POP MUSIC REVIEWS : SUGAR MINOTT, FRANKIE PAUL IN REGGAE ‘JAM ‘86’

A $25 ticket price and a pair of headliners more familiar to Jamaicans than the local reggae audience contributed to a low turnout of about 800 for the “Reggae Splash Jam ‘86” concert at the Hollywood Palladium Sunday. The sparse crowd didn’t affect the vigor of top-billed Sugar Minott’s hourlong performance, but the veteran vocalist’s set still was unsatisfying.

Minott can be an effective singer on record, but his voice blended into the arrangements of the Abu Shanti backing sextet instead of commanding them. He overcompensated for a lack of charisma by frenetically bounding about the stage and over-emoting at every opportunity.

But Minott’s popular “dance hall” style, which frequently dispenses with classic reggae’s bass melodies for a steady pulse broken up by staccato, stop-time sections, ensured plenty of dancing from the crowd clustered in front of the stage.

His performance was anticlimactic after the impressive local debut of Frankie Paul, the nearly blind young vocalist who has been hailed as a Jamaican Stevie Wonder since exploding on the reggae scene three years ago. Paul fell closer to reggae’s soul-pop mainstream than Bob Marley’s rebel music camp, but he’s a versatile, passionate vocalist whose singing on the set’s high spot, “You Are My Shining Star,” evoked the late Marvin Gaye in its gritty eroticism.