Podcasts about derrick harriott

Soul Vendors, Augustus Pablo, Winston Wright, Cedric Brooks, Congos, Max Romeo, Burning Spear, Gaylads, Glen Adams, Dave Barker, Sugar Minnott, Desmond Dekker, Marcia Griffiths, Merva Grier, Valerie Stuart & Blackheart, Gene Rondo, Nana McLean, Chosen Few, Cornell Campbell, Cecile Campbell, Hotense Ellis, Roy Shirley, Janet Kay, Yabby You, John Holt, Ken Boothe, Derrick Harriott, Bim Sherman, more.

Clearly, vinyl records play a significant role in Jay and Deon's lives. But how did this all start? Well, episode 40 examines their origin stories. Ten classic artists who helped shape the Lickers' sonic identities are discussed and another crackin' mixtape is curated, created, and (hopefully) cranked. God gave rock and roll to us, Goddamn it. Put it in your soul already. Sonic contributors to the fortieth episode of Lightnin' Licks Radio podcast includes (in order of appearance): Brothers Johnson, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Derrick Harriott, Townes Van Zandt, James Todd Smith, Boy Meets Girl, Berlin, Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud, The Treacherous Three, T La Rock, Rick Rubin, Beastie Boys , NPR's A. Martinez - Kye Ryssdal - Leilah Fadel, Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston, Dr. Pascal Wallisch, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Queen, Elvis, Tommy Durden, Wings, James Horner & Will Jennings, Celine Dion, Right Said Fred, Greta Van Fleet, Dave Brubeck, Mac Demarco, Moose Charlap & Jule Styne, Jerry Goldsmith, M.M. Knapps, library “space” music and read-along storybook dialogue, Arc of All, Jim Kirk, Casey Kasem, Van Halen, Dion DiMucci, Leif Garrett, Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich, Shawn Cassidy, Gregg Diamond, Andrea True Connection, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Bernie Taupin, Norman Whitfield & Barrett Strong, The Undisputed Truth, Perry-Perkins-Johnson, Honey Cone, TV adverts from Firestone Tires and Post cereal's Pink Panther Flakes, The Jackson Five, the Motown Players & the Funk Brothers, Michael Jackson, Cameron Crowe & Nancy Wilson, Still Water, Temple of the Dog, Sweet Water, The Dust Brothers, Afrika Bambaataa, Dudley Taft (brandishing his axe and ripping a bong), Black Sabbath, Dancefloor Destruction Crew, The Wrecking Crew, The Partridge Family, Wally Gold, Idris Muhammad, Led Zeppelin, Beastie Boys (again), Alice Cooper (band), Digable Planets with Wah Wah Watson, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Jimmy Buffett, Disposable Heroes of Hypocrisy, Three Dog Night, Hoyt Axton, Randy Newman, Paul Williams, Russ Ballard, America, Rainbow, Cheap Trick, Freda, Argent, Wilson Pickett, Wu-Tang's RZA, Pinback, Three Mile Pilot, Lou Reed, Goblin Cock, Fruer, Black Sabbath (again), Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Jethro fucking Tull, the Source of Light and Power, DJT, Eric B., Soul Coughing, The Clockers. Love at First Listen mixtape [SIDE 1] (1) Sweet Water – King of '79 (2) Michael Jackson – Got to be There (3) Spearhead – Positive (4) The Partridge Family – Lay it on the Line (5) Pinback – Loro [SIDE 2] (1) Alice Cooper – You Drive Me Nervous (2) Elton John – I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues (3) Jethro Tull – Two Fingers (4) Beastie Boys – Live at P.J.'s (5) Three Dog Night - Liar Thanks for Listening. Autumn has fallen. Do your best to not jump into a ravine. Please shop for your music locally. We suggest Electric Kitsch. Drink Blue Chair Bay flavored rums. Feeling like jumping into a ravine? There's help available.

In episode #38 of LLR, we explore and celebrate the deep discographies of some of our favorite artists. We'll revisit surprisingly solid solo efforts, sensational side projects, and often overlooked, audacious LP releases from way-back-when, which gave listeners a taste of the sonic greatness to come. Plug your noses and blow it out your ears, Podcast America…we're about to dive deep! Sonic contributors to episode thirty-eight of Lightnin' Licks Radio podcast include:  Derrick Harriott, Brothers Johnson, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Townes Van Zandt, James Todd Smith, George Gershwin & Michael Sweeney, Johnny Marr, The Smiths, Thin Lizzy, Ace Frehly, M. Ward, Bright Eyes, Monsters of Folk, Rose Royce, Jim Croce, Better Oblivion Community Center, Jim James, Desaparecidos, Modest Mouse, Califone, Ugly Casanova, Kids Bop kids (yeah!), Daryl Hall and John Oates, Dan the Automator, Gulliver, Tim Moore, Bay City Rollers, Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, Big Thief, Billy Bob Thorton, Phill Collins, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, Kootch, Carol King, The City, Judee Sill, The Byrds, Dillard & Clark, Gram Parsons, Gene Clark, President Joe Biden, The Cars, Ric Ocasek, Ministry, Digable Planets, Beastie Boys, Shabazz Palaces, Latin Playboys, Los Lobos, Chris Keys, and the Clockers. LLR mixtape #38: [SIDE ONE] (1) Shabazz Palaces - #CAKE (2) Latin Playboys - Crayon Sun (3) Gene Clark - Strength of Strings (4) Desaparecidos - City on the Hill (5) Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek - money [SIDE TWO] (1) Gulliver - Lemon Road (2) Ugly Casanova - Hotcha Girls (3) The City - Paradise Alley (4) Monsters of Folk - Losin' Yo Head Ric Ocasek - Time Bomb Thanks so much for tuning in. LLR will return in a few weeks with another bonus episode featuring a super-special-secret guest. Do your best to stay hydrated and practice selfcare. Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away? Why ask why? Try Blue Chair Bay flavored rums and head outside, let the sun hit you. Stream, rent, or buy the excellent documentary The Immediate Family, it's Kootch approved!

 Love Sunday Oldies but Goodies: Jamaica Ska, Rocksteady Trending all night.Jamaican Oldies music featuring Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson, Gregory Isaacs, John Holt, Alton Ellis, Dennis Brown, Derrick Harriott and Freddie McKay We're independent” is the joyous refrain heard on Derrick Morgan's “Forward March,” which conveys the exuberance felt by Jamaicans when their island, a British colony since 1655, became a sovereign nation. Ska was developed in the late 1950s in Kingston studios, and the emergent sound on “Forward March” is still tethered to the R&B shuffle that influenced it, though it is slower than the ska beat heard on recordings made in the next few years. In 1960, Morgan occupied the top seven positions on the Jamaica charts and is regarded as the King of Ska; on Aug. 6, Morgan, now 82, will be honored by the Jamaican government with an Icon Award at the Independence Grand Gala in Kingston. #giveback #jamaica #trending #love #reggae #ska  

Sintonía: "Continental Shuffle" - Rico with the Matador All Stars "Drinkin´ Whiskey" - Laurel Aitken; "Japanese Girl" - Lloyd Clarke; "Nobody Else" - Owen Gray & The Jets; "I Won´t Cry" - Derrick Harriott; "What Makes Honey" - Duke Reid´s All Stars; "My Heart´s Desire" - The Jiving Juniors With Duke Reid & His Group; "Low Down Dirty Girl" - Laurel Aitken; "Worried Over You" - Keith & Enid with Trenton Spence and His Group; "Mash It! (Parts 1 & 2)" - Owen Gray; "Til The End Of Time" - Chuck & Dobby With Duke Reid & His Group; "Judgement Day" - Laurel Aitken; "Bridgeview Shuffle" - Roland Alphonso With The Matador All Stars; "Oh My Love" - Derrick & Patsy; "Lost My Baby" - The Blues Busters; "Tonight and Evermore" - Cosmo & Dennis; "Honey Girl" - Laurel Aitken Escuchar audio

Zattar goes on a version excursion through an alternate universe of reggae funk covers by Derrick Harriott, Jean & Trevor, One Blood, Carol Cool and Christine Lewin. Plus Alex Malheiros' sunny "Alto Verão", a love explosion from Transport, and yin yang perfection with Busta and Mary J Blige. View the full playlist for this show at http://www.wefunkradio.com/show/1095 Enjoying WEFUNK? Listen to all of our mixes at http://www.wefunkradio.com/shows/

This weeks show is a Halloween special with songs related to this spooky season. You will hear music from Ini Kamoze, Max Romeo, Michael Rose, Peter Tosh, Johnny Clarke, Burning Spear, Keith Hudson, Junior Delgado and Augustus Pablo, Black Uhuru, Lone Ranger and The Revolutionaries, Lee Scratch Perry, Prince Buster, Michael Prophet, Devon Irons and The Upsetters, Bushman, Tenor Saw, Horseman, Gappy Ranks and More!  Dubs included in this weeks show are from Scientist, Bost and Bim with Fabwize,Bush Chemists, Dubmatix, Tommy McCook, Derrick Harriott, The Roots Radics, and The Revolutionaries. Enjoy! Ini Kamoze "Hole In the Pumpkin" from Shocking Out on Ras Records Max Romeo "Horror Zone" from Horror Zone on Nu-Roots Records Michael Rose "No Burial (Manasseh Remix)" from African Roots on M Records Peter Tosh "Vampire" from The Gold Collection on Parlophone UK Peter Tosh "Vampires (Dub Version)" from Equal Rights (Legacy Edition) on Columbia/Legacy Bush Chemists "Shalloweane, No. 1" from Singles Nine on Conscious Sounds Johnny Clarke "Blood Dunza/Blood Version" from Jah Love Rockers: Revolutionary Sounds From the Rockers & Steppers Era 75-80 on Trojan Leroy Brown & The Black Traps "Blood A Go Run" from Jamwax 12" on Jamwax Burning Spear "Cry Blood Africans" from Hail H.I.M on EMI Keith Hudson "Hunting" from Flesh Of My Skin Blood Of My Blood on 17 North Parade N Junior Delgado "Hanging Tree" from One Step More on Mango Augustus Pablo "Hanging Dub" from Ancient Harmonies on VP Records Black Uhuru "Vampire" from Sinsemilla on Island Records Earth & Stone "Devil Must of Made You" from Kool Roots on Pressure Sounds Lone Ranger "Natty Burial" from Reggae Anthology - The Channel One Story on VP Records Revolutionaries "Burial" from Reggae Anthology - The Channel One Story on VP Records Scientist "Blood On His Lips" from Junjo Presents The Evil Curse Of The Vampires on Greensleeves Keith Hudson "Darkest Night/Darkest Night Version" from Flesh Of My Skin Blood Of My Blood on 17 North Parade N Burning Spear "Road Foggy" from Hail H.I.M on EMI Scientist "The Voodoo Curse" from The Scientist Rids the World of the Curse of the Evil Vampires! on Greensleeves Max Romeo "Chase the Devil" from War Ina Babylon on 4 Men With Beards Lee Scratch Perry "Disco Devil" from DJ Spooky Presents: In Fine Style 50,000 Volts Of Trojan Records on Trojan Records Bob Marley & The Wailers "Duppy Conqueror (Fort Knox Five Remix)" from Roots, Rock, Remixed: The Complete Sessions on Tuff Gong/Rock River Natural Numbers "One Duppy, Two Duppy, Three Duppy" from Natural Numbers in Dub on Stones Throw Records Zvuloon Dub System "Voodoo Chile" from Freedom Time on Medtone Records Mykal Rose "I Put a Spell On You" from Red Gold Green & Blue on BMG Rights Management (US) LLC Lee Scratch Perry "Return of the Super Ape" from Lee 'Scratch' Perry & The Upsetters: Super Ape & Return of the Super Ape on Trojan Records Prince Buster "Ghost Dance" from Fabulous Greatest Hits on PMI Jet Star Derrick Harriott & The Crystalites "The Undertaker" from The Undertaker (Expanded Version) on Doctor Bird Michael Prophet "You Are a No Good" from Junjo Presents: The Evil Curse of the Vampires on Greensleeves Records Scientist "Dance Of The Vampires" from The Scientist Rids the World of the Curse of the Evil Vampires! on Greensleeves Bost & Bim Meet Fabwize "Brainstorming Dub" from Dub Monster on The Bombist Records Dubmatix & Art-x "Killing Dub (Art-x Melodica Version)" from Killing Dub on Dubmatix Scientist "The Mummy's Shroud" from The Scientist Rids the World of the Curse of the Evil Vampires! on Greensleeves Devon Irons & The Upsetters "Vampire/Vamp A Dub" from Lee Scratch Perry: Arkology on Island Tommy McCook "Death Trap (Steppers Cut)" from Bunny 'Striker' Lee & Friends: Next Cut! Dub Plates, Rare Sides & Unreleased Cuts on Pressure Sounds Bushman "Creatures of the Night" from Most Wanted on Greensleeves Eric Smith "Wolf" from Rocky Road on Cultural Talent Agency Cornel Campbell "Weed Out Vampires" from New Scroll on Zion High Productions Gappy Ranks "Pumpkin Belly" from Put the Stereo On on Greensleeves Tenor Saw "Pumpkin Belly" from Fever on Ras Records Bushman "Darkest Nights" from Sleng Teng Resurrection on VP Records Horseman "Dawn of the Dread" from Dawn of the Dread on Mr Bongo Daddy Freddy & Sleepy Time Ghost "No Matter (feat. Devon Morgan)" from No Matter (feat. Devon Morgan) - Single on Bun Dem Out Records Bost & Bim Meets Fabwize "Baby Monster Bubbling" from Dub Monster on The Bombist Eecords Mungo's Hi Fi & Cheshire Cat "Roll With No Vampire/Disastrous Dub" from Dumbarton Rock 7" on Dumbarton Rock

