Jamaican-Music Legends

Derrick Morgan

2009-03-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

Amember of the classic first wave of Jamaican ska artists, Derrick Morgan was among the genre's founding fathers, emerging alongside pioneers including the Skatalites, Laurel Aitken, Prince Buster and Desmond Dekker.

Born in March, 1940, Morgan was raised in the Kingston area, exposed to a variety of musical sources spanning from New Orleans R&B to the choral music of the nearby church where his father served as deacon. At the age of 17, he took top honors at the annual Vere John's Opportunity talent show, delivering blistering renditions of Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" and "Jenny Jenny," and in 1959 teamed with producer Duke Reid to record his debut single "Lover Boy." Morgan's follow-up, "Fat Man," was a smash throughout Jamaica, and he later scored with recordings of "Leave Earth" and "Wigger Wee Shuffle," both cut with the legendary Clement "Coxsone" Dodd.

By 1960, Morgan was the unrivaled King of Ska -- at the peak of his popularity, he was the first and only Jamaican artist to date to hold down the top seven slots on the national pop singles chart during the same week, generating a string of smashes including "Be Still," "In My Heart," "Don't Call Me Daddy," "Moon Hop" and "Meekly Wait and Murmur Not."" In 1961, he recorded his biggest hit ever, "Housewives' Choice," and a year later -- in celebration of Jamaica's emancipation -- recorded the first independence song, "Forward March.Morgan and Prince Buster, arguably the two biggest ska performers of the era, became embroiled in a fierce musical feud which quickly spilled over among their respective fans, and as of 1963 disputes between the two camps became so heated that leaders of the newly formed Jamaican government were forced to intervene, calling a cease-fire and bringing the two performers together for publicity photos to bury the hatchet.

In 1966, Morgan issued "Tougher Than Tough," widely credited as the first record in the rock steady genre. He continued to innovate in the years to follow -- among his most enduring contributions were "Went to the Hop" (the first Jamaican song with an electric bass guitar), "Blazing Fire" (the first song to employ an electric piano), "Love Not to Brag" (the first duet with a female artist, Millicent Patsy Todd) and "Seven Letters" (the first reggae song, produced in collaboration with brother-in-law Bunny Lee). Morgan also produced many of the era's most notable up-and-comers, among them Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and Garnet Silk. Although he lived in Britain from 1963 onward, Morgan remained a towering figure in Jamaica throughout the remainder of the decade; even after his fame began to slip in the 1970s, he continued recording regularly in the years to follow.

Owen Gray

2009-03-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

O wen Gray was Jamaica's first home-grown singing star, and the first Jamaican singer to achieve recognition (and stardom) doing something other than calypso music.

He seemed destined for stardom at an early age -- born in Kingston in 1939, he showed an affinity for music and a love of singing very early in life, winning his first talent contest age the age of nine and also distinguishing himself in the local church choir, where he sang first tenor (and his mother played piano). His father was a career military man, but the younger Gray set his sights on music as a career early on, and by his teens he was an experienced singer and performer -- he attended the Alpha School, whose other alumni included such future legends as Tommy McCook and Dizzy Johnny Moore, and by 19 he was ready to turn professional. In a sense, Gray and his contemporaries could not have timed their lives and careers better, as Jamaica's musical life was ready to bloom -- the world was already listening to the sounds of calypso music in the late 1950's, initially by way of Trinidad (and pioneering figures such as Sir Lancelot) and more recently by such island-descended figures as Harry Belafonte and Lord Burgess; and Jamaica, which was already moving toward independence from Great Britain was about to experience a cultural renaissance as well. Gray's breakthrough came in 1960 when he recorded "Please Don't Let Me Go" with the Caribs (including guitarist Ernest Ranglin on his first recording session) for a young would-be record producer from England named Chris Blackwell, who'd begun to dabble in Jamaican music in between deciding what he wanted to do with his life. Released in Jamaica, it hit the top chart spot on the island, and the record was also issued in England, through the jazz label Esquire, and sold surprisingly well -- a fact undoubtedly noted by Blackwell, who began to suspect around this time that there were enough Jamaican emigres in England to make a viable business of recording and releasing music aimed at them.

Back in Kingston, Gray found himself in high demand, and his voice quickly captured -- working in idioms from rock 'n' roll to American-style r&b -- on tape by producers Leslie Kong, Prince Buster, Duke Reid and, most importantly, Coxson Dodd, who was just starting up his legendary Studio One label at the time; Gray's "On The Beach" (which featured local trombone virtuoso Don Drummond) was among the very earliest releases on that label. It was also a group of sides that he cut for Coxson Dodd that resulted in Gray's becoming the first solo Jamaican artist to have an LP of Jamaican popular music (as opposed to calypso music and folk songs) released in England -- the Esquire imprint Starlite Records combined a bunch of them in 1961 as Owen Gray Sings, which was also released in Jamaica; the album never sold even moderately well, but it was a beginning, and soon he had competing London labels issuing different tracks. With advance work like that going on without his direct input, he could hardly resist the opportunity to take the leap to the next career step, and cultivate a London audience from London, and in the spring of 1962 he moved there.

