Mtandazo Dube
A prophet has no honour among his own people .  .  .

This adage rings true for Zimbabwean son Isaac Gabriel Kalumbu a.k.a. King Isaac — a Grammy-nominated Zimbabwean reggae singer based in the United States.
Kalumbu did seven songs on the 12-track album Isaacs Meets Isaac with the late Gregory Isaacs, better known as The Cool Ruler.
Apart from its commercial success in England and Jamaica, the album was also nominated for the prestigious Grammy Awards in 2010.

He is probably the only Zimbabwean musician ever recognised at such a platform. No Zimbabwean has recorded such a high-profile project with an internationally recognised Jamaican artiste.
But for all his accomplishments in foreign lands, Kalumbu, who is a music professor at Michigan State University, is virtually an unknown in his own backyard.

Isaacs meets Isaac, his greatest album to date, is not his only musical product, he has four other albums — King Isaac (2002), Munokokwa Mese (2004), Legends of Reggae Present King Isaac (2005) and his latest international release, Here I Go Again.
Kalumbu is in Zimbabwe to promote his 2010 collaborative masterpiece, Isaacs Meets Isaac, the last genuine touch of class by The Cool Ruler under his African Museums Label.

The million-dollar question, however, is how an academic, Kalumbu, got to do seven duets with Gregory Isaacs — largely seen as reggae’s last pure voice.
“Since I was a little boy, with reggae music banned under the colonial regime of a pre-independent Zimbabwe, I had a soft spot for Gregory. I would sing songs by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and other reggae greats, but Lonely Lover, which was one of Gregory’s many names, was the one for me,” said Kalumbu as he delved into his intriguing story.

He continued: “In 1998 I made my first pilgrimage to reggae’s Mecca, Kingston, Jamaica, where I not only recorded my first song, Keeping it Away, but also got my stage name, King Isaac.
“I had gone to visit the Bob Marley Museum and ended up meeting his former aide Joseph ‘Bragga’ Russell, who asked for my stage name and, after realising I didn’t have one, he then nicknamed me King Isaac. In Jamaica everyone has a moniker — people are not known by their real names. And so that’s how I embarked on a journey to meet my childhood idol, Gregory.”

King Isaac says he was discouraged by a lot of people from finding Gregory as he was largely seen as a lost cause, because of his drug-related problems.
“They told me I would never get him into the studio. About that time the guy had been arrested for possession of cocaine and an illegal firearm. For a while I gave up on meeting him even though I was going to Jamaica almost every year,” said King Isaac.

He says it was in 2004, after performing at the late Sugar Minott’s annual Reggae in the Hills concert that he finally decided he would give it a try no matter the consequences.

“It was a Christmas Day performance and I had really bashed it. The rural folk of St Catherine had loved me. Sugar Minott and Frankie Paul were impressed with my performance and it was time for me to go back to the States.
“I decided to go to Gregory’s offices in Kingston, if not to work with him then it would be, at least, to look at the man, introduce myself, take some photos with him and leave,” narrated King Isaac.

As fate would have it, Gregory was not at his offices, but King Isaac was lucky to find a young man there who was willing to take him to Gregory’s house.
“It had taken me a lot of guts just to go to his offices, now I had to surprise him at his house. The guy didn’t even know me, I didn’t know the young man who was taking me to his house, but for some reason I just went along.

“The young man dragged me to the back of the house and started knocking on the window. I was petrified. As the young man continued to knock with no response from inside, my thoughts went to Gregory’s well-publicised drug use and guns, and so I started retreating back to the taxi when suddenly a mumbled voice sounded from inside the house,” recounted King Isaac.

“The young man who later turned out to be his son told me that Gregory had said he was coming out and so for 20 minutes we waited. Just as I was beginning to doubt the whole mission, a tall black guy appeared on the doorway and asked me to dismiss my taxi and get into his BMW. He didn’t even ask for my name.

“I introduced myself as a Zimbabwean musician who wanted to meet him and if possible do a song with him. He didn’t respond and so we drove quietly to his studio,” said King Isaac.
After listening to the Zimbabwean’s song, Tumbling Down, and having been impressed, Gregory is said to have asked King Isaac to return to the studio the following

Tuesday at 3.30pm for a recording.
“It was a Sunday and I had finally met Gregory who indicated that he also was willing to work with me. I could not wait to get into the studio and so on Tuesday I returned to the offices at the time I had been told.

“Upon arrival I knocked on the door and a well-built man in dark glasses appeared and told me that Gregory was not there. I asked if I could wait and at first the man said yes, but after a few minutes he asked me to leave.”
Devastated, King Isaac left Jamaica the following day as he had to go back to work in a few days.

“Back in the States I waited a few months then called him to inform him that I was going over there (Jamaica) in July. He asked me for the exact dates and when I got there he was waiting for me.

“We did the track One Cocoa. Afterwards while we were listening to the song in the studio with all his staff, Gregory just stood up and said to me ‘you and I should do an album’, but I told him I had not enough money.”
The husky-voiced Gregory is said to have suggested that they do one song at a time until the album was completed.

“I didn’t believe him, but before I left Jamaica he gave me three riddims. We were later to do Harsh Words, Take Caution, Early in the Morning, Lady Love, Winner and A Love, between 2005 and 2009.
“In 2010 I released Isaacs meets Isaac with seven duets and five of my own tracks. The album came after Gregory’s last solo album Brand New Me, which was released in 2009 and was also nominated for a Grammy.”

Isaacs meets Isaac was a hit in Jamaica and in reggae circles in England and the States, which made King Isaac enter the album for the Grammys.
The album carries not only Gregory’s authentic and gracefully offbeat sound, but its quirkily dignified demeanour, which he retained whether he was pining for lost love or railing at social injustice.

“I had wanted to surprise him if the album got a nomination, but I also didn’t want to inform him that I had entered the album for Grammys, because I was afraid of raising his hopes and then later disappoint him after failing to make it.
“And on October 31 2010, six days after Gregory had passed on, the nominations were announced. My son (Thengo) and I were joyous, but we were also overcome with emotion. I couldn’t call Gregory and say we have done it. I could not re-live the recording sessions with him, which had taken us six years to produce an album,” said a sobbing King Isaac, as he remembered the moment he put Zimbabwe in the limelight as a home of reggae.

Although he did not take the gong home, as the Marleys dominated the genre, he still feels victorious.
“The year 2010 had been a bad year for me. My father had died in July, Sugar Minott eight days later and Gregory on October 25. The Grammy nomination was soothing and I still relish the moment.”

King Isaac later stole the limelight at Gregory’s funeral where he performed the late great singer’s hit song Soon Forward. Since then he has become close with the family and is planning to do a tribute to Gregory with his son Kevin Isaacs in Zimbabwe.
“I will do this in honour to a friend and a mentor, Gregory, but above all it will be to celebrate Zimbabwe as the greatest home of reggae music in the world, outside Jamaica and England.”