Episode 52 Dub Electronic Playlist Herman Chin-Loy, “Heavy Duty” from Aquarius Dub (1973 Aquarius). Recorded in Jamaica. Backing Band, The Now Generation Band; Bass, Val Douglas; Drums, Mikey Richards; Guitar, Geoffrey Chung, Mikey Chung; Keyboards, Augustus Pablo, Earl "Wire" Lindo, Robbie Lyn; Melodica, Augustus Pablo; Producer, Herman Chin Loy. 2:56 Herman Chin-Loy, “Jah Jah Dub” from Aquarius Dub (1973 Aquarius). Recorded in Jamaica. Backing Band, The Now Generation Band; Bass, Val Douglas; Drums, Mikey Richards; Guitar, Geoffrey Chung, Mikey Chung; Keyboards, Augustus Pablo, Earl "Wire" Lindo, Robbie Lyn; Melodica, Augustus Pablo; Producer, Herman Chin Loy. 2:31 Upsetters, “African Skank” from Upsetters 14 Dub Black Board Jungle (1973 Upsetter). Recorded in Jamaica. Produced by Upsetter L. Perry. 3:16 Upsetters, “V/S Panta Rock” from Upsetters 14 Dub Black Board Jungle (1973 Upsetter). Recorded in Jamaica. Produced and Arranged By Lee Perry; Engineer, King Tubby, Lee Perry; Bass, Aston "Family Man" Barrett; Drums, Benbow; Melodica, Augustus Pablo; Organ, Touter, Winston Wright; Trombone – Ron Wilson; Trumpet – Bobby Ellis. 3:33 Derrick & The Crystalites, “Lion Dub” (theme from Shaft) from Derrick Harriott Presents Scrub A Dub Reggae (1974 Crystal Records). Recorded and mixed in Jamaica. Engineer, Brother George; Produced and written by Derrick Harriott. 3:39 Augustus Pablo, “The Big Rip Off” from Ital Dub (1974 Starapple). Recorded in Jamaica. Engineer, King Tubby, Ronald Logan, Sylvan Morris; Mixed By King Tubby (Dub Master); Produced by Tommy Cowan, Warrick Lyn; Written by, Melodica, Augustus Pablo. 3:14 Augustus Pablo, “Rockers Meets King Tubbys In A Fire House” from Rockers Meets King Tubbys In A Fire House (1980 Shanachie). Recorded in Jamaica. Backing Band, Rockers All Stars Bass, Bugsy; Junior Dan, Michael Taylor, Robby Shakespear; Drum, Albert Malawi, Leroy Wallace; Mickey Boo; Horns, Deadly Headely; Lead Guitar, Dalton Brownie, Earl (Chinna) Smith; Mixed By, Augustus Pablo, King Tubbys; Prince Jammys; Organ, Piano, String Ensemble, Melodica, Augustus Pablo; Percussion, Jah Levi, Jah Teo, Sticky; Arranged By, Augustus Pablo, H. Swaby; Michael McGeachy Rhythm Guitar, Cleon; Fazal Prendergas. 4:36 Jah Shaka, “Verse 6” from Commandments Of Dub (1982 Jah Shaka Music). Recorded in Jamaica. Bass, Hughie Issachar, Shaka; Drums, Errol Drummie, Wazair (Black Brother); Effects, Shaka; Lead Guitar, Hughie Issachar, Tony Benjamin; Mastered By, John Hassall; Melodica, Hughie Issachar; Mixed by, Jah Shaka, Neil Frazer (Professor); Organ, Errol Drummie, Wazair; Percussion, Bongos, Dan, Shaka Joseph, Wazair; Piano, Dudley, Shaka, Wazair, Produced by Jah Shaka; Rhythm Guitar, Hughie Issachar, Tony Benjamin; Xylophone, Joseph. 4:46 Mad Professor, “Beyond The Realms Of Dub” from Beyond The Realms Of Dub (Dub Me Crazy! The Second Chapter) (1982 Ariwa). Produced by Mad Professor; Bass, drums, piano, Garnett Cross; Organ, Synth, Errol Reid; Percussion – Jah Shaka. 7:13 Love Joys, “All I Can Say” from Lovers Rock Reggae Style (1983 Wackies). Recorded in Jamaica. Written by, Vocals, Claudette Brown, Sonia Abel; Backing Band, Wackie's Rhythm Force; Bass, Jah T.;Bass, Guitar, Jerry Harris; Bass Keyboards, Clive Hunt; Drums, Clive Plummer, Fabian Cooke Engineer, Levy, Barnes, Delahaye; Executive-Producer, Lloyd & Lloyd Prod. Inc.; Guitar, Keyboards, Barry V.; Horns, Rolando Alphonso; Keyboards, Owen Stewart; Percussion, Ras Menilik; Producer, Bullwackie. 8:33 Love Joys, “One Draw” from Lovers Rock Reggae Style (1983 Wackies). Recorded in Jamaica. Written by, Vocals, Claudette Brown, Sonia Abel; Backing Band, Wackie's Rhythm Force; Bass, Jah T.;Bass, Guitar, Jerry Harris; Bass Keyboards, Clive Hunt; Drums, Clive Plummer, Fabian Cooke Engineer, Levy, Barnes, Delahaye; Executive-Producer, Lloyd & Lloyd Prod. Inc.; Guitar, Keyboards, Barry V.; Horns, Rolando Alphonso; Keyboards, Owen Stewart; Percussion, Ras Menilik; Producer, Bullwackie. 7:21 Jah Shaka, “Zion Chant Dub” from Commandments Of Dub II (1984 Jah Shaka Music). Produced, Arranged by Jah Shaka; Synthesizer Mark Victor; Bass, Byron Duce, Ras Elroy; Bongos, Brother Joseph; Drums, Errol The General, Jah Bunny; Guitar, Mike Dorane, Tony Benjamin; Mastered By Felicity Hassell, John Hassell; Mixed By Mikey Campbell; Percussion, Jah Bunny, Shaka, Norman Grant; Piano, Organ Sgt. Pepper. 4:55 Jah Shaka, “Roaring Dub” from Commandments Of Dub II (1984 Jah Shaka Music). Produced, Arranged by Jah Shaka; Synthesizer Mark Victor; Bass, Byron Duce, Ras Elroy; Bongos, Brother Joseph; Drums, Errol The General, Jah Bunny; Guitar, Mike Dorane, Tony Benjamin; Mastered By Felicity Hassell, John Hassell; Mixed By Mikey Campbell; Percussion, Jah Bunny, Shaka, Norman Grant; Piano, Organ Sgt. Pepper. 4:03 Wayne Smith, “Under Me Sleng Teng” from Sleng Teng (1982 Greensleeves). Recorded in Jamaica. Musicians, Wycliffe "Steely" Johnson, Cleveland "Clevie" Browne, Super Power All-Stars*, Wayne Smith; Producer, Arranger Prince, Jammy. 4:07 Prince Jammy, “Synchro Start” from Computerised Dub (1986 Greensleeves). Recorded in Jamaica. Performers, Steelie & Cleavie, Super Power All-Stars, Wayne Smith; Producer, arranger, Prince Jammy. 2:09 Prince Jammy, “Interface” from Computerised Dub (1986 Greensleeves). Recorded in Jamaica. Performers, Steelie & Cleavie, Super Power All-Stars, Wayne Smith; Producer, arranger, Prince Jammy. 2:59 Jah Shaka All Stars, Ites Green & Gold” from Jah Shaka Presents Vivian Jones Featuring The Fasimbas, Jah Shaka All Stars ‎– Jah Works (1987 Jah Shaka Music).Producer, Bass, Arranged By, Mixed By, Composed By, Jah Shaka; Bass, Jerry Lions; Bass, Organ, Piano, Synthesizer, Guitar, Black Steel; Bongos, Percussion, The Fasimbas; Drums, Drumton; Mixing, Calvin; Recording Engineer, Leon Marsh; Guitar, Jerry Lions; Piano, Organ, Synthesizer, Gregory; Synthesizer, Organ, Piano, Pepper; Vocals, Vivian Jones; Vocals [Background], Sis Nya. 5:01 Steely & Clevie, “At The Top” from At the Top (1988 Black Solidarity). Recorded in Jamaica. Arranged By, Musician, Programmed By Steely & Clevie; Engineer, Bobby Digital, Chris Lane, Dave Kelly, Patrick Ayton, Paul Davidson, Anthony Kelly; Mixed By D. Kelly, P. Davidson; Producer, Ossie Thomas, Phillip Morgan; Saxophone, Dean Fraser; Trumpet, David Madden. 4:01 Background music: Derrick & The Crystalites, “Dubbing the Chariot” from Derrick Harriott Presents Scrub A Dub Reggae (1974 Crystal Records). Recorded and mixed in Jamaica. Engineer, Brother George; Produced and written by Derrick Harriott. 3:57 Derrick & The Crystalites, “Medley (Train To Herbsville & Crash Dub)” from Derrick Harriott Presents Scrub A Dub Reggae (1974 Crystal Records). Recorded and mixed in Jamaica. Engineer, Brother George; Produced and written by Derrick Harriott. 3:05 Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz. Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes. For additional notes, please see my blog Noise and Notations.