Gray recorded for Melodisc, which had previously licensed some of his Jamaican sides. and he was soon established in London, finding a large and serious club audience. He toured Europe in 1964, doing mostly soul music, and also signed with Blackwell's now-established label Island Records. By 1966, he was well known in England a a soul singer as well as for his Ska and reggae sides, and made the switch to Rocksteady easily enough, cutting sides for producer Sir Clancy Collins, and also licensing some songs to the new Trojan Records label -- his versions of the ballads "These Foolish Things" and "Always" reflected the soft ballad style for which he was known at the time. He enjoyed some further success fronting the Maximum Band (on the Fab Records imprint of Melodisc) with the ballad "Cupid", which charted in 1968. He also found favor with the early skinheads, thanks to a jump beat-driven tune called "Apollo 12", released in 1970, even as he continued to keep his hand in ballads with releases such as "Three Coins In the Fountain".

Gray moved to the Pama label in 1968, releasing his sides on their Camel Records imprint, which included "Woman A Grumble" and his version of King Floyd's "Groove Me". By 1972, he was back with Island Records, where his reggae versions of the Rolling Stones' "Tumblin' Dice" and John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" were released to complete (and astonishing) indifference; strangely enough, one of his bigger successes around this time took place in Jamaica, where his "Hail The Man" -- a single praising the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie -- was embraced by the burgeoning Rasta audience. Gray briefly tried basing himself in New Orleans -- not surprising since his early idols included Fats Domino -- and then returned to Jamaica, where he found fresh inspiration in the booming demand for roots reggae. During the mid-1970's, working with producer Edward "Bunny" Lee, he saw success on both sides of the Atlantic, as a mainstay of the roots reggae movement. Since the 1970's, Gray's career has waxed and waned, and he had returned to singing ballads by the 1990's. With the passing of his 40th anniversary as a professional musician in 1998, however, Gray has once more risen to stardom around the world, a fact confirmed by his international engagements and the release in 2004 of Shook, Shimmy & Shake: The Anthology, a double-CD set that spans a significant (though in no way nearly complete) chunk of his career. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide

Alton Ellis

2009-03-26T08:24:00.000-07:00

O ne of the first vocalists to enter the Jamaican music business, Alton Ellis was generally revered as the greatest and most soulful singer the country ever produced -- that is, until Bob Marley came along.

Ellis had his first hit during the ska craze, but made his true lasting mark as the definitive solo singer of the rocksteady era. Sweet, smooth, and deeply emotive, Ellis was equally at home on Jamaican originals or reggae-fied covers of American R&B hits. He cut a series of ska singles for Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's Studio One label, but reached his prime during the mid- to late '60s, when he recorded some of rocksteady's signature tunes for Duke Reid's Treasure Isle imprint.

Ellis was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1944, and grew up in the Trenchtown area as part of a musically inclined family. As a youngster, he learned to sing and play piano, the latter often by breaking into a local youth center to practice by night. In his early teens, he teamed up with another singer, Eddie Perkins, to form the duo Alton & Eddie. In 1959, after winning a prominent talent show, they recorded the single "Muriel," which became a substantial hit in Jamaica. Not long after cutting the follow-up "My Heaven," Perkins left to try a solo career in the United States, leaving Ellis a solo act.Ellis recorded for Dodd's Studio One label during the early '60s, but made little money. Dissatisfied, he moved over to Reid's Treasure Isle in 1965, and formed a backup vocal trio called the Flames (the first incarnation featured his brother Leslie, and membership would fluctuate). Ellis quickly scored a major hit with the antiviolence plea "Dance Crasher," and the following year, he released what was arguably the first rocksteady single, "Get Ready - Rock Steady." Its innovative beat grew out of a session where the scheduled bassist didn't show up, forcing keyboardist Jackie Mittoo to play the bass part himself; Mittoo's left hand couldn't keep up with the frantic ska beat, so he elected to slow down the tempo. The result was a choppier rhythm that wound up allowing the vocalist to stretch out more, and soon the rocksteady sound had taken over Jamaican music, with Ellis leading the charge. He had several other major successes in 1966, including "Cry Tough" and the smash "Girl I've Got a Date," the latter of which became his biggest hit and signature song. He also cut several duets with Phyllis Dillon (making them Jamaica's answer to Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell), as well as his sister Hortense Ellis (including a hit cover of Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"). The classic LP Mr. Soul of Jamaica (later reissued on CD as Cry Tough) gathered many of his best Treasure Isle tracks.

By 1968, Ellis had resumed working for Studio One in addition to his output for Treasure Isle, making him one of the few singers to bridge the gap between the two archrivals. Most of his biggest hits of the late '60s came on Studio One, including the American soul cover "Willow Tree," "I'm Just a Guy," and "Sitting in the Park." In 1970, he released the album Sunday Coming, one of his strongest Studio One sets. Ellis later teamed with producer Lloyd Daley for a brief period, which resulted in the more Rastafarian-tinged hits "Lord Deliver Us" and "Back to Africa"; he also worked with Keith Hudson. However, he was still not receiving proper financial compensation for all his success. Disillusioned, he spent some time in the U.S. and Canada, then relocated to England on a mostly permanent basis in 1973.

In England, Ellis established his own Alltone label, which he devoted to both new recordings and compilations of his early classics. The international popularity of Bob Marley and the rise of roots reggae meant that Ellis' considerable legacy was soon overshadowed, but over time, he remained a fondly remembered pioneer of Jamaican music. He made triumphant returns to Jamaica with well-received sets at the Reggae Sunsplash Festival in both 1983 and 1985, and recorded a new single, "Man From Studio One," for Dodd in 1991. Numerous compilations of his work appeared during the CD era, illustrating his stunning consistency.

