have.
Words & photography — Anil Batra