As broadcast June 11, 2021 with bonus mega miles on the tunes for you podcast listeners.  We welcome veteran singer-songwriter Kevin Mark Trail to the show tonight to open up about his younger days and influences, the difficulty of being oneself growing up in England, and his recent works with Sola Rosa along with his new album Heart Strings, which dropped last month.  Just an incredibly perceptive guy to talk to about music and the movements that have gone on all around culturally, and it was an honor to get a chance to speak with him about his music and influences on the show.  Not to be missed!#feelthegravityTracklisting:Part I (00:00)Roots Manuva – Witness (1 Hope)slowthai – DoormanThe Streets – Same Old ThingOmar & Stevie Wonder – Feeling You (Henrik Schwartz remix)Donny Hathaway – The Ghetto (Live at The Troubador) Part II (36:53)Derrick Harriott – The LoserAlton Ellis – What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)Sola Rosa feat Kevin Mark Trail – Chasing The SunLoyle Carner feat Jordan Rakei – OttolenghiMr Scruff – Shanty TownLTJ Bukem – Inner GuidanceThe Orb feat Lee “Scratch” Perry – Golden Clouds Part III (69:00)Kevin Mark Trail – Rainbow GirlBob Marley & The Wailers – Kaya Bob & Marcia – To Be Young Gifted & BlackDonny Hathaway – A Song For YouOmar – There's Nothing Like This Part IV (101:21)Sola Rosa feat Kevin Mark Trail & Sharlene Hector – For The Mighty DollarMachinedrum feat Mono/Poly & Tenerelle – StarGabriel Garzon-Montano – FlorTiana Major9 feat Haile – Think About You (Lover's Mix)H.E.R. – Hard PlaceFlying Lotus - Crust 

This weeks show starts off with music from Sizzla, Romain Virgo, Winston Reedy, Dennis Brown, The Heptones, and Jah Bless which is livicated to all the Mothers. Also in the early mix are selections from Hugh Mundell, Barry Brown, Don Carlos, Israel Vibration, Twinkle Brothers, Half Pint, Barrington Levy, Cocoa Tea, Barry Biggs, Derrick Harriott, Justin Hinds, Wailing Souls, and The Ethiopians. New music this week comes from Queen Ifrica, Twiggi, Shanti Powa, Green Lion Crew with Addias Pablo and Micah Shemaiah, Rapha Pico, Soom T, CJ Joe, 3gypt, Alden Mitchell, Natty King, Moziyah, Pressure Busspipe, and Vernon Maytone. In the Dub Zone this week you will hear dubs from Piper Street Sound and Andy Bassford, Dubstrand All Stars, Roger Rivas, Flying Vipers, King Tubby, and Scientist. Extended dub mixes feature Gregory Isaacs, Irina Mossi and Donald Dub, The Twinkle Brothers, Carlton and the Shoes, and The Reggae Angels with Sly & Robbie. Enjoy! Sizzla - Black Woman & Child - Black Woman & Child - VP Records Romain Virgo - Mama’s Song - The System - VP Records Winston Reedy & The Inn House Crew - Oh Mama - Black Pearl - Room In The Sky Dennis Brown - Oh Mother - Visions Of Dennis Brown - VP Records The Heptones - Mama Say - Night Food - Mango The Heptones -Mama Say Dub - Cool Rasta Bonus Edition - Trojan  Jah Bless - Beautiful Mama - Redemption - Zion High Productions Hugh Mundell - Jah Fire Will Be Burning - Jammy’s From The Roots 1977-1985 - Greensleeves Barry Brown - Lead Us Jah - The Mighty Striker Shoots At Hits - Moll-Selekta Don Carlos - Natty Dread Have Him Credential - Lazer Beam - Culture Press Israel Vibration - Top Control - Unconquered People - Ras Records Twinkle Brothers - Since I Throw The Comb Away - Live At Reggae Sunsplash 1982 - Genes Records Half Pint - Mama - Victory - Ras Records Barrington Levy - Please Jah Jah - Prison Oval Rock - Volcano Cocoa Tea - Jah Made Them That Way - Ras Portraits: Cocoa Tea - Ras Records Dennis Brown - Man Next Door - A Little Bit More: Joe Gibbs 12” Selections - VP Records Barry Biggs - Mama - Little Girl Riddim -  Justin Hinds & The Dominoes - Wipe Your Weeping Eyes 12” version - Can’t Stop The Dread - Doctor Bird Records Derrick Harriott - Message From A Blackman - A Place Called Jamaica - Makasound The Crystalites - Message From A Blackman Version II - The Undertaker: Derrick Harriott & The Crystalites - Doctor Bird Records Queen Ifrica - Four Women - Trbute To Nina Simone - Ghetto Youth’s International Wailing Souls - Mother & Child Reunion - Live On - Zoo Entertainment The Ethiopians - Mothers Tender Care - Version Galore - Trojan Records Twiggi - Never Let Us Down - Blessed Morning Production Shanti Powa - Rainy Day - Dreamer - Shanti Powa Records Green Lion Crew & Addis Pablo feat. Mica Shemaiah - Oneness/Oneness Dub (Suns Of Dub Mix) - Green Lion Crew Meets Addis Pablo & Friends Uptown - Ineffable Records  Jah Lil - Human Race - Marching Riddim - Real People Music Rapha Pico - Progress - Stand Tall Riddim - Rub A Dub Market Soom T - Struggle - Stand Tall Riddim - Rub A Dub Market CJ Joe - Hold On - Fareast SoulJah Music Sizzla - Thank U Mamma - Da Real Thing - VP Records 3gypt - Blakk Wombman - 3y3 Vizion Muzik/Tuff Gong International Dub Zone featuring Strictly Dubwize & Extended Dub Mixes Piper Street Sound feat. Andy Bassford - Icemilk - Black Eyed Peace Ep - Piper Street Sound Dubstrand All Stars - Dubbing Up The Coast - Dubbing Up The Coast - Dubstrand Roger Rivas - Brown Star Liner - Happy People Records Flying Vipers - The Gorgon Strikes Back - Happy People Records King Tubby - Dread Locks - King Tubby Presents The Roots Of Dub - Jamaican Recordings Scientist - Quasar (Kiss Somebody Dub - Linval Presents Space Invaders - Greensleeves Scientist - Super Nova Explosion (Dreadlocks Nah Run) - Linval Presents Space Invaders AMJ Collective feat. Nai-Jah - Let Go of Fear Dub - Let Go Of Fear - Astar Artes Recordings Gregory Isaacs - Motherless Children - Trojan Dancehall Roots Box Set - Trojan Records Irina Mossi & Donald Dub - Mother - Donald Dub Twinkle Brothers - Faith Can Move Mountains - Jah Shaka Music Carlton & The Shoes - What A Day/What A Day Version - Live & Love  Reggae Angels w/ Sly & Robbie - Positive Way/Positive Dub - Remember Our Creator/Fox Dubs: Remember Our Creator - Kings Music International ===================================== Aden Mitchell - Everyday - Kenneth Signature Records Christopher Martin - Mama - Perfect Key Riddim - DZL Records Pressure Busspipe - Chase Dem - Addis Records Chronixx - Safe N Sound - Soul Circle Music Donovan Joseph - Dirty System - Dynamike Records Natty King - Leave Dem To Time - Inna Dem Eye Riddim - Tads Record’s Moziyah - Capture All - IMZ Entertainment Capleton & Irie Ites - Throw Us Down/Throw Us Down Dub - Irie Ites Records Maxi Priest - Mash Up Mi Life - Divorce Court Riddim - Lion King Muzik Busy Signal - No Problem - The Ultimate 2021 - Tad’s Records Chino McGregor - Riddim Ryda Style - The Process EP Vol. 3 - Jamworld Music Gentleman’s Dub Club - Sugar Rush - Down To Earth - Easy Star Records Vernon Maytone - Reggae Music - Mafia & Fluxy Meets Vernon Maytone - Mafia & Fluxy Guardian - Yad Along - Mighty Right Riddim - Philadub Philadub Productions Hero - Love You Mama - Mighty Right Riddim - Philadub Productions Dennis Brown feat. Beres Hammond - Mama’s Love - Caribbean Living: A Mothers Love - VP Records Garnet Silk - Mama - Reggae Anthology: Music Is The Rod - VP Records

