Inside Story on The Songtree: A Windrush Tale
A bit like a trip out of Phil K. Dick, ‘The Songtree: A Windrush Tale’ is a reality shifting game changing novel written to be once read, twice recommended.
Based on a true story, ‘The Songtree’ is the ultimate tale for our time. It stands at the wild frontier of fiction, exposing the matrix of reality and turning it on its head.
Trace the epic life journey of Lafayette, a semi-feral Windrush child lost in the international underworld of 70's nightlife where thieves, pimps, hookers, killers and drugs mix with Voodoo priests, Chinese monks, Nordic elites and the leading lights of Jazz.
And trace the seventy thousand year history of Jazz unveiled through ancient mystery and wonder, and emerging through the mother of all conspiracies revealed in the Bible.
‘The Songtree’ evokes the soul-penetrating writings of James Baldwin and Ishmael Reed, and it aims to give the US giants a good run for their money. Could it actually stand up alongside such greats, in that league of artful, soulful, and vital for human progress? Read it and see for yourself.
With sticks and brains against guns and brutality, Jamaica’s Maroons seized independence from British colonial rule by sheer force of character 200 years before the rest of Jamaica. As a Maroon descendant, Remi has forged yesteryear’s spear into drumsticks and pens to evoke that great heritage of liberating spirit and intellect.
It is the heritage that inspired Bob Marley, Count Ossie and others to express through the music of Rastafari. And it is a heritage to be proud of: ital livity, no trouble who no trouble we, no war, no slackness, strictly conscious reasoning: the roots and culture of Ubuntu. That is the spirit driving the music and the novel.
The music’s groovy, check the little taste on the music page. But the novel is the main event. No work of serious literary fiction from that Maroon heritage has ever broken through before.
As a testament to Jazz and Reggae, ‘The Songtree’ is the FIRST EVER novel with original audible music between the covers: a foot-tapping read that enhances the experience of a novel as never before. And it is also a highly cinematic novel, it feels like a movie; the music fits on that level too. Altogether immersive.
While it changes what ‘a novel’ is and can do in such new and exciting ways, at root ‘The Songtree’ covers the same story all serious writers do, the only story there ever is: the story of what it means to be human.
‘The Songtree’ isn't just a blasting declaration of literary revolution, it is proof of blessed victory!
It overcomes a destructive and outworn reality by blurring and trangressing the reality-fiction line. And it crystalises the creative soul-revolutionary spirit of Jazz, infusing it into every page.
Which is mightier, pen or sword? Remember how a book can lift our horizons to transform our world? It is out of the author’s hands now; I have faithfully done my bit. Over to you.
I wrote ‘The Songtree: A Windrush Tale’ to be ‘once read, twice recommended’. So buy it. Read it. Hear it. Feel it. Dig it. And then, if you feel it’s ‘move-over-James-Baldwin’ or ‘scootch-up-Mumbo-Jumbo’, it’s for you to holler and pass it on. No corporate machines here. We are the change we need.
Literary fiction is the most jealously guarded field of cultural transmission in UK; it’s where the meanings of the world and its constituents are most fully defined. If everyone who reads this novel and considers it important passes it on to two or more others, we shall overcome the bad-faith tyranny of mediocrity imposed by the West’s literary establishment. See the injustice it breeds, the corruption of humanity - filtering all the way down from their serial genocides. That stops now.
Now, with the advent of this musical novel, ‘Natty Dread Taking Over’ (as Joe Hill’s Culture sang). Every time ‘The Songtree’ is passed on, another fruit of spiritual darkness spoils on the vine, giving way to something much sweeter: the next iteration of the Maroon legacy that inspired Rasta reggae.
Fed up with the endless depressing news-cycle of hope’s systematic demolition? Restore some faith in the human mission? Maybe uplift the human condition? You know the book to read!
For more on all topics to do with Abracadia and its work, don’t forget to check Abracadia’s weekly spoken word offering at the ‘Bit Of Soul Podcast’. Come and say hi, pass by for a try. Be great to see you there. Just roll up anytime to listen, chill and reason at the lush and refreshing oasis that is Abracadia.
Until such time - In Ubuntu
Remi