Stranger Cole

2009-03-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

S tranger Cole was born Wilburn Theodore Cole in 1945 in Kingston, Jamaica, receiving the nickname “Stranger” because he resembled no one else in his family. Cole began his recording career with producer Duke Reid.

scoring a hit with his 1962 debut, “Rough & Tough,” a full-tilt ska number with a wild harmonica solo. His Louis Jordan revival song, “Run Joe,” was a hit in 1965, and featured members of the Techniques on harmony vocals. Stranger frequently used duet partners, most notably Patsy Todd and Ken Boothe, and later in his career, Gladstone Anderson (their version of “Just Like a River” is one of Cole’s finest songs)stemming from an apparent shyness in the studio, but Cole developed into a soulful vocalist, and his songs radiate a kid of joyful personality that is rare in most reggae. Cole left Reid as the ska era waned, becoming sort of a maverick, cutting sides with several Jamaican producers, including Sonia Pottinger, Lee “Scratch” Perry (including the wonderful single, “Run Up Your Mouth”), and Bunny “Striker” Lee, before relocating to England in 1971, where he toured extensively. Cole moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1973, where he released three albums on his own label, The First Ten Years of Stranger Cole (1978), Captive Land (1980), and The Patriot (1982). In 2003, Trojan Records released Bangarang: The Best of Stranger Cole 1962-1972, a long overdue retrospective of this fine Jamaican singer’s career.

Laurel Aitken

2009-03-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

Laurel Aitken
was born in 1927 in Cuba and moved to West Kingston, Jamaica in 1938 with his family when he was eleven. He began his music career in the 40's, singing songs in the Nat King Cole/Louis Jordan style of that time.

- and then cut his teeth on the sounds of R & B, soul, calypso, mento - as well as his personal love: boogie. Singing at the Glass Bucket Club and attending the roving sound systems provided stomping grounds where Laurel began to develop and hone his great talent for singing, dancing and generally attracting an audience. Laurel cut several singles in the 50's, including in 1957, the R&Bish "Roll, Jordan Roll." Laurel's big break came in a year later with the release of the "Little Sheila"/"Boogie in my Bones" double A sided single -- the first single ever released on a new upstart label called Island Records, which was founded by Englishman Chris Blackwell. "Little Sheila" spent 11 weeks at #1 on the Jamaican charts, cementing his popularity with Jamaican music fans.

Island soon grew to become the the seminal force that introduced and promoted Jamaican music in the UK -- and today retains its status as on eof the biggest supporters of Jamaican music. It is Blackwell's influence in generating English interest in the Jamaican sound that left a mark on ska's history in general and Aitken's history specifically. Laurel Aitken immigrated to England in 1960 and changed the face of ska music forever. Throughout the 50's, wave after wave of Jamaican citizens left Jamaica to settle in post-W.W.II England, where job opportunities were there for those who wanted them.With Jamaican immigrants came a demand for Jamaican tastes in the UK and Laurel heard that he could make it big overseas. Despite gray skies and miserable weather, Aitken found the Jamaican community in the London neighborhood of Brixton welcoming. A label in Britain had been releasing bootlegs of unavailable Jamaican recordings to meet the new demands -- and when Laurel arrived, he had a stern word with the responsible parties. From that meeting, Melodic started a new label - Blue Beat - to cater to the Jamaican market. After several years with Melodic, Laurel moved on and recorded for EMI, Ska Beat, Nu Beat, Direct Records and Doctor Bird Records, among many others. During this period, he cut such classic tracks as "Fire in Mi Wire," "Bartender," "Jesse James," "Landlord and Tenants," "It's Too Late" and "Pussy Price." Laurel was the only Jamaican star who regularly toured the UK and was very successful in doing so. Laurel Aitken has had a long and fruitful recording career that continues to this day. He has performed all styles of Jamaican music, including rock steady and reggae.

Throughout the 60's and 70's, " Laurel waved the Blue Beat banner. When Jerry Dammer and company went about forging a British new wave ska festival at the end of the 70's, it was the power of Laurel Aitken and Prince Buster that became Laurel continued to perform and record throughout the 80's and 90's (with such diverse ska stars as Japan's Ska Flames, Germany's Busters and America's Toasters) - and to this day remains a dynamic live performer who always wows an audience. Laurel Aitken has been deeply involved with ska music since its birth -- and through every 'wave' of ska music. He has performed all over the world and despite being 72 years young, Laurel is ready to remind the new US ska crowd that he really is the "Godfather of Ska.During the 2-Tone era, Laurel played with The English Beat and toured with the mod band Secret Affair (and was backed by the punk/reggae band the Ruts!) -- and his career was rejuvenated with the new found popularity of ska in the UK. The classic "Rudi Got Married" was released during this period on I-Spy/Arista Records. After the demise of 2-Tone, Laurel kept his faith in ska music and recorded several albums and single with the brilliant British ska band, Potato 5 and even appeared in the mod film "Absolute Beginners" with David Bowie.

The Skatalites

2009-03-20T00:39:00.000-07:00

The sound of the Skatalites is, to a large degree, the sound of Jamaican ska records from the 60s, but the actual reason the group formed as 'The Skatalites' was to perform live. By June of 1964, the musicians who came together as the Skatalites had already been crucially involved in the developement of the new Jamaican music called ska, but it wasn't until then that this group of the top studio musicians formed a self-contained live band, after years of recording in ever-changing combinations for a variety of producers (Clement Dodd, Duke Reid, Prince Buster, et al).