This week's episode looks at "My Boy Lollipop" and the origins of ska music. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "If You Wanna Be Happy" by Jimmy Soul. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ ----more---- Resources As usual, I have created a Mixcloud playlist containing every song heard in this episode -- a content warning applies for the song "Bloodshot Eyes" by Wynonie Harris. The information about ska in general mostly comes from Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King by Lloyd Bradley, with some also from Reggae and Caribbean Music by Dave Thompson. Biographical information on Millie Small is largely from this article in Record Collector, plus a paywalled interview with Goldmine magazine (which I won't link to because of the paywall). Millie's early recordings with Owen Gray and Coxsone Dodd can be found on this compilation, along with a good selection of other recordings Dodd produced, while this compilation gives a good overview of her recordings for Island and Fontana. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Erratum I refer to "Barbara Gaye" when I should say "Barbie Gaye" Transcript Today, we're going to take our first look at a form of music that would go on to have an almost incalculable influence on the music of the seventies, eighties, and later, but which at the time we're looking at was largely regarded as a novelty music, at least in Britain and America. We're going to look at the birth of ska, and at the first ska record to break big outside of Jamaica. We're going to look at "My Boy Lollipop" by Millie: [Excerpt: Millie, "My Boy Lollipop"] Most of the music we've looked at so far in the podcast has been from either America or Britain, and I'm afraid that that's going to remain largely the case -- while there has been great music made in every country in the world, American and British musicians have tended to be so parochial, and have dominated the music industry so much, that relatively little of that music has made itself felt widely enough to have any kind of impact on the wider history of rock music, much to rock's detriment. But every so often something from outside the British Isles or North America manages to penetrate even the closed ears of Anglo-American musicians, and today we're going to look at one of those records. Now, before we start this, this episode is, by necessity, going to be dealing in broad generalisations -- I'm trying to give as much information about Jamaica's musical culture in one episode as I've given about America's in a hundred, so I am going to have to elide a lot of details. Some of those details will come up in future episodes, as we deal with more Jamaican artists, but be aware that I'm missing stuff out. The thing that needs to be understood about the Jamaican music culture of the fifties and early sixties is that it developed in conditions of absolute poverty. Much of the music we looked at in the first year or so of the podcast came from extremely impoverished communities, of course, but even given how utterly, soul-crushingly, poor many people in the Deep South were, or the miserable conditions that people in Liverpool and London lived in while Britain was rebuilding itself after the war, those people were living in rich countries, and so still had access to some things that were not available to the poor people of poorer countries. So in Jamaica in the 1950s, almost nobody had access to any kind of record player or radio themselves. You wouldn't even *know* anyone who had one, unlike in the states where if you were very poor you might not have one yourself, but your better-off cousin might let you come round and listen to the radio  at their house. So music was, by necessity, a communal experience.  Jamaican music, or at least the music in Kingston, the biggest city in Jamaica, was organised around  sound systems -- big public open-air systems run by DJs, playing records for dancing. These had originally started in shops as a way of getting customers in, but soon became so popular that people started doing them on their own. These sound systems played music that was very different from the music played on the radio, which was aimed mostly at people rich enough to own radios, which at that time mostly meant white British people -- in the fifties, Jamaica was still part of the British Empire, and there was an extraordinary gap between the music the white British colonial class liked and the music that the rest of the population liked.  The music that the Jamaican population *made* was mostly a genre called mento. Now, this is somewhere where my ignorance of this music compared to other musics comes into play a bit. There seem to have been two genres referred to as mento. One of them, rural mento, was based around instruments like the banjo, and a home-made bass instrument called a "rhumba box", and had a resemblance to a lot of American country music or British skiffle -- this form of mento is often still called "country music" in Jamaica itself: [Excerpt: The Hiltonaires, "Matilda"] There was another variant of mento, urban mento, which dropped the acoustic and home-made instruments and replaced them with the same sort of instruments that R&B or jazz bands used. Everything I read about urban mento says that it's a different genre from calypso music, which generally comes from Trinidad and Tobago rather than Jamaica, but nothing explains what that difference is, other than the location. Mento musicians would also call their music calypso in order to sell it to people like me who don't know the difference, and so you would get mento groups called things like Count Lasher and His Calypsonians, Lord Lebby and the Jamaica Calypsonians, and Count Owen and His Calypsonians, songs called things like "Hoola Hoop Calypso", and mentions of calypso in the lyrics. I am fairly familiar with calypso music -- people like the Mighty Sparrow, Lord Melody, Roaring Lion, and so on -- and I honestly can't hear any difference between calypso proper and mento records like this one, by Lord Power and Trenton Spence: [Excerpt: Lord Power and Trenton Spence, "Strip Tease"] But I'll defer to the experts in these genres and accept that there's a difference I'm not hearing. Mento was primarily a music for live performance, at least at first -- there were very few recording facilities in Jamaica, and to the extent that records were made at all there, they were mostly done in very small runs to sell to tourists, who wanted a souvenir to take home. The music that the first sound systems played would include some mento records, and they would also play a fair number of latin-flavoured records. But the bulk of what they played was music for dancing, imported from America, made by Black American musicians, many of them the same musicians we looked at in the early months of this podcast. Louis Jordan was a big favourite, as was Wynonie Harris -- the biggest hit in the early years of the sound systems was Harris' "Bloodshot Eyes". I'm going to excerpt that here, because it was an important record in the evolution of Jamaican music, but be warned that the song trivialises intimate partner violence in a way that many people might find disturbing. If you might be upset by that, skip forward exactly thirty seconds now: [Excerpt: Wynonie Harris, "Bloodshot Eyes"] The other artists who get repeatedly named in the histories of the early sound systems along with Jordan and Harris are Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, Professor Longhair -- a musician we've not talked about in the podcast, but who made New Orleans R&B music in the same style as Domino and Price, and for slow-dancing the Moonglows and Jesse Belvin. They would also play jazz -- Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, and Sarah Vaughan were particular favourites. These records weren't widely available in Jamaica -- indeed, *no* records were really widely available . They found their way into Jamaica through merchant seamen, who would often be tasked by sound men with getting hold of new and exciting records, and paid with rum or marijuana. The "sound man" was the term used for the DJs who ran these sound systems, and they were performers as much as they were people who played records -- they would talk and get the crowds going, they would invent dance steps and perform them, and they would also use the few bits of technology they had to alter the sound -- usually by adding bass or echo. Their reputation was built by finding the most obscure records, but ones which the crowds would love. Every sound man worth his salt had a collection of records that nobody else had -- if you were playing the same records that someone else had, you were a loser. As soon as a sound man got hold of a record, he'd scratch out all the identifying copy on the label and replace it with a new title, so that none of his rivals could get hold of their own copies. The rivalry between sound men could be serious -- it started out just as friendly competition, with each man trying to build a bigger and louder system and draw a bigger crowd, but when the former policeman turned gangster Duke Reid started up his Trojan sound system, intimidating rivals with guns soon became par for the course. Reid had actually started out in music as an R&B radio DJ -- one of the few in Jamaica -- presenting a show whose theme song, Tab Smith's "My Mother's Eyes", would become permanently identified with Reid: [Excerpt: Tab Smith, "My Mother's Eyes"] Reid's Trojan was one of the two biggest sound systems in Kingston, the other being Downbeat, run by Coxsone Dodd. Dodd's system became so popular that he ended up having five different sound systems, all playing in different areas of the city every night, with the ones he didn't perform at himself being run by assistants who later became big names in the Jamaican music world themselves, like Prince Buster and Lee "Scratch" Perry. Buster performed a few other functions for Dodd as well -- one important one being that he  knew enough about R&B that he could go to Duke Reid's shows, listen to the records he was playing, and figure out what they must be -- he could recognise the different production styles of the different R&B labels well enough that he could use that, plus the lyrics, to work out the probable title and label of a record Reid was playing. Dodd would then get a merchant seaman to bring a copy of that record back from America, get a local record pressing plant to press up a bunch of copies of it, and sell it to the other sound men, thus destroying Reid's edge. Eventually Prince Buster left Dodd and set up his own rival sound system, at which point the rivalry became a three-way one. Dodd knew about technology, and had the most powerful sound system with the best amps. Prince Buster was the best showman, who knew what the people wanted and gave it to them, and Duke Reid was connected and powerful enough that he could use intimidation to keep a grip on power, but he also had good enough musical instincts that his shows were genuinely popular in their own right. People started to see their favourite sound systems in the same way they see sports teams or political parties -- as marks of identity that were worth getting into serious fights over. Supporters of one system would regularly attack supporters of another, and who your favourite sound system was *really mattered*. But there was a problem. While these systems were playing a handful of mento records, they were mostly relying on American records, and this had two problems. The most obvious was that if a record was available publicly, eventually someone else would find it. Coxsone Dodd managed to use one record, "Later For Gator" by Willis "Gatortail" Jackson, at every show for seven years, renaming it "Coxsone Hop": [Excerpt: Willis "Gatortail" Jackson, "Later For Gator"] But eventually word got out that Duke Reid had tracked the song down and would play it at a dance. Dodd went along, and was allowed in unmolested -- Reid wanted Dodd to know he'd been beaten.  Now, here I'm going to quote something Prince Buster said, and we hit a problem we're likely to hit again when it comes to Jamaica. Buster spoke Jamaican Patois, a creole language that is mutually intelligible with, but different from, standard English. When quoting him, or any other Patois speaker, I have a choice of three different options, all bad. I could translate his words into standard English, thus misrepresenting him; I could read his words directly in my own accent, which has the problem that it can sound patronising, or like I'm mocking his language, because so much of Patois is to do with the way the words are pronounced; or I could attempt to approximate his own accent -- which would probably come off as incredibly racist. As the least bad option of the three, I'm choosing the middle one here, and reading in my own accent, but I want people to be aware that this is not intended as mockery, and that I have at least given this some thought: "So we wait. Then as the clock struck midnight we hear “Baaap… bap da dap da dap, daaaa da daap!” And we see a bunch of them down from the dancehall coming up with the green bush. I was at the counter with Coxsone, he have a glass in him hand, he drop it and just collapse, sliding down the bar. I had to brace him against the bar, then get Phantom to give me a hand. The psychological impact had knocked him out. Nobody never hit him." There was a second problem with using American records, as well -- American musical tastes were starting to change, and Jamaican ones weren't. Jamaican audiences wanted Louis Jordan, Fats Domino, and Gene & Eunice, but the Americans wanted Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis and Bobby Darin. For a while, the sound men were able to just keep finding more and more obscure old R&B and jump band records, but there was a finite supply of these, and they couldn't keep doing it forever. The solution eventually became obvious -- they needed Jamaican R&B. And thankfully there was a ready supply. Every week, there was a big talent contest in Kingston, and the winners would get five pounds -- a lot of money in that time and place. Many of the winners would then go to a disc-cutting service, one of those places that would record a single copy of a song for you, and use their prize money to record themselves. They could then sell that record to one of the sound men, who would be sure that nobody else would have a copy of it. At first, the only sound men they could sell to were the less successful ones, who didn't have good connections with American records. A local record was clearly not as good as an American one, and so the big sound systems wouldn't touch it, but it was better than nothing, and some of the small sound systems would find that the local records were a success for them, and eventually the bigger systems would start using the small ones as a test audience -- if a local record went down well at a small system, one of the big operators would get in touch with the sound man of that system and buy the record from him. One of the big examples of this was "Lollipop Girl", a song by Derrick Harriott and Claudie Sang. They recorded that, with just a piano backing, and sold their only copy to a small sound system owner. It went down so well that the small sound man traded his copy with Coxsone Dodd for an American record -- and it went down so well when Dodd played it that Duke Reid bribed one of Dodd's assistants to get hold of Dodd's copy long enough to get a copy made for himself. When Dodd and Reid played a sound clash -- a show where they went head to head to see who could win a crowd over -- and Reid played his own copy of "Lollipop Girl", Dodd pulled a gun on Reid, and it was only the fact that the clash was next door to the police station that kept the two men from killing each other. Reid eventually wore out his copy of "Lollipop Girl", he played it so much, and so he did the only sensible thing -- he went into the record business himself, and took Harriott into the studio, along with a bunch of musicians from the local big bands, and cut a new version of it with a full band backing Harriott. As well as playing this on his sound system, Reid released it as a record: [Excerpt: Derrick Harriott, "Lollipop Girl"] Reid didn't make many more records at this point, but both Coxsone Dodd and Prince Buster started up their own labels, and started hiring local singers, plus people from a small pool of players who became the go-to session musicians for any record made in Jamaica at the time, like trombone player Rico Rodriguez and guitarist Ernest Ranglin. During the late 1950s, a new form of music developed from these recordings, which would become known as ska, and there are three records which are generally considered to be milestones in its development. The first was produced by a white businessman, Edward Seaga, who is now more famous for becoming the Prime Minister of Jamaica in the 1980s. At the time, though, Seaga had the idea to incorporate a little bit of a mento rhythm into an R&B record he was producing. In most music, if you have a four-four rhythm, you can divide it into eight on-beats and off-beats, and you normally stress the on-beats, so you stress "ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and". In mento, though, you'd often have a banjo stress the off-beats, so the stresses would be "one AND two AND three AND four AND". Seaga had the guitarist on "Manny Oh" by Higgs and Wilson do this, on a track that was otherwise a straightforward New Orleans style R&B song with a tresillo bassline. The change in stresses is almost imperceptible to modern ears, but it made the record sound uniquely Jamaican to its audience: [Excerpt: Higgs and Wilson, "Manny Oh"] The next record in the sequence was produced by Dodd, and is generally considered the first real ska record. There are a few different stories about where the term "ska" came from, but one of the more believable is that it came from Dodd directing Ernest Ranglin, who was the arranger for the record, to stress the off-beat more, saying "play it ska... ska... ska..." Where "Manny Oh" had been a Jamaican sounding R&B record, "Easy Snappin'" is definitely a blues-influenced ska record: [Excerpt: Theo Beckford, "Easy Snappin'"] But Duke Reid and Coxsone Dodd, at this point, still saw the music they were making as a substitute for American R&B. Prince Buster, on the other hand, by this point was a full-fledged Black nationalist, and wanted to make a purely Jamaican music. Buster was, in particular, an adherent of the Rastafari religion, and he brought in five drummers from the Rasta Nyabinghi tradition, most notably Count Ossie, who became the single most influential drummer in Jamaica, to record on the Folkes brothers single "Oh Carolina", incorporating the rhythms of Rasta sacred music into Jamaican R&B for the first time: [Excerpt: The Folkes Brothers, "Oh Carolina"] 1962 was a turning point in Jamaican music in a variety of ways. Most obviously, it was the year that Jamaica became independent from the British Empire, and was able to take control of its own destiny. But it was also the year that saw the first recordings of a fourteen-year-old girl who would become ska's first international star. Millie Small had started performing at the age of twelve, when she won the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour, the single biggest talent contest in Kingston. But it was two years later that she came to the attention of Coxsone Dodd, who was very interested in her because her voice sounded spookily like that of Shirley, from the duo Shirley and Lee. We mentioned Shirley and Lee briefly back in the episode on "Ko Ko Mo", but they were a New Orleans R&B duo who had a string of hits in the early and mid fifties, recorded at Cosimo Matassa's studio, pairing Leonard Lee's baritone voice with Shirley Goodman's soprano. Their early records had been knock-offs of the sound that Little Esther had created with Johnny Otis and his male vocalists -- for example Shirley and Lee's "Sweethearts": [Excerpt: Shirley and Lee, "Sweethearts"] bears a very strong resemblance to "Double-Crossing Blues": [Excerpt: Little Esther, Johnny Otis, and the Robins, "Double-Crossing Blues"] But they'd soon developed a more New Orleans style, with records like "Feel So Good" showing some of the Caribbean influence that many records from the area had: [Excerpt: Shirley and Lee, "Feel So Good"] Shirley and Lee only had minor chart success in the US, but spawned a host of imitators, including Gene and Eunice and Mickey and Sylvia, both of whom we looked at in the early months of the podcast, and Ike and Tina Turner who will be coming up later. Like much New Orleans R&B, Shirley and Lee were hugely popular among the sound system listeners, and Coxsone Dodd thought that Mille's voice sounded enough like Shirley's that it would be worth setting her up as part of his own Shirley and Lee soundalike duo, pairing her with a more established singer, Owen Gray, to record songs like "Sit and Cry", a song which combined the vocal sound of Shirley and Lee with the melody of "The Twist": [Excerpt: Owen and Millie, "Sit and Cry"] After Gray decided to continue performing on his own, Millie was instead teamed with another performer, Roy Panton, and "We'll Meet" by Roy and Millie went to number one in Jamaica: [Excerpt: Roy and Millie, "We'll Meet"] Meanwhile, in the UK, there was a growing interest in music from the Caribbean, especially Jamaica. Until very recently, Britain had been a very white country -- there have always been Black people in the UK, especially in port towns, but there had been very few. As of 1950, there were only about twenty thousand people of colour living in the UK. But starting in 1948, there had been a massive wave of immigration from other parts of what was then still the British Empire, as the government encouraged people to come here to help rebuild the country after the war. By 1961 there were nearly two hundred thousand Black people in Britain, almost all of them from the Caribbean.  Those people obviously wanted to hear the music of their own culture, and one man in particular was giving it to them. Chris Blackwell was a remarkably privileged man. His father had been one of the heirs to the Crosse and Blackwell fortune, and young Chris had been educated at Harrow, but when not in school he had spent much of his youth in Jamaica. His mother, Blanche, lived in Jamaica, where she was a muse to many men -- Noel Coward based a character on her, in a play he wrote in 1956 but which was considered so scandalous that it wasn't performed in public until 2012. Blanche attended the premiere of that play, when she was ninety-nine years old. She had an affair with Errol Flynn, and was also Ian Fleming's mistress -- Fleming would go to his Jamaican villa, GoldenEye, every year to write, leaving his wife at home (where she was having her own affairs, with the Labour MPs Hugh Gaitskell and Roy Jenkins), and would hook up with Blanche while he was there -- according to several sources, Fleming based the characters of Pussy Galore and Honeychile Ryder on Blanche. After Fleming's death, his wife instructed the villa's manager that it could be rented to literally anyone except Blanche Blackwell, but in the mid-1970s it was bought by Bob Marley, who in turn sold it to Chris Blackwell. Chris Blackwell had developed a fascination with Rasta culture after having crashed his boat while sailing, and being rescued by some Rasta fishermen, and he had decided that his goal was to promote Jamaican culture to the world. He'd started his own labels, Island Records, in 1959, using his parents' money, and had soon produced a Jamaican number one, "Boogie in My Bones", by Laurel Aitken: [Excerpt: Laurel Aitken, "Boogie in My Bones"] But music was still something of a hobby with Blackwell, to the point that he nearly quit it altogether in 1962. He'd been given a job as a gopher on the first James Bond film, Dr. No, thanks to his family connections, and had also had a cameo role in the film. Harry Saltzman, the producer, offered him a job, but Blackwell went to a fortune teller who told him to stick with music, and he did. Soon after that, he moved back to England, where he continued running Island Records, this time as a distributor of Jamaican records. The label would occasionally record some tracks of its own, but it made its money from releasing Jamaican records, which Blackwell would hand-sell to local record shops around immigrant communities in London, Manchester, and Birmingham. Island was not the biggest of the labels releasing Jamaican music in Britain at the time -- there was another label, Blue Beat, which got most of the big records, and which was so popular that in Britain "bluebeat" became a common term for ska, used to describe the whole genre, in the same way as Motown might be. And ska was becoming popular enough that there was also local ska being made, by Jamaican musicians living in Britain, and it was starting to chart. The first ska record to hit the charts in Britain was a cover of a Jimmy Cliff song, "King of Kings", performed by Ezz Reco and the Launchers: [Excerpt: Ezz Reco and the Launchers, "King of Kings"] That made the lower reaches of the top forty, and soon after came "Mockingbird Hill", a ska remake of an old Les Paul and Mary Ford hit, recorded by the Migil Five, a white British R&B group whose main claim to fame was that one of them was Charlie Watts' uncle, and Watts had occasionally filled in on drums for them before joining the Rolling Stones: [Excerpt: Migil Five, "Mockingbird Hill"] That made the top ten. Ska was becoming the in sound in Britain, to the point that in March 1964, the same month that "Mockingbird Hill" was released, the Beatles made a brief detour into ska in the instrumental break to "I Call Your Name": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I Call Your Name"] And it was into this atmosphere that Chris Blackwell decided to introduce Millie. Her early records had been selling well enough for him that in 1963 he had decided to call Millie's mother and promise her that if her daughter came over to the UK, he would be able to make her into a star. Rather than release her records on Island, which didn't have any wide distribution, he decided to license them to Fontana, a mid-sized British label. Millie's first British single, "Don't You Know", was released in late 1963, and was standard British pop music of the time, with little to distinguish it, and so unsurprisingly it wasn't a hit: [Excerpt: Millie, "Don't You Know"] But the second single was something different. For that, Blackwell remembered a song that had been popular among the sound systems a few years earlier; an American record by a white singer named Barbara Gaye. Up to this point, Gaye's biggest claim to fame had been that Ellie Greenwich had liked this record enough that she'd briefly performed under the stage name Ellie Gaye, before deciding against that. "My Boy Lollipop" had been written by Robert Spencer of the Cadillacs, the doo-wop group whose biggest hit had been "Speedoo": [Excerpt: The Cadillacs, "Speedoo"] Spencer had written “My Boy Lollipop”, but lost the rights to it in a card game -- and then Morris Levy bought the rights from the winner for a hundred dollars. Levy changed the songwriting credit to feature a mob acquaintance of his, Johnny Roberts, and then passed the song to Gaetano Vastola, another mobster, who had it recorded by Gaye, a teenage girl he managed, with the backing provided by the normal New York R&B session players, like Big Al Sears and Panama Francis: [Excerpt: Barbie Gaye, "My Boy Lollipop"] That hadn't been a hit when it was released in 1956, but it had later been picked up by the Jamaican sound men, partly because of its resemblance to the ska style, and Blackwell had a tape recording of it. Blackwell got Ernest Ranglin, who had also worked on Dr. No, and who had moved over to the UK at the same time as Blackwell, to come up with an arrangement, and Ranglin hired a local band to perform the instrumental backing. That band, Jimmy Powell and the Five Dimensions, had previously been known as the Moontrekkers, and had worked with Joe Meek, recording "Night of the Vampire": [Excerpt: The Moontrekkers, "Night of the Vampire"] Ranglin replaced the saxophone solo from the original record with a harmonica solo, to fit the current fad for the harmonica in the British charts, and there is some dispute about who played it, but Millie always insisted that it was the Five Dimensions' harmonica player, Rod Stewart, though Stewart denies it: [Excerpt: Millie, "My Boy Lollipop"] "My Boy Lollipop" came out in early 1964 and became a massive hit, reaching number two on the charts both in the UK and the US, and Millie was now a star. She got her own UK TV special, as well as appearing on Around The Beatles, a special starring the Beatles and produced by Jack Good. She was romantically linked to Peter Asher of Peter and Gordon. Her next single, though, "Sweet William", only made number thirty, as the brief first wave of interest in ska among the white public subsided: [Excerpt: Millie, "Sweet William"] Over the next few years, there were many attempts made to get her back in the charts, but the last thing that came near was a remake of "Bloodshot Eyes", without the intimate partner violence references, which made number forty-eight on the UK charts at the end of 1965: [Excerpt: Millie, "Bloodshot Eyes"] She was also teamed with other artists in an attempt to replicate her success as a duet act. She recorded with Jimmy Cliff: [Excerpt: Millie and Jimmy Cliff, "Hey Boy, Hey Girl"] and Jackie Edwards: [Excerpt: Jackie and Millie, "Pledging My Love"] and she was also teamed with a rock group Blackwell had discovered, and who would soon become big stars themselves with versions of songs by Edwards, on a cover version of Ike and Tina Turner's "I'm Blue (the Gong Gong Song)": [Excerpt: The Spencer Davis Group, "I'm Blue (The Gong Gong Song)"] But the Spencer Davis Group didn't revive her fortunes, and she moved on to a succession of smaller labels, with her final recordings coming in the early 1970s, when she recorded the track "Enoch Power", in response to the racism stirred up by the right-wing politician Enoch Powell: [Excerpt: Millie Small, "Enoch Power"] Millie spent much of the next few decades in poverty. There was talk of a comeback in the early eighties, after the British ska revival group Bad Manners had a top ten hit with a gender-flipped remake of "My Boy Lollipop": [Excerpt: Bad Manners, "My Girl Lollipop"] But she never performed again after the early seventies, and other than one brief interview in 2016 she kept her life private. She was given multiple honours by the people of Jamaica, including being made a Commander in the Order of Distinction, but never really got any financial benefit from her enormous chart success, or from being the first Jamaican artist to make an impact on Britain and America. She died last year, aged seventy-two.

