My name is Robert Sadler better known as Rhythm. I attended Kenwood Academy in Hyde Park Chicago In 1975.  I had honed 9 years of jazz fusion, be bop, funk and pop drumming.  At the young age of 15 I had the privilege of having some of the best mentors from Sun Ra, A.A.C.M Phil Coran, Earth Wind & Fire, Ramsey Lewis, Randy Hall, Vince Wilburn and other future members of the Miles Davis Crew.

 I became acquainted with Bobby Williamson (I Bob Kush) a talented bassist who was performing with Reality, an up and coming funk cover band.  We started doing jam sessions and linked up with David Borman, AKA Daveed a hot leftie rock and blues guitarist who resembled and was a disciple of the late great Jimmy Hendrix, Daveed was a great inspiration to me and One Love as a whole.  He is truly missed.

  As a result of performing in so many activities at Kenwood High School, my grades began to decline for the first time. My mother shipped me off to Jamaica where I was born, this turned out to be an awesome decision for me academically and also set in motion the events which would shape the future of my musical career.  It was the catalyst for the early cultivation of The One Love Band.

 While in Jamaica I met the members of Third World Band while they were performing at the National School of Music where I was attending classes.  I met Israel Vibrations too.  I also had the distinct pleasure of meeting Bob Marley and Carlton Barret at Tough Gong Studios in Kingston Jamaica.  Bob was amazing to me and he truly inspired me.

 In 1977 after one year I excelled in school and returned to Chicago.  I was on fire to begin playing reggae.  I had embraced the Rastafarian culture and with I Bob and David and we became very strong in our consciousness and knowledge of black and African history.  We became aware of slavery; as well as the injustices and the brain washing of the masses of black people in America.  We started having cook outs serving vegetarian dishes.  We started to light up the neighborhood with culture and this led to an opportunity to play with a band called Gypsy Fari.  We quickly had to leave them because our message was harder at the core.  After this break we soon made our first recording, "No Peace with the Beast" which incorporated a young jazz keyboardist name Carl Burelli.  He gave this Reggae track and unusual jazzy fill.

 

 We got a great opportunity while visiting The Conquering Lion Record Store on 79th and Cottage Grove in Chicago Illinois.  Chucky the strong street wise owner took us in and gave us a rehearsal space in the back of the store.  He was instrumental in connecting us with the Jamaican roots following.  As manager he started booking us all over the city at various events. We then added Taicoo a rhythm guitarist and who was soon replaced pay Mat I a more creative young rhythm guitarist.  We then added Wes who is my biological brother on percussion.  We had a vision to make the band more in the model of the internationally recognized bands. We invited female back ground vocalist Jetta, Mryna and Maggie Brown the daughter of the late great Oscar Brown Jr.  Jetta was an awesome background vocal coordinator.

 

We had created several original songs and recorded most of them at Paul Serrano Studios.  That was the ingredient that made us unique.  All the other bands that were doing reggae were performing cover tunes. We were passionate about our harder edge sound and lyrics.  We wanted the audiences to think deeply about life and consciousness.  With this original sound we were catapulted to the big Mid-West stages and concert halls as well as major Universities. As we gained early popularity we found ourselves opening for major acts on their first US tours. Groups we opened for include; Black Uhuru, Steel Pulse, Inner Circle, Ras Michael, DJ T Jax, Jamala, New Breed , Burning Spear,  John Holt, and Gil Scott Heron.  Although opening for Muddy Waters at North Western University  was our largest audience to date.  We also did studio work with Sly Dunbar from Taxi Records.

Along the way we expanded by adding more musicians including  Solomon on wood winds and Moshe a master African percussionist from the Sun drummers.  By this time we had added the finishing components to our personnel.  We invited former Wailer front man Azariel who added a warm R & B touch to our vocals. We later added Jah T on vocals and keyboards who helped us write the crowd favorite song ONE LOVE ROCK.  Buff a monster vocalist and songwriter (formally of Delroy Morgan Group) was added later.  Jah T and Buff were very busy and in their absence Elmo a local keyboardist and guitarist and Jimmy Dixon would fill their spot.  We also added fog and lights to our shows with the aid of Bill Finley who acted as Co- Manager for a period.  Bill Finley had a strong back ground in theater production.

 

 By this time we had transformed the Wild Hair, a quaint Wrigley Field area country bar,  to an iconic reggae Mecca in the United States, this got us a spot on an ABC network news program 20 /20.   From this point on The Wild Hair was always packed to capacity when One Love performed. We are so blessed and honored to have had the recognition from the great City of Chicago being asked to perform for Mayor Burns. We would also like to recognize our most loyal fan base.  We love you and appreciate you continuously.

 

One Love

 

Robert “Rydm” Sadler