By the end of 1963, 'uptown' bandleaders were filling out their setlists with the latest ska hits but 'The Skatalites' still did not exist as such. The future Skatalites wanted to play their own ska music live, but to get booked, they needed two things: a name and a bandleader. The latter appeared when they convinced Tommy McCook (recently returned from eight years playing jazz in the Bahamas) to lead the band. The former came from McCook's 'punful' variation on Knibb's suggestion of 'Satellites'.
Thus equipped, the Skatalites were ready to take the live music scene in Jamaica by storm. By all accounts, they were one of the most exciting live bands on the island, but unfortunately, it seems that the only live performance that has survived in any recording medium is a famous piece of silent film that shows them playing on the back of a parade float. It often appears in ska documentaries with some studio record as soundtrack, but no actual live sound recordings appear to have survived that era. After a brief reunion in 1983-84, the band re-formed permanently in 1989 and went to work as a full-time touring band - without a break.

They tour Europe, the States and Japan relentlessly. With a core of original members the Skatalites show an entire generation of ska revivalists what ska was supposed to be. Seeing the Skatalites live has become like 'going to church' for younger fans who knew them only through their recordings. And recently there was even a very special double debut: The Skatalites live in Argentina! (It took 4 years of planning to bring the Skatalites to Buenos Aires for the first time!). A n d the production of a Skatalites live album that everyone's been waiting for, a mere 40 years after the breakup of the original group! 'Skatalites in Orbit Vol. 1' has been released in December 05 (Grover Records, V.O.R) and it's only the beginning. A series of live releases is planned to keep this band and this band's incredible spirit alive forever.

WHETHER YOU'RE YOUNG OR OLD YOU'VE GOT TO LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!

The Skatalites are:
Doreen Shaffer - Gesang
Val Douglas - Kontrabass
Lloyd Knibb - Schlagzeug
Lester 'Ska' Sterling - Alt Saxophon
Karl 'Cannonball' Bryan - Tenor Saxophon
Vin Gordon - Posaune
Kevin Batchelor - Trompete
Devon James - Gitarre
Ken Stewart - Piano

2009-03-04T03:01:00.000-08:00

Jamaican Music History

2009-03-03T07:15:00.000-08:00

M usic has always been an important factor in the lives of Jamaicans and other West Indians. Jamaican music comes from an African foundation, influenced by the music of Europe, especially England & France. The great-great grandparent of Reggae is mento, a loose-sounding folk music, sometimes confused with calypso, a Trinidad-born music. Mento's lyrical food is topical issues.

By the 1950s Jamaican youth were more interested in listening to American pop music, popularized by radio and sound systems - portable dance machines that were to change the face of Jamaican music.

Ska combines the catchy backbeat of New Orleans- style R&B and mento. Many early ska songs were covers of popular American songs. Typically ska drums stress beats 2 & 4 over a "walking" quarter-note bass, with the guitar stiking the offbeats in a syncopated mento style. Ska's tempo was especially appealing to the restless Jamaican youth, and was always the music of the poor.

Some reggae historians identify the R & B song that fathered the ska beat as "No More Doggin'" (1952) by Roscoe Gordon, a Memphis piano player. The "one and two and three and four" beat had been around since the 40s, and was used by Rhythm & Blues artists like Louis Jordan & Big Joe Turner. Theophilus Beckford is considered by many to have recorded the first ska tune, "Easy Snapping", in 1959. The recording was produced by Lloyd "Matador" Daley, and arranged by Ernest Ranglin.

Cluet Johnson AKA "Clue J" was important to the development of Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's desire in the late 50s to establish a distinctive Jamaican musical sound. Clue J's distinctive stage greeting - skavoovie, lead some to define this as the root of the term Ska.

Sir Lord Comic's "The Great Wuga Wuga" (1967 WIRL(JA)), a musical advertisement for his sound system, was one of the last great Ska tunes.

The Skatalites, who truly defined the various ska-era styles, were ubiquitous in the mid-60s, but only held together for about 14 months (1964-65). The original Skatalites were jazzmen in the 40s & 50s, bringing the influence of big-band, bebop & the Blue Note sound to the new Jamaican dance sound. Reforming in the 80s they continue to excite audiences worldwide.

When ska began its change into the more sophisticated-sounding Rock Steady during the mid-60s singers came into their own. While the tempo remained about the same Rock Steady carried a relaxed rhythmic density.

In Rock Steady the guitar only strums on beats 2 & 4, and the bass guitar emphasizes beats 1 & 3.

Drums are less prominent in Rock Steady as their rhythmic role was being taken over by the bass guitar. Drums provided accents, or were inaudible. Less predominant horns and less-rigid beat offered more vocal possibilities. Rock Steady was perfect for romantic group vocals.

By 1969 the new, enduring sound of Reggae had established itself. Reggae is closer to the chanting, meditative Nyabinghi sound, and lends itself to musical meditiation. The Rock Steady years brought the bass to prominence. The strength of the booming bass line continues in Reggae. Jamaicans have always been fond of the bass sound, as seen in mento music. Reggae takes it to higher heights. It is the "riddim" that makes the song, and results in the versions.

Like most popular music of the western world, Reggae is played in 4/4 time - 4 beats to a bar of 4. The strongly felt beats, or downbeats, are beats 2 & 4, opposite to most pop music. Some claim that this has made Reggae's acceptance difficult in North America (leaden 1 & 3 feet?)!

The One Drop style is defined by the drumming pattern. With the expectation of the bass drum hitting on beats 1 & 3, the "one" is "drop"ped. There's much more to it though. The snare may emphasize the 3rd beat. The bass may emphasize beat 1 with a strong note, but also often misses the first beat too. The high hat may emphasize the 1st beat. By this definition, Ska must be considered the original "one drop" rhythm.