This week’s episode looks at “My Boy Lollipop” and the origins of ska music. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “If You Wanna Be Happy” by Jimmy Soul. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ —-more—- Resources As usual, I have created a Mixcloud playlist containing every song heard in this episode — a content warning applies for the song “Bloodshot Eyes” by Wynonie Harris. The information about ska in general mostly comes from Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King by Lloyd Bradley, with some also from Reggae and Caribbean Music by Dave Thompson. Biographical information on Millie Small is largely from this article in Record Collector, plus a paywalled interview with Goldmine magazine (which I won’t link to because of the paywall). Millie’s early recordings with Owen Gray and Coxsone Dodd can be found on this compilation, along with a good selection of other recordings Dodd produced, while this compilation gives a good overview of her recordings for Island and Fontana. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Erratum I refer to “Barbara Gaye” when I should say “Barbie Gaye” Transcript Today, we’re going to take our first look at a form of music that would go on to have an almost incalculable influence on the music of the seventies, eighties, and later, but which at the time we’re looking at was largely regarded as a novelty music, at least in Britain and America. We’re going to look at the birth of ska, and at the first ska record to break big outside of Jamaica. We’re going to look at “My Boy Lollipop” by Millie: [Excerpt: Millie, “My Boy Lollipop”] Most of the music we’ve looked at so far in the podcast has been from either America or Britain, and I’m afraid that that’s going to remain largely the case — while there has been great music made in every country in the world, American and British musicians have tended to be so parochial, and have dominated the music industry so much, that relatively little of that music has made itself felt widely enough to have any kind of impact on the wider history of rock music, much to rock’s detriment. But every so often something from outside the British Isles or North America manages to penetrate even the closed ears of Anglo-American musicians, and today we’re going to look at one of those records. Now, before we start this, this episode is, by necessity, going to be dealing in broad generalisations — I’m trying to give as much information about Jamaica’s musical culture in one episode as I’ve given about America’s in a hundred, so I am going to have to elide a lot of details. Some of those details will come up in future episodes, as we deal with more Jamaican artists, but be aware that I’m missing stuff out. The thing that needs to be understood about the Jamaican music culture of the fifties and early sixties is that it developed in conditions of absolute poverty. Much of the music we looked at in the first year or so of the podcast came from extremely impoverished communities, of course, but even given how utterly, soul-crushingly, poor many people in the Deep South were, or the miserable conditions that people in Liverpool and London lived in while Britain was rebuilding itself after the war, those people were living in rich countries, and so still had access to some things that were not available to the poor people of poorer countries. So in Jamaica in the 1950s, almost nobody had access to any kind of record player or radio themselves. You wouldn’t even *know* anyone who had one, unlike in the states where if you were very poor you might not have one yourself, but your better-off cousin might let you come round and listen to the radio  at their house. So music was, by necessity, a communal experience.  Jamaican music, or at least the music in Kingston, the biggest city in Jamaica, was organised around  sound systems — big public open-air systems run by DJs, playing records for dancing. These had originally started in shops as a way of getting customers in, but soon became so popular that people started doing them on their own. These sound systems played music that was very different from the music played on the radio, which was aimed mostly at people rich enough to own radios, which at that time mostly meant white British people — in the fifties, Jamaica was still part of the British Empire, and there was an extraordinary gap between the music the white British colonial class liked and the music that the rest of the population liked.  The music that the Jamaican population *made* was mostly a genre called mento. Now, this is somewhere where my ignorance of this music compared to other musics comes into play a bit. There seem to have been two genres referred to as mento. One of them, rural mento, was based around instruments like the banjo, and a home-made bass instrument called a “rhumba box”, and had a resemblance to a lot of American country music or British skiffle — this form of mento is often still called “country music” in Jamaica itself: [Excerpt: The Hiltonaires, “Matilda”] There was another variant of mento, urban mento, which dropped the acoustic and home-made instruments and replaced them with the same sort of instruments that R&B or jazz bands used. Everything I read about urban mento says that it’s a different genre from calypso music, which generally comes from Trinidad and Tobago rather than Jamaica, but nothing explains what that difference is, other than the location. Mento musicians would also call their music calypso in order to sell it to people like me who don’t know the difference, and so you would get mento groups called things like Count Lasher and His Calypsonians, Lord Lebby and the Jamaica Calypsonians, and Count Owen and His Calypsonians, songs called things like “Hoola Hoop Calypso”, and mentions of calypso in the lyrics. I am fairly familiar with calypso music — people like the Mighty Sparrow, Lord Melody, Roaring Lion, and so on — and I honestly can’t hear any difference between calypso proper and mento records like this one, by Lord Power and Trenton Spence: [Excerpt: Lord Power and Trenton Spence, “Strip Tease”] But I’ll defer to the experts in these genres and accept that there’s a difference I’m not hearing. Mento was primarily a music for live performance, at least at first — there were very few recording facilities in Jamaica, and to the extent that records were made at all there, they were mostly done in very small runs to sell to tourists, who wanted a souvenir to take home. The music that the first sound systems played would include some mento records, and they would also play a fair number of latin-flavoured records. But the bulk of what they played was music for dancing, imported from America, made by Black American musicians, many of them the same musicians we looked at in the early months of this podcast. Louis Jordan was a big favourite, as was Wynonie Harris — the biggest hit in the early years of the sound systems was Harris’ “Bloodshot Eyes”. I’m going to excerpt that here, because it was an important record in the evolution of Jamaican music, but be warned that the song trivialises intimate partner violence in a way that many people might find disturbing. If you might be upset by that, skip forward exactly thirty seconds now: [Excerpt: Wynonie Harris, “Bloodshot Eyes”] The other artists who get repeatedly named in the histories of the early sound systems along with Jordan and Harris are Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, Professor Longhair — a musician we’ve not talked about in the podcast, but who made New Orleans R&B music in the same style as Domino and Price, and for slow-dancing the Moonglows and Jesse Belvin. They would also play jazz — Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, and Sarah Vaughan were particular favourites. These records weren’t widely available in Jamaica — indeed, *no* records were really widely available . They found their way into Jamaica through merchant seamen, who would often be tasked by sound men with getting hold of new and exciting records, and paid with rum or marijuana. The “sound man” was the term used for the DJs who ran these sound systems, and they were performers as much as they were people who played records — they would talk and get the crowds going, they would invent dance steps and perform them, and they would also use the few bits of technology they had to alter the sound — usually by adding bass or echo. Their reputation was built by finding the most obscure records, but ones which the crowds would love. Every sound man worth his salt had a collection of records that nobody else had — if you were playing the same records that someone else had, you were a loser. As soon as a sound man got hold of a record, he’d scratch out all the identifying copy on the label and replace it with a new title, so that none of his rivals could get hold of their own copies. The rivalry between sound men could be serious — it started out just as friendly competition, with each man trying to build a bigger and louder system and draw a bigger crowd, but when the former policeman turned gangster Duke Reid started up his Trojan sound system, intimidating rivals with guns soon became par for the course. Reid had actually started out in music as an R&B radio DJ — one of the few in Jamaica — presenting a show whose theme song, Tab Smith’s “My Mother’s Eyes”, would become permanently identified with Reid: [Excerpt: Tab Smith, “My Mother’s Eyes”] Reid’s Trojan was one of the two biggest sound systems in Kingston, the other being Downbeat, run by Coxsone Dodd. Dodd’s system became so popular that he ended up having five different sound systems, all playing in different areas of the city every night, with the ones he didn’t perform at himself being run by assistants who later became big names in the Jamaican music world themselves, like Prince Buster and Lee “Scratch” Perry. Buster performed a few other functions for Dodd as well — one important one being that he  knew enough about R&B that he could go to Duke Reid’s shows, listen to the records he was playing, and figure out what they must be — he could recognise the different production styles of the different R&B labels well enough that he could use that, plus the lyrics, to work out the probable title and label of a record Reid was playing. Dodd would then get a merchant seaman to bring a copy of that record back from America, get a local record pressing plant to press up a bunch of copies of it, and sell it to the other sound men, thus destroying Reid’s edge. Eventually Prince Buster left Dodd and set up his own rival sound system, at which point the rivalry became a three-way one. Dodd knew about technology, and had the most powerful sound system with the best amps. Prince Buster was the best showman, who knew what the people wanted and gave it to them, and Duke Reid was connected and powerful enough that he could use intimidation to keep a grip on power, but he also had good enough musical instincts that his shows were genuinely popular in their own right. People started to see their favourite sound systems in the same way they see sports teams or political parties — as marks of identity that were worth getting into serious fights over. Supporters of one system would regularly attack supporters of another, and who your favourite sound system was *really mattered*. But there was a problem. While these systems were playing a handful of mento records, they were mostly relying on American records, and this had two problems. The most obvious was that if a record was available publicly, eventually someone else would find it. Coxsone Dodd managed to use one record, “Later For Gator” by Willis “Gatortail” Jackson, at every show for seven years, renaming it “Coxsone Hop”: [Excerpt: Willis “Gatortail” Jackson, “Later For Gator”] But eventually word got out that Duke Reid had tracked the song down and would play it at a dance. Dodd went along, and was allowed in unmolested — Reid wanted Dodd to know he’d been beaten.  Now, here I’m going to quote something Prince Buster said, and we hit a problem we’re likely to hit again when it comes to Jamaica. Buster spoke Jamaican Patois, a creole language that is mutually intelligible with, but different from, standard English. When quoting him, or any other Patois speaker, I have a choice of three different options, all bad. I could translate his words into standard English, thus misrepresenting him; I could read his words directly in my own accent, which has the problem that it can sound patronising, or like I’m mocking his language, because so much of Patois is to do with the way the words are pronounced; or I could attempt to approximate his own accent — which would probably come off as incredibly racist. As the least bad option of the three, I’m choosing the middle one here, and reading in my own accent, but I want people to be aware that this is not intended as mockery, and that I have at least given this some thought: “So we wait. Then as the clock struck midnight we hear “Baaap… bap da dap da dap, daaaa da daap!” And we see a bunch of them down from the dancehall coming up with the green bush. I was at the counter with Coxsone, he have a glass in him hand, he drop it and just collapse, sliding down the bar. I had to brace him against the bar, then get Phantom to give me a hand. The psychological impact had knocked him out. Nobody never hit him.” There was a second problem with using American records, as well — American musical tastes were starting to change, and Jamaican ones weren’t. Jamaican audiences wanted Louis Jordan, Fats Domino, and Gene & Eunice, but the Americans wanted Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis and Bobby Darin. For a while, the sound men were able to just keep finding more and more obscure old R&B and jump band records, but there was a finite supply of these, and they couldn’t keep doing it forever. The solution eventually became obvious — they needed Jamaican R&B. And thankfully there was a ready supply. Every week, there was a big talent contest in Kingston, and the winners would get five pounds — a lot of money in that time and place. Many of the winners would then go to a disc-cutting service, one of those places that would record a single copy of a song for you, and use their prize money to record themselves. They could then sell that record to one of the sound men, who would be sure that nobody else would have a copy of it. At first, the only sound men they could sell to were the less successful ones, who didn’t have good connections with American records. A local record was clearly not as good as an American one, and so the big sound systems wouldn’t touch it, but it was better than nothing, and some of the small sound systems would find that the local records were a success for them, and eventually the bigger systems would start using the small ones as a test audience — if a local record went down well at a small system, one of the big operators would get in touch with the sound man of that system and buy the record from him. One of the big examples of this was “Lollipop Girl”, a song by Derrick Harriott and Claudie Sang. They recorded that, with just a piano backing, and sold their only copy to a small sound system owner. It went down so well that the small sound man traded his copy with Coxsone Dodd for an American record — and it went down so well when Dodd played it that Duke Reid bribed one of Dodd’s assistants to get hold of Dodd’s copy long enough to get a copy made for himself. When