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Tenor Saw "Roll Is Called" Out Now

February 12, 2026  /  Grant Parks

The great Jamaican emcee Tenor Saw's prophetic anthem "Roll Is Called" envisions the glory of a dance in the afterlife, calling out the greats of his craft who had gone before him. Tragically, Tenor Saw was murdered in a hit-and-run in Texas in 1989. In his brief career, he had an outsize impact on Jamaican music's transition from reggae to dancehall, with hits "Ring The Alarm," "Roll Is Called," and "Lots Of Sign" enduring across four decades. The artist had one foot planted firmly in the reggae tradition but with a streetwise ear to the culture of the moment. Even his personal style perpetuated the iconography of the '60s rude boys before him, like Derrick Morgan and Laurel Aiken, reviving for a time a signature throwback bowler or derby hat. 

VP Records sourced a master mix of "Roll Is Called" from 15-inch-per-second tape, including the new-to-streaming Sly & Robbie dub version, plus an extended edit to keep the dance rocking. This is part of an archive series of master tape reissues from VP's 40,000-track archive, processed using state-of-the-art high-definition conversion technology.

Producer George Phang's Power House label with a top brand in Jamaica in the 1980s, bridging the analogue to digital eras and showcasing the sparser sound of the dancehall and a wealth of new talent.

"Roll Is Called" was one of dozens of reggae and dancehall songs built on the "Queen Majesty" riddim, itself a rocksteady cover of the Techniques' version of The Impressions' "Minstrel And Queen." Sizzla's anthem "Just One Of Those Days" is the most popular version of the riddim, based directly on this George Phang arrangement.

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