Rockers is a style of Reggae beat that originated in the mid-70s. Unlike the earlier "one drop" style which has the bass drum play on the 3rd beat of every measure, in a rockers beat the bass drum plays on all four beats of the measure, like the bass drum in a disco beat. In fact, this beat probably influenced the sound of disco music.

One drop bass drum pattern: 1 2 3 4
^

Rockers bass drum pattern: 1 2 3 4
^ ^ ^ ^

The term Rockers came to be a generic term for 70s reggae, partly due to the emphatic nature of the term.

Rastafari has always been strongly linked to Reggae, making the music important socio-politically as well as culturally. See the links in the Crooked Beat Home Page.

Jamaican music itself has changed considerably over the past 35 or so years. Dub music is the result of the engineer restructuring the sound on the mixing board. Lovers rock, deejays, dub poetry all come from the root. Dancehall and Jungle music are the latest trends in this everchanging Jamaican sound. The emigration of Jamaicans and other West Indies to Europe and North America has both spread the vibe and blended other musical ideas to Reggae. All in all, Reggae has exerted an international impact remarkable for such a small nation - the loudest island in the world.

Ragga

2009-03-03T07:11:00.000-08:00

I n spite of the original dancehall reggae irritating the hell out of purists, it was relatively harmless compared to what it was to become. The music deliberately lost all sense of being played on conventional instruments, as computerised sounds were prized for being exactly that – computerised sounds. The rhythms sped up and took on a harshness made seemed designed to keep out the faint hearted, while deejay delivery gained an edge that removed all vestiges of one love.

Likewise the subject matter: the slackness, which was really nothing more than the good natured bawdiness that has featured in most Caribbean music since calypso, turned into outright misogyny and a violent homophobia, while an alarming trend for "gun records" reflected the growing gangsterism in Kingston’s ghettos. Shabba Ranks fell from international grace, when he endorsed Buju Banton’s single "Boom Bye Bye", a record which urged the shooting of gays; Bounty Killer toasted gun culture; Capleton’s approach to women was never on nodding terms with political correctness.

Amid furious debate as to whether this was reflecting or influencing Jamaican ghetto reality, reggae performed an admirable act of self-regulation, with a roots revival that vociferously rejected what dancehall had become and sought to replace its subject matter with something a little more wholesome. Deejays like Buju Banton and Capleton saw the light, grew dreadlocks and changed their ways to those of righteousness, while still retaining all the excitement of delivery usually associated with dancehall.

Beenie Man likewise turned his back on the more nefarious aspects of his repertoire and these new roots deejays were joined by Anthony B and Sizzla, two exponents of Bobo Ashanti, the hardline end of Rasta that sought to reclaim it from the "fashion dreads" of the 1980s. Another development was, in the wake of the late Garnett Silk, a new wave of roots singers who managed to combine Bob Marley’s sensitivity and spirituality with a modern approach to their music. Luciano, Tony Rebel and Morgan Heritage lead the way, while a resurgent Cocoa Tea seemed more than comfortable with the new rhythm patterns.

Dancehall

2009-03-03T06:19:00.000-08:00

S o named because so many of the records were deemed unfit for radio airplay and therefore were suitable only for the dancehall. And the controversy didn’t stop there.

Dancehall reggae established itself through characters like Yellowman and General Echo and a penchant for slackness (as bawdy lyricswere known). This deejay-led, largely computerised, upstart music seemed to epitomise the 1980s with dub poet Mutabaruka maintaining, "if 1970s reggae was red, greed and gold, then in the next decade it was gold chains". So far removed was it from the gentle, almost hippification of roots and culture, that purists furiously debated as to whether it was genuinely reggae or not.

But this was the whole point. Dancehall represented a new generation of reggae’s primary audience reclaiming the music for themselves after ten years of roots’n’culture that: A) had not done a great deal to change the way they lived; and B) it had been adopted so thoroughly by the international mainstream it didn’t seem like "theirs" any more. This was a new wave’s way of reacting to the harshness of their environment and drew on hip hop’s brashness to express themselves with an impatience not seen in roots reggae. It needed a radical approach to shake reggae out of its seeming complacency and dancehall opted for the apparently obnoxious to satisfy nobody beyond the sound system crowds. Producers like Henry Junjo Lawes and King Jammy’s made deejay records that were as raw as those audiences wanted, with deejays like Yellowman, Josey Wales, Lone Ranger, Eek-A-Mouse and Brigadier Jerry. Not that it was all deejays, but singers such as Barrington Levy, Little John, Cocoa Tea and Frankie Paul had to struggle to be heard.

Of course the rapidly developing studio technology played a big part as it meant records could be made quicker and cheaper, with it becoming far easier to version a rhythm once it was made. This in turn allowed a flood of new talent into the business ensuring that dancehall reggae would continue to stay fresh for years to come.

Soca Music

2009-03-03T05:12:00.000-08:00

W hen discussing soca music history, mention must be made of the Father of Soca, Lord Shorty. He was born Garfield Blackman on October 6, 1941 in Lengua, Trinidad and is widely accepted as the creator of soca music.

Soca was said to be dying and reggae was the in thing. This prompted Lord Shorty to experiment with calypso rhythms in an effort to create a different type of music.He combined Indian musical instruments like the dholak, tabla, and dhantal with traditional calypso music and it resulted in a new, energetic hybrid called soca. The music was first called solka by Lord Shorty, later changed to soca by a music journalist.

he word "soca" is derived from the first two letters of "soul" and "calypso" respectively.