Dodd and Reid played a sound clash — a show where they went head to head to see who could win a crowd over — and Reid played his own copy of “Lollipop Girl”, Dodd pulled a gun on Reid, and it was only the fact that the clash was next door to the police station that kept the two men from killing each other. Reid eventually wore out his copy of “Lollipop Girl”, he played it so much, and so he did the only sensible thing — he went into the record business himself, and took Harriott into the studio, along with a bunch of musicians from the local big bands, and cut a new version of it with a full band backing Harriott. As well as playing this on his sound system, Reid released it as a record: [Excerpt: Derrick Harriott, “Lollipop Girl”] Reid didn’t make many more records at this point, but both Coxsone Dodd and Prince Buster started up their own labels, and started hiring local singers, plus people from a small pool of players who became the go-to session musicians for any record made in Jamaica at the time, like trombone player Rico Rodriguez and guitarist Ernest Ranglin. During the late 1950s, a new form of music developed from these recordings, which would become known as ska, and there are three records which are generally considered to be milestones in its development. The first was produced by a white businessman, Edward Seaga, who is now more famous for becoming the Prime Minister of Jamaica in the 1980s. At the time, though, Seaga had the idea to incorporate a little bit of a mento rhythm into an R&B record he was producing. In most music, if you have a four-four rhythm, you can divide it into eight on-beats and off-beats, and you normally stress the on-beats, so you stress “ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and”. In mento, though, you’d often have a banjo stress the off-beats, so the stresses would be “one AND two AND three AND four AND”. Seaga had the guitarist on “Manny Oh” by Higgs and Wilson do this, on a track that was otherwise a straightforward New Orleans style R&B song with a tresillo bassline. The change in stresses is almost imperceptible to modern ears, but it made the record sound uniquely Jamaican to its audience: [Excerpt: Higgs and Wilson, “Manny Oh”] The next record in the sequence was produced by Dodd, and is generally considered the first real ska record. There are a few different stories about where the term “ska” came from, but one of the more believable is that it came from Dodd directing Ernest Ranglin, who was the arranger for the record, to stress the off-beat more, saying “play it ska… ska… ska…” Where “Manny Oh” had been a Jamaican sounding R&B record, “Easy Snappin'” is definitely a blues-influenced ska record: [Excerpt: Theo Beckford, “Easy Snappin'”] But Duke Reid and Coxsone Dodd, at this point, still saw the music they were making as a substitute for American R&B. Prince Buster, on the other hand, by this point was a full-fledged Black nationalist, and wanted to make a purely Jamaican music. Buster was, in particular, an adherent of the Rastafari religion, and he brought in five drummers from the Rasta Nyabinghi tradition, most notably Count Ossie, who became the single most influential drummer in Jamaica, to record on the Folkes brothers single “Oh Carolina”, incorporating the rhythms of Rasta sacred music into Jamaican R&B for the first time: [Excerpt: The Folkes Brothers, “Oh Carolina”] 1962 was a turning point in Jamaican music in a variety of ways. Most obviously, it was the year that Jamaica became independent from the British Empire, and was able to take control of its own destiny. But it was also the year that saw the first recordings of a fourteen-year-old girl who would become ska’s first international star. Millie Small had started performing at the age of twelve, when she won the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour, the single biggest talent contest in Kingston. But it was two years later that she came to the attention of Coxsone Dodd, who was very interested in her because her voice sounded spookily like that of Shirley, from the duo Shirley and Lee. We mentioned Shirley and Lee briefly back in the episode on “Ko Ko Mo”, but they were a New Orleans R&B duo who had a string of hits in the early and mid fifties, recorded at Cosimo Matassa’s studio, pairing Leonard Lee’s baritone voice with Shirley Goodman’s soprano. Their early records had been knock-offs of the sound that Little Esther had created with Johnny Otis and his male vocalists — for example Shirley and Lee’s “Sweethearts”: [Excerpt: Shirley and Lee, “Sweethearts”] bears a very strong resemblance to “Double-Crossing Blues”: [Excerpt: Little Esther, Johnny Otis, and the Robins, “Double-Crossing Blues”] But they’d soon developed a more New Orleans style, with records like “Feel So Good” showing some of the Caribbean influence that many records from the area had: [Excerpt: Shirley and Lee, “Feel So Good”] Shirley and Lee only had minor chart success in the US, but spawned a host of imitators, including Gene and Eunice and Mickey and Sylvia, both of whom we looked at in the early months of the podcast, and Ike and Tina Turner who will be coming up later. Like much New Orleans R&B, Shirley and Lee were hugely popular among the sound system listeners, and Coxsone Dodd thought that Mille’s voice sounded enough like Shirley’s that it would be worth setting her up as part of his own Shirley and Lee soundalike duo, pairing her with a more established singer, Owen Gray, to record songs like “Sit and Cry”, a song which combined the vocal sound of Shirley and Lee with the melody of “The Twist”: [Excerpt: Owen and Millie, “Sit and Cry”] After Gray decided to continue performing on his own, Millie was instead teamed with another performer, Roy Panton, and “We’ll Meet” by Roy and Millie went to number one in Jamaica: [Excerpt: Roy and Millie, “We’ll Meet”] Meanwhile, in the UK, there was a growing interest in music from the Caribbean, especially Jamaica. Until very recently, Britain had been a very white country — there have always been Black people in the UK, especially in port towns, but there had been very few. As of 1950, there were only about twenty thousand people of colour living in the UK. But starting in 1948, there had been a massive wave of immigration from other parts of what was then still the British Empire, as the government encouraged people to come here to help rebuild the country after the war. By 1961 there were nearly two hundred thousand Black people in Britain, almost all of them from the Caribbean.  Those people obviously wanted to hear the music of their own culture, and one man in particular was giving it to them. Chris Blackwell was a remarkably privileged man. His father had been one of the heirs to the Crosse and Blackwell fortune, and young Chris had been educated at Harrow, but when not in school he had spent much of his youth in Jamaica. His mother, Blanche, lived in Jamaica, where she was a muse to many men — Noel Coward based a character on her, in a play he wrote in 1956 but which was considered so scandalous that it wasn’t performed in public until 2012. Blanche attended the premiere of that play, when she was ninety-nine years old. She had an affair with Errol Flynn, and was also Ian Fleming’s mistress — Fleming would go to his Jamaican villa, GoldenEye, every year to write, leaving his wife at home (where she was having her own affairs, with the Labour MPs Hugh Gaitskell and Roy Jenkins), and would hook up with Blanche while he was there — according to several sources, Fleming based the characters of Pussy Galore and Honeychile Ryder on Blanche. After Fleming’s death, his wife instructed the villa’s manager that it could be rented to literally anyone except Blanche Blackwell, but in the mid-1970s it was bought by Bob Marley, who in turn sold it to Chris Blackwell. Chris Blackwell had developed a fascination with Rasta culture after having crashed his boat while sailing, and being rescued by some Rasta fishermen, and he had decided that his goal was to promote Jamaican culture to the world. He’d started his own labels, Island Records, in 1959, using his parents’ money, and had soon produced a Jamaican number one, “Boogie in My Bones”, by Laurel Aitken: [Excerpt: Laurel Aitken, “Boogie in My Bones”] But music was still something of a hobby with Blackwell, to the point that he nearly quit it altogether in 1962. He’d been given a job as a gopher on the first James Bond film, Dr. No, thanks to his family connections, and had also had a cameo role in the film. Harry Saltzman, the producer, offered him a job, but Blackwell went to a fortune teller who told him to stick with music, and he did. Soon after that, he moved back to England, where he continued running Island Records, this time as a distributor of Jamaican records. The label would occasionally record some tracks of its own, but it made its money from releasing Jamaican records, which Blackwell would hand-sell to local record shops around immigrant communities in London, Manchester, and Birmingham. Island was not the biggest of the labels releasing Jamaican music in Britain at the time — there was another label, Blue Beat, which got most of the big records, and which was so popular that in Britain “bluebeat” became a common term for ska, used to describe the whole genre, in the same way as Motown might be. And ska was becoming popular enough that there was also local ska being made, by Jamaican musicians living in Britain, and it was starting to chart. The first ska record to hit the charts in Britain was a cover of a Jimmy Cliff song, “King of Kings”, performed by Ezz Reco and the Launchers: [Excerpt: Ezz Reco and the Launchers, “King of Kings”] That made the lower reaches of the top forty, and soon after came “Mockingbird Hill”, a ska remake of an old Les Paul and Mary Ford hit, recorded by the Migil Five, a white British R&B group whose main claim to fame was that one of them was Charlie Watts’ uncle, and Watts had occasionally filled in on drums for them before joining the Rolling Stones: [Excerpt: Migil Five, “Mockingbird Hill”] That made the top ten. Ska was becoming the in sound in Britain, to the point that in March 1964, the same month that “Mockingbird Hill” was released, the Beatles made a brief detour into ska in the instrumental break to “I Call Your Name”: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “I Call Your Name”] And it was into this atmosphere that Chris Blackwell decided to introduce Millie. Her early records had been selling well enough for him that in 1963 he had decided to call Millie’s mother and promise her that if her daughter came over to the UK, he would be able to make her into a star. Rather than release her records on Island, which didn’t have any wide distribution, he decided to license them to Fontana, a mid-sized British label. Millie’s first British single, “Don’t You Know”, was released in late 1963, and was standard British pop music of the time, with little to distinguish it, and so unsurprisingly it wasn’t a hit: [Excerpt: Millie, “Don’t You Know”] But the second single was something different. For that, Blackwell remembered a song that had been popular among the sound systems a few years earlier; an American record by a white singer named Barbara Gaye. Up to this point, Gaye’s biggest claim to fame had been that Ellie Greenwich had liked this record enough that she’d briefly performed under the stage name Ellie Gaye, before deciding against that. “My Boy Lollipop” had been written by Robert Spencer of the Cadillacs, the doo-wop group whose biggest hit had been “Speedoo”: [Excerpt: The Cadillacs, “Speedoo”] Spencer had written “My Boy Lollipop”, but lost the rights to it in a card game — and then Morris Levy bought the rights from the winner for a hundred dollars. Levy changed the songwriting credit to feature a mob acquaintance of his, Johnny Roberts, and then passed the song to Gaetano Vastola, another mobster, who had it recorded by Gaye, a teenage girl he managed, with the backing provided by the normal New York R&B session players, like Big Al Sears and Panama Francis: [Excerpt: Barbie Gaye, “My Boy Lollipop”] That hadn’t been a hit when it was released in 1956, but it had later been picked up by the Jamaican sound men, partly because of its resemblance to the ska style, and Blackwell had a tape recording of it. Blackwell got Ernest Ranglin, who had also worked on Dr. No, and who had moved over to the UK at the same time as Blackwell, to come up with an arrangement, and Ranglin hired a local band to perform the instrumental backing. That band, Jimmy Powell and the Five Dimensions, had previously been known as the Moontrekkers, and had worked with Joe Meek, recording “Night of the Vampire”: [Excerpt: The Moontrekkers, “Night of the Vampire”] Ranglin replaced the saxophone solo from the original record with a harmonica solo, to fit the current fad for the harmonica in the British charts, and there is some dispute about who played it, but Millie always insisted that it was the Five Dimensions’ harmonica player, Rod Stewart, though Stewart denies it: [Excerpt: Millie, “My Boy Lollipop”] “My Boy Lollipop” came out in early 1964 and became a massive hit, reaching number two on the charts both in the UK and the US, and Millie was now a star. She got her own UK TV special, as well as appearing on Around The Beatles, a special starring the Beatles and produced by Jack Good. She was romantically linked to Peter Asher of Peter and Gordon. Her next single, though, “Sweet William”, only made number thirty, as the brief first wave of interest in ska among the white public subsided: [Excerpt: Millie, “Sweet William”] Over the next few years, there were many attempts made to get her back in the charts, but the last thing that came near was a remake of “Bloodshot Eyes”, without the intimate partner violence references, which made number forty-eight on the UK charts at the end of 1965: [Excerpt: Millie, “Bloodshot Eyes”] She was also teamed with other artists in an attempt to replicate her success as a duet act. She recorded with Jimmy Cliff: [Excerpt: Millie and Jimmy Cliff, “Hey Boy, Hey Girl”] and Jackie Edwards: [Excerpt: Jackie and Millie, “Pledging My Love”] and she was also teamed with a rock group Blackwell had discovered, and who would soon become big stars themselves with versions of songs by Edwards, on a cover version of Ike and Tina Turner’s “I’m Blue (the Gong Gong Song)”: [Excerpt: The Spencer Davis Group, “I’m Blue (The Gong Gong Song)”] But the Spencer Davis Group didn’t revive her fortunes, and she moved on to a succession of smaller labels, with her final recordings coming in the early 1970s, when she recorded the track “Enoch Power”, in response to the racism stirred up by the right-wing politician Enoch Powell: [Excerpt: Millie Small, “Enoch Power”] Millie spent much of the next few decades in poverty. There was talk of a comeback in the early eighties, after the British ska revival group Bad Manners had a top ten hit with a gender-flipped remake of “My Boy Lollipop”: [Excerpt: Bad Manners, “My Girl Lollipop”] But she never performed again after the early seventies, and other than one brief interview in 2016 she kept her life private. She was given multiple honours by the people of Jamaica, including being made a Commander in the Order of Distinction, but never really got any financial benefit from her enormous chart success, or from being the first Jamaican artist to make an impact on Britain and America. She died last year, aged seventy-two.

