Blending Reggae and Pop R&B; at Unity Festival

Reggae is a broad musical canvas, stretching from the lightest of pop to the deepest of folk rhythms. And for this year’s Teva Spirit of Unity festival, “unity” meant mixing legitimate reggae with crossover pop disconnected from the profound legacy of Bob Marley.

At the Greek Theatre on Sunday, it was singer Maxi Priest who was the fullest manifestation of that blend. With dreadlocks hanging down to his knees, Priest performed straight-ahead reggae that had lost none of its bite, along with pop R&B; that skewed toward sophistication, not bubble gum.

Along with the band Steel Pulse, Priest gave one of the day’s liveliest and most memorable performances. He also paid tribute to the late Dennis Brown, a popular reggae veteran who was a kind of mentor to Priest. Before singing Brown’s soulful “Should I,” Priest declared: “That was a tragic loss for reggae music.”

Soon after, the nine-piece Steel Pulse crafted traditional reggae fused with some tight dancehall energy. If the songs lacked a certain diversity, the playing was never less than dramatic, with lengthy instrumental passages that were potent and expressive.

After a day that also included the light pop-rap-reggae mixture of Shaggy, Sunday’s concert fell far enough behind that the scheduled show-closing act Culture was not able to play because of the Greek’s 11 p.m. curfew. That left it to the crowd-pleasing, but slight Third World to end the evening. For that, the veteran act chose to bring out a cello and conductor’s baton for a big bizarre finish that was right out of Mannheim Steamroller.