POP MUSIC REVIEW : SISTER CAROL IS ‘TOASTING’

New York-based reggae performer Sister Carol is known as the “Black Cinderella,” which might explain why she didn’t take the stage Wednesday at the less-than-capacity Music Machine until nearly midnight. Rather than turn into a pumpkin, though, she proved that the increasing participation of women in the often male-dominated Rastafarian music world is a welcome thing, indeed.

Carol is an exponent of the “deejay-ing” style, otherwise known as “toasting,” a predecessor of rap that breaks sentences infused with puns and Jamaican patois into a non-stop stream of rhythmic babble. Though her fame is generally restricted to Brooklyn’s large Caribbean community, last year Carol made a delightful appearance at the end of Jonathan Demme’s film “Something Wild” with a reggae-styled version of the garage-rock classic, “Wild Thing.” Sung over the closing credits, the performance is one of the movie’s unexpected highlights.

Within the context of her set, however, “Wild Thing” came as an anomaly, a novelty amid her more serious and straightforward declarations of love for Jah. (Her opening transposed her religious beliefs over the melody from the Paul McCartney/Michael Jackson duet “The Girl Is Mine,” rendering that piece of pop pap almost listenable.)

While such other big name reggae deejays and toasters as Eek-a-Mouse and Yellowman are known for their vividly eccentric characters, Carol projected an almost elegant dignity and a sense of cool control as she twisted her rhymes and staggered syllables through the excellent rhythms provided by San Francisco’s crack Riddim Band. Carol’s stately stage demeanor could serve as a good example to Lady Levi and Sister Jenny, the two raucous, sloppy women who preceded her.