Lord Shorty introduced soca music to the world in 1973 with his hit song, Indrani. He released an album called Endless Vibrations in 1974 prompting many artists and musicians to gravitate to the new soca style.

As far as soca music history is concerned there is a big misconception that soca music was created by the blending of calypso and soul music. People have been misled into this belief because of the fact that Lord Shorty called soca "soul calypso". In actuality, Lord Shorty did not mean that soca music was a blend of soul music and calypso music but that soca music was "the soul of calypso". Soca is certainly not a blend of the two genres.

One of the biggest songs in the history of soca music, dating back to 1983 is Montserrat singer Arrow's "Hot Hot Hot". This song did much to popularize soca internationally. Other popular soca songs include Sugar Bum Bum - Lord Kitchener (1978), Soca Baptist - Super Blue (1980), Tiny Winey - Byron Lee & The Dragonaires (1985), Nani Wine - Crazy (1989), Teaser - Becket (1990), and Dollar Wine - Collin Lucas (1991).

Throughout the years many soca offshoots have come into being including ragga soca and chutney soca. Today, the most popular versions of the music are groovy soca which is a slower version of soca and power soca which is faster paced. Soca has grown into a massive industry, taking over Carnival celebrations in Caribbean communities around the world.

Beres Hammond

2009-02-23T07:35:00.000-08:00

O n an island overpopulated with good song makers, Beres Hammond’s gritty vocalizing, as well as his incomparable production and songwriting skills, primarily detailing the vicissitudes of romantic relationships, have earned him a remarkable place in Jamaica’s lush musical landscape.

Born in 1955 in the island’s verdant garden parish of St. Mary, Hugh Beresford Hammond has for more than two decades been a consistent hitmaker on his native island. By age 11, Hammond began traveling from his home in the rural one-street town of Annotto Bay to Jamaica’s bustling capital city of Kingston to observe the singers who frequented the downtown record shops.

In 1975 Hammond joined the Jamaican fusion band Zap Pow as lead singer, remaining with the group for four years while simultaneously releasing solo records

In 1975 Hammond joined the Jamaican fusion band Zap Pow as lead singer, remaining with the group for four years while simultaneously releasing solo records. His debut solo alum, Soul Reggae (Aquarius Records, 1976), sold well throughout Jamaica.

The frustration of releasing hit records in Jamaica without proper monetary compensation, due to the island's chaotic music industry infrastructure, led Hammond to form his own record label/production company, Harmony House, in the early '80s.

Since the release of his first Harmony House single, “Groovy Little Thing,” in 1985, Hammond has sustained a succession of hit records on the reggae charts worldwide. His 1987 hit “What One Dance Can Do,” recorded for producer Willie Lindo, entered the pop charts in England and elicited a string of answer records including Hammond’s own “She Loves Me Now.” Both tunes solidly established Hammond’s name on the dancehall reggae circuit.
Greater success came in 1990, when Hammond joined forces with longtime friend Donovan Germain of Kingston’s Penthouse Records, laying vocals over a reggae rhythm track Germain had created. Though the singer barely remembered recording “Tempted To Touch,” the song shot to number one in Jamaica. Hammond’s subsequent Penthouse album A Love Affair spawned several hits, including duets with Buju Banton, the most popular dance hall DJ of a decade ago, The Hammond/Banton musical partnership commenced with the 1992 number one tune “Who Say” and later yielded “Pull It Up,” the 1999 reggae song of the year, an ode to Jamaican dancehall sessions of an earlier, more peaceful era.

Beenie Man

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K nown for his throaty chuckles and “Zagga zow!” catch phrase, this rapid-fire DJ born Moses Davis in 1973 earned the alias Beenie Man as a toddler because he was “a little boy with a man’s brain.” He grew up in Kingston, where he was exposed to some of Jamaica’s greatest sound systems. By the age of eight, Beenie was a bona-fide recording star himself with the single “Too Fancy,” and he released his first album when he was 10.
But unlike many child stars, Beenie Man kept rising. By the mid-’90s, he was collecting DJ of the Year awards, and he signed with Island to record the Rastafarian-influenced Blessed. Featuring the hard-hitting smash “Slam,” Blessed established Beenie Man’s international reputation immediately. He was even given a doctorate (“of all lyrics”) from the University of the West Indies’ music department.

He began flaunting his Doctor status on Maestro (VP). The party atmosphere of the album’s big hit “Girls Dem Sugar” was balanced out by several cultural songs. He followed that with the album he considers his best, Many Moods Of Moses (VP), featuring the rootsy “Steve Biko” (complete with an intro based on Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”), the country song “Ain’t Gonna Figure It Yet” and the inescapable “Who Am I” (“Zim zimma, who got the keys to my Bimma?”).

Beenie continued exploring new territory (gospel, R&B, hip-hop) on The Doctor (VP) and then took this crossover impulse to the extreme after signing with Virgin. For Art & Life, producer Salaam Remi resurrected the hip-hop beat of “O.P.P.” on the Wyclef Jean collaboration “Love Me Now.” “Gals Dem Sugar” was softened up by the R&B singer Mya. “I Got A Date” adapts the Staple Singers’ staple “I’ll Take You There” while “Tumble” features trumpeter Arturo Sandoval. The only track that’ll satisfy dancehall purists is “Haters And Fools” over Dave Kelly’s eerie “Bug” rhythm. This pop-music hodgepodge won Beenie the Grammy he long deserved.

