Jamaican Ska
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The homegrown Kingston form of ska before it travelled abroad: horn-led, jazz-inflected dance music at a brisk 140–160 BPM, with the offbeat guitar/piano skank, a springy walking bass, and Count-Ossie-style Nyabinghi undercurrents feeding the swing. Instrumentals built on tight riffing brass and improvised trombone and tenor solos sit beside vocal-group sides and topical "rude boy" numbers. Production is raw, mono and dancefloor-focused, cut live to tape at Federal, Studio One and Treasure Isle. The feel is exuberant, patriotic and street-wise, the soundtrack of newly independent Jamaica.
History
Born in the sound-system culture of West Kingston, Jamaican ska was industrialised by Coxsone Dodd's Studio One and Duke Reid's Treasure Isle, whose house players coalesced into the Skatalites in 1964; trombonist Don Drummond and saxophonists Roland Alphonso and Tommy McCook made the instrumental blueprint while singers Derrick Morgan, Stranger Cole, Toots and the Maytals and Justin Hinds cut vocal hits. The music tracked national events, from "Forward March" celebrating independence to rude-boy commentaries, and dominated Jamaican dances until the sweltering summer of 1966 pushed tempos down into rocksteady. Its studios, session players and sound-system economy set the template every later Jamaican genre would follow.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Eastern Standard Time(1965) — The SkatalitesSpotifyYouTube
- Madness(1963) — Prince BusterSpotifyYouTube
- Man in the Street(1964) — Don DrummondSpotifyYouTube
- Forward March(1962) — Derrick MorganSpotifyYouTube
- Rough and Tough(1962) — Stranger ColeSpotifyYouTube
- Carry Go Bring Come(1964) — Justin Hinds and the DominoesSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- David Katz, Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae (2003)
- Lloyd Bradley, Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King (2000)
- Steve Barrow & Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae (2004)