If there is one person in Jamaican music that has never been given his due credit, it is the man who some consider the "GodFather of Reggae", Joe Higgs. The unheralded mentor and inspirator of legends such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bob Andy, and Derrick Harriott, it is his musical alchemy in the primordial echo chamber of Reggae, that continues to resonate throughout history.

Los Angeles roots reggae legends The Lions discuss the origins of the band, their new single "The Loser" (a cover of the classic Derrick Harriott tune), the pros and cons of wearing pants during live stream sessions, their love for obscure Jamaican music and unique riddims, Roger's love for their tune "Think" and how that recording came about, their cover of and video for The Magnificent Dance for The Clash Tribute record, the recording and writing process for such a large group of super talent, an exciting cant-miss lightning round, and much more!SHOP PODCLASH MERCH! Every sale helps support the show. Thank you.https://rootfire-intl.myshopify.com/collections/the-reggae-podclash***Man-Like-Devin and Roger Rivas talk all things reggae with original and modern artists in the scene, live every other week at 6pm PT on http://thereggaepodclash.comDevin and Roger have a passion for sharing and discussing Jamaican 45 records. Each week they are joined by original and modern guests in the genre to talk all things Reggae.#ReggaePodclash #TheLions #Rootfirehttp://www.Rootfire.nethttp://www.TheReggaePodClash.comFollow us on Instagram @thereggaepodclashSupport the show (https://rootfire.net/tv/)