With Tropical Storm, Beenie Man sank further into the depths of shameless commercialism—the lead-off single “Feel It Boy” featured Janet Jackson. But fate intervened with a near-fatal Hummer rollover that put the Doctor in the hospital with serious injuries. Beenie’s comeback album, appropriately titled Back To Basics, marked a return to the hardcore dancehall sound that made him a star in the first place. He remade “Slam” with Ms. Thing, scoring a massive hit (“Dude”). At the end of the album, he shows his spiritual side on “If A Neva God” and the acoustic “Back Against The Wall,” but it’s appropriate that the first official single was “King Of The Dancehall.”

Alpha Blondy

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Alpha Blondy knows the meaning of struggle. He has experienced hard times in his personal life and as a citizen of the Ivory Coast. But having been a rebel for most of his life, he’s kept the fire burning that began attracting him an international audience shortly after release of his album Jah Glory in 1985.

Blondy has upheld his belief in reggae music as spiritual celebration and as a tool for human liberation. His impassioned lyrical outcries for justice have been sweetly balanced by gentler homilies and the occasional love song. He cradles his messages in some of the most addictive melody lines in reggae history and underlines them with visceral, rootsy drum and bass.

In his youth, he was drawn to the beacon of Bob Marley’s righteous music. Blondy arrived in New York City in 1976, where he soon made friends within the Jamaican community. He sang Marley’s songs at every opportunity in small clubs around New York, and soon had a repertoire of self-composed reggae tunes, written in his eccentric French-inflected English.

With the encouragement of budding Jamaican producer Clive Hunt, he began writing lyrics in his native tongue, Dioula, and in Ivory Coast Creole. The language, and Alpha’s very distinctive, quavering vocals, gave his songs the unmistakable lilt of West Africa.

After some time, Blondy returned home to Abidjan. After an altercation with a police officer, he spent time in a notorious mental hospital. Eventually he was freed, and won a nationally televised talent show and the opportunity to record. In his homeland, Blondy is today respected as an astute, acerbic political commentator. Never timid about speaking his mind, he’s had a lot to say during the recent political turmoil in the Ivory Coast, and some of his more incendiary songs have been banned from the airwaves.

Despite the turbulence, Blondy’s creative energy is unflagging. He says, “When you make a sword, you dip it many times in a liquid to make it hard. The Creator is dipping us again and again to make us stronger. Even though I complain, I’m not sad. I say, ‘Why me? Why not me?’ You have to accept he bad things in order to appreciate the good.”

Bob Marley

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ob Marley remains the best-known name in reggae, even more than 20 years after his death. His real revolutionary stance and spirit helped make him an icon to most of the non-Western world.

Marley, along with Peter Tosh and Neville Livingston (later known as Bunny Wailer), made up the Wailers, who scored their first Jamaican hit in 1963, and kept going from there. Even before most of the world had heard of them, they were already major stars who’d gone through some serious musical growth, from the lovely “Stir It Up” through the more politically aware “Simmer Down,”

to the quantum leap of sound once they joined up with producer Lee Perry and his house band (who basically stayed with the Wailers permanently).

Many of Marley’s classic songs came from the fertile couple of years he worked with Perry. Having become a Rastafarian, his writing took a turn for the serious and conscious, with pieces like “Kaya,” “Small Axe” and “Duppy Conqueror.”

It wasn’t an easy jump to global success. The band signed with Island Records in 1973, and their sophisticated sound found sympathy with some rock fans on both sides of the Atlantic.

To many, Marley’s talent flowered fully after Tosh and Bunny Wailer quit the band. Certainly Natty Dread, the first album completely under his own name, was a classic. These were the songs that resounded around the Third World and made Marley into a hero. He was articulating the feelings of the downtrodden across the globe.

If he was a hero to many, at home he attained almost godlike status. He was perhaps the only man in Jamaica who could bring peace in the December 1976 general election, and that was what he tried to do. The night before his peace concert, however, he was the victim of an assassination attempt. The next day, his arm in his sling, he still speared onstage before leaving Jamaica for a year.

It would be 1979 before Marley made his most explicit public statement with Survival. “Africa Unite” and “Zimbabwe” showed he was thinking internationally, something few artists did, and the album was, at heart, a call to arms for Africa. He followed it in 1980 with a tour of Africa that cemented his legendary status there, and with Uprising, whose closing “Redemption Song” is still about a wonderful an epitaph as a man can hope to have.

Marley, of course, died of cancer in 1981, at the age of 36, in a life cut far too short. His legacy is still enormous.

Dennis Brown

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F or a performer who only lived 42 years, Dennis Brown packed as much music into his life as he could. He seemingly hopped out of the cradle and onto Jamaican club stages; he also cranked out records at an unyielding pace. In the mid-’60s, he played West Kingston charity balls and banged on beer boxes with Byron Lee’s Dragonaires until the band’s leader made him a full-fledged member. He was nine.
His association with Lee brought him to the attention of the Falcons, who hired him as vocalist. A fortuitous gig at the Tit-for-Tat club caused Studio One impresario Coxsone Dodd to take notice of this confident, silky-voiced kid. In 1969, when Brown was 11, Dodd produced him delivering the Van Dykes’ soul hit “No Man Is An Island” and the subsequent album of the same name.

Certainly, to come of age in 1970s Jamaica meant voicing social and political injustices, and as Rastafarianism and dub were transforming what had been a music heavily informed by U.S. soul into a cultural force, Brown was right on time. The legendary Niney the Observer credits his beginnings as a producer to work on Brown’s 1973 “Westbound Train,” which borrowed from Al Green. Brown’s lyrics became increasingly message-oriented and Niney’s productions were stark, giving extra heft to such tunes as “Africa” and “Tribulation.” By the end of the ’70s, a monster hit for producer Joe Gibbs, “Money In My Pocket,” brought Gibbs added notoriety and led to Brown’s move to major label A&M in 1980.
Despite the deeper excursions with Niney, the gushing dreads and the politics, Brown was always a mainstream artist, and his inking with a U.S. label guaranteed him international stardom. He moved to London and continued to record and produce; his 1982 album, Love Has Found Its Way, with production assistance from Gibbs, brought him pop success on a level rarely achieved in all of reggae as the title track climbed U.S. R&B charts. By decade’s end, he had moved back to Jamaica, aimed his music at a younger market, sang duets with Gregory Isaacs and continued traveling the world.
Unfortunately, with stardom came a cocaine problem, something he denied repeatedly to the press. After touring in Brazil in 1999, he complained of chills and fatigue on the plane ride home. Within days he was dead. AIDS, pneumonia and the wears and tears of addiction have all been cited as possibilities; no one is certain, as there was no autopsy. Almost as much of a mystery is his recorded output, which is overwhelming in terms of sheer amount. One hundred albums is a safe estimate.

Augustus Pablo

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O ne need look no further than Augustus Pablo when it comes to reggae music heaviness. In his deepest recordings from the 1970s lies the murky soul of Jamaican music. The riddims he dropped underneath his melodica and keyboard lines remain cornerstones of

groove, while he is also responsible for producing what is considered by many to be the greatest dub album of all time.

Pablo was born Horace Swaby in Jamaica in 1954. By his teens, he and his brother had established the Rockers sound system in their neighborhood of Havendale. As a result, the local record store, Aquarius, run by noted producer Herman Chin-Loy, became a haunt for Swaby’s record-buying excursions. As fate would have it, he strolled in with a melodica—a part recorder, part keyboard instrument made from cheap plastic—one day in 1971. Chin-Loy took Swaby into the studio and cut the instrumental “East Of The River Nile,” among other titles.

Chin-Loy, who had already been using the mysterious name Augustus Pablo, an imaginary figure often credited on his Aquarius productions, then turned the moniker over to Swaby.

By the mid-’70s, Pablo was digging into Jamaica’s subsoil and sifting out the most intense bottom end the island would ever hear. His productions were sharp and his melodic sense was unusual. He often used vocalists such as Hugh Mundell and Junior Delgado, and he utilized King Tubby’s studio for his “version” sides.

The 1976 LP King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown is recognized as the most fruitful result of this collaboration. While this is Pablo’s production and his keyboard work is all over it, Errol T. (Thompson) and Tubby’s mix help make this album dub’s defining moment. Vocals jump out for single echoed words before fading into the background or disappearing altogether, while reverb and odd phasings pull instruments in and out of the mix at unlikely moments, giving the bass the lead.

East Of The River Nile (1978), while not a dub album, was Pablo’s first self-produced instrumental set, and has also been recognized as the manifestation of the “Middle Eastern” overtones he’d explored with Chin-Loy.

While Pablo’s classic period will always be considered the ’70s, he continued to cut solid records into the ’90s. Always frail, Pablo was diabetic and sought treatment of Rasta healers rather than doctors. Longtime cancer suffering and a rare nerve disease

finally led to his demise in 1999.

Peter Tosh

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I.’m like a stepping razor, don’t you watch my size, I’m dangerous!”
It’s ironic that the towering, six-foot-plus Peter Tosh had one of his biggest solo successes singing Joe Higgs’ anthem for vertically challenged rude boys, but the confrontational nature of “Stepping Razor” perfectly fit the man born Winston Hubert McIntosh in Jamaica in October 1944. In fact, one of this Wailing Wailers founder’s first solo recordings was “I’m The Toughest,” and years before dancehall’s gun talk, Tosh had a custom guitar that resembled an M-16 rifle. Over the years, his unflinchingly honest lyrics and fiery stage sermons earned him severe beatings at the hands of the police, but he never backed down

After the original Wailers went their separate ways in the early 1970s, Tosh signed on with Columbia Records and released what is arguably the best album of career, Legalize It. Though the pro-ganja title track was banned in Jamaica, the song was ubiquitous elsewhere and brought wide attention to Tosh. Tosh recorded just one more album for Columbia, the powerful Equal Rights, before signing on with the Rolling Stones’ custom label in the States. Bush Doctor, issued in 1978, featured Tosh’s duet with Mick Jagger on the Temptations’ old Motown song “(You Got To Walk And) Don’t Look Back.”

Following one more for Rolling Stones Records, Mystic Man, Tosh signed to EMI America, issuing Wanted Dread & Alive in 1981 and Mama Africa, his highest charting album in the U.S. (it included his hit cover of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode”), two years later. Captured Live (1984) was his last album to display any real commercial potential in the States.

Peter Tosh was a musical revolutionary—he used words (“politricks,” “bureaucraps,” “shitstem”) as bullets in his unending struggle. His militant stance, thought-provoking lyrics, energetic stage presence and soulful baritone were immensely influential. At Jamaica’s 1978 One Love Peace Concert, Tosh gave an incendiary performance accompanied by defiant diatribes aimed at the politicians and policemen at the venue.

Tosh gave up recording for a few years to protest his record company’s distribution agreement with South Africa. Unfortunately, real bullets caught up with him at the age of 42. On September 11th, 1987, just after the release of No Nuclear War, three gunmen (one of whom he knew) came into his house demanding money. They left without taking anything, except the lives of a reggae giant and two of his friends.