Sintonía: "Together" - Lloyd Delpratt "Grand Funk" - Jackie Mittoo; "I Wish It Would Rain" - Cougars; "Love Is The Answer" - RAM; "Right On" - Cougars; "Here We Go Again" - Wayne McGhie; "African Wake" - Johnny Osbourne; "Brown Baby" - Derrick Harriott; "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" - Sidney, George & Jackie; "Give Me Some More" - The Studio Sound; "Silent Force" - Cedric "Im" Brooks; "Ride On" - Big Youth; "Do Good To Each and Everyone" - The Heptones; "Tricked" - Ansel Meditations; "Make Me Smile" - Jackie Paris; "Rhodesia" - The Rebels. Escuchar audio

First Live Stream this year took place at the 6th of January in 2020 (https://www.facebook.com/dicaptain/videos/2237284663240243/). This time with players and engineers like Jackie Mittoo, Val Bennett, Tommy McCook, Dennis Bovell and more. 1) The Sniper – Bunny Lee with Jackie Mittoo 2) Word – Winston Rodney with Phillip Fullwood 3) Jah Jah Symphony In ‚B‘ Minor – Keith Brown with Earth, Roots & Water and Bumpy Jones 4) Dread Version – Glen Osborne with Rick Frater 5) Come With Me (Version) – Dennis Bovell 6) Brace A Boy – Augustus Pablo 7) I Love You So (Version) – Norman Grant with The Twinkle Brothers 8) Daylight Dub – Sydney Crooks with The Eclipse Band 9) Look In The World Vs. – Martin Campbell with Hi Tech Roots Dynamics 10) Crazy Baldhead Horns – Bunny Lee with The Aggrovators and Tommy McCook 11) The Russians Are Coming – King Tubby with Val Bennett 12) Questions – Victor Axelrod with The Frightnrs 13) King Tubby’s Rock – King Tubby with Yabby You 14) Stabbed Yu In De Back – Fatman Riddim Section 15) Dangerous Version – Tommy Cowan with The Inner Circle 16) Concentration (Version 3) – Derrick Harriott with The Crystalites Various Artists | DICAPTAINMUSIC.COM | 10.01.2020

Reggae Stage: celebrating the works of legendary Ken Boothe & Derrick Harriott #reggae #jamaica #music

Ken Boothe OD (born 22 March 1948) is a #Jamaican vocalist known for his distinctive vibrato and timbre. Boothe achieved an international reputation as one of #Jamaica's finest vocalists through a series of crossover hits that appealed to both #reggae fans and mainstream audiences. Ken Boothe was born in Denham Town, #Kingston.  Boothe cites singer Owen Gray as a major influence, particularly after hearing Gray perform the Leiber and Stoller rhythm and blues version of the #1920s blues standard, "Kansas City Blues", written by E L Bowman and notably performed by Jim Jackson in 1927. Stranger Cole, who was an established artist and neighbor to Boothe, had already worked with Boothe on the Sir Percy sound system as well as recording two songs for independent producer Sir Mike though Boothe's major breakthrough came in 1963 after Cole arranged an audition at #Duke Reid's studio. The audition with Cole and Boothe performing the song "Unos Dos Tres" was a success and Boothe and Cole formed the duo 'Stranger & Ken' with the first track released by them being "Hush Baby" on the B-side of Cole's #Island Records single "Last Love".

Host Freddie Campbell was there at the start of ska music. he played in bands with guys like Lester Sterling, Roland Alphonso and many singers like Owen Grey, Derrick Harriott, Winston Francis and many many more. His program today will touch on what's happening now as well.  Jay Sharpe as usual will be on to give tips on how to handle grief and gratitude. Also Fred will host Seretse Small who owns Avant Academy Music School, another important area in the development of Jamaican music.

Dennis Brown - Out Of The Funk Edit By Petko Turner Dennis Brown was born on 1 February 1957 at Jubilee Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica. His father Arthur was a scriptwriter, actor, and journalist, and he grew up in a large tenement yard between North Street and King Street in Kingston with his parents, three elder brothers and a sister, although his mother died in the 1960s. He began his singing career at the age of nine, while still at junior school, with an end-of-term concert the first time he performed in public, although he had been keen on music from an even earlier age, and as a youngster was a keen fan of American balladeers such as Brook Benton, Sam Cooke, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin. He cited Nat King Cole as one of his greatest early influences. He regularly hung around JJ's record store on Orange Street in the rocksteady era and his relatives and neighbours would often throw Brown pennies to hear him sing in their yard. Brown's first professional appearance came at the age of eleven, when he visited a local club where his brother Basil was performing a comedy routine, and where he made a guest appearance with the club's resident group, the Fabulous Falcons (a group that included Cynthia Richards, David "Scotty" Scott, and Noel Brown). On the strength of this performance he was asked to join the group as a featured vocalist. When the group performed at a JLP conference at the National Arena, Brown sang two songs - Desmond Dekker's "Unity" and Johnnie Taylor's "Ain't That Loving You" - and after the audience showered the stage with money, he was able to buy his first suit with the proceeds.[4] Bandleader Byron Lee performed on the same bill, and was sufficiently impressed with Brown to book him to perform on package shows featuring visiting US artists, where he was billed as the "Boy Wonder". As a young singer Brown was influenced by older contemporaries such as Delroy Wilson (whom he later cited as the single greatest influence on his style of singing), Errol Dunkley, John Holt, Ken Boothe, and Bob Andy.[4] Brown's first recording was an original song called "Lips of Wine" for producer Derrick Harriott, but when this was not released, he recorded for Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's Studio One label, and his first session yielded the single "No Man is an Island", recorded when Brown was aged twelve and released in late 1969. The single received steadily increasing airplay for almost a year before becoming a huge hit throughout Jamaica. Brown recorded up to a dozen sessions for Dodd, amounting to around thirty songs, and also worked as a backing singer on sessions by other artists, including providing harmonies along with Horace Andy and Larry Marshall on Alton Ellis's Sunday Coming album. Brown was advised by fellow Studio One artist Ellis to learn guitar to help with his songwriting, and after convincing Dodd to buy him an instrument, was taught the basics by Ellis. These Studio One recordings were collected on two albums, No Man is an Island and If I Follow my Heart (the title track penned by Alton Ellis), although Brown had left Studio One before either was released. He went on to record for several producers including Lloyd Daley ("Baby Don't Do It" and "Things in Life"), Prince Buster ("One Day Soon" and "If I Had the World"), and Phil Pratt ("Black Magic Woman", "Let Love In", and "What About the Half"), before returning to work with Derrick Harriott, recording a string of popular singles including "Silhouettes", "Concentration", "He Can't Spell", and "Musical Heatwave", with the pick of these tracks collected on the Super Reggae and Soul Hits album in 1973. Brown also recorded for Vincent "Randy" Chin ("Cheater"), Dennis Alcapone ("I Was Lonely"), and Herman Chin Loy ("It's Too Late" and "Song My Mother Used to Sing") among others, with Brown still at school at this stage of his career

The Legendary Ken Boothe, O.D. has Been through thick and thin, through Star-time and No-time, from living in the shanties of Denham Town and its environs to the beautiful neighbor- hoods of Kings House, St. Andrews in his homeland of Jamaica. Ken Boothe, O.D. has straddled the social status-spheres, both locally and internationally, in California, New York, Toronto and London. He has conducted numerous tours of Europe, North and South America, Japan and the Caribbean. In Jamaica he continues to reign supreme and maintains his popularity as one of the nation's top entertainers. His musical talents and love for humanity have afforded him the opportunity of touring in North and South America, Europe, Japan, Canada and the Caribbean. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, reggae singer/producer Derrick Harriott began as a member of the Jiving Juniors (from 1958 through 1962) before embarking on his own solo career, in addition to producing other artists, including the Ethiopians, Keith, and Tex. Harriott tended to rework old R&B love songs as reggae tunes, but his best-known song, "The Loser," was an original composition. In 1971, Swing Magazine named Harriott Top Producer of 1970, as he was also one of the first to utilize the now renowned King Tubby's recording studio. The '70s saw the release of such solo albums as Undertaker, Songs for Midnight Lovers, and Psychedelic Lovers. 

 Ken Boothe, O.D. has straddled the social status-spheres, both locally and internationally, in California, New York, Toronto and London. He has conducted numerous tours of Europe, North and South America, Japan and the Caribbean. In Jamaica he continues to reign supreme and maintains his popularity as one of the nation's top entertainers. His musical talents and love for humanity have afforded him the opportunity of touring in North and South America, Europe, Japan, Canada and the Caribbean. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, reggae singer/producer Derrick Harriott began as a member of the Jiving Juniors (from 1958 through 1962) before embarking on his own solo career, in addition to producing other artists, including the Ethiopians, Keith, and Tex. Harriott tended to rework old R&B love songs as reggae tunes, but his best-known song, "The Loser," was an original composition. In 1971, Swing Magazine named Harriott Top Producer of 1970, as he was also one of the first to utilize the now renowned King Tubby's recording studio. The '70s saw the release of such solo albums as Undertaker, Songs for Midnight Lovers, and Psychedelic Lovers. Although not much was heard from Harriott during the '80s in terms of solo releases, the mid- to late '90s saw the emergence of such solo efforts as Sings Jamaican Rock Steady Reggae, For a Fistful of Dollars, Derrick Harriott & Giants, and Riding the Roots Chariot.

When members of the band began defecting to The Caribs in 1964 The Souvenirs broke up and Boris was asked to join Carlos Malcolm's Afro Cubans. At the time the Afro Cubans comprised Carlos Malcolm on trombone and percussion, Derrick Harriott on lead vocals, Carl 'Cannonball' Bryan on saxophone, Trevor Lopez on guitar, Winston Turner on trumpet, Freddy Campbell on drums and Audley Williams on bass, steel guitar and piano. Boris not only sang but also played percussion and danced the bossa nova and the cha cha. When Audley Williams left the band Carlos Malcolm took over as bass player but Carlos not at ease with the instrument and convinced Boris to ease up on singing and dancing and to take up the bass again.

 Original Ska Artists  50s. Aubrey Adams,Laurel Aitken,Roland Alphonso,Theophilus Beckford,Val Bennett,Baba Brooks, The Blues Busters,Prince Buster,The Clarendonians,Jimmy Cliff,Clue J & His Blues Blasters, Stranger Cole,Desmond Dekker,Don Drummond,Jackie Edwards,Alton Ellis,The Ethiopians Owen Gray,Derrick Harriott,Justin Hinds,Jah Jerry Haynes,Lloyd Knibb,Byron Lee & the Dragonaires Count Machuki,Carlos Malcolm,Tommy McCook,The Melodians,Johnny "Dizzy" Moore, Derrick Morgan,Eric "Monty" Morris,Jackie Opel,The Paragons,Lee "Scratch" Perry Lord Tanamo,The Pioneers,Ernest Ranglin,Rico Rodriguez,The Skatalites The Silvertones,Millie Small,Symarip,Lynn Taitt,Toots & the Maytals.The Wailers Delroy Wilson

 Some of the original Ska Musicians Aubrey Adams,Laurel Aitken,Roland Alphonso,Theophilus Beckford,Val Bennett,Baba Brooks,The Blues Busters,Prince Buster,The Clarendonians,Jimmy Cliff,Clue J & His Blues Blasters,Stranger Cole,Desmond Dekker,Don Drummond,Jackie Edwards.Alton Ellis,The Ethiopians,Owen Gray,Derrick Harriott,Justin Hinds,Jah Jerry Haynes,Lloyd Knibb,Byron Lee & the Dragonaires,Count Machuki,Carlos Malcolm,Tommy McCook,The MelodiansmJohnny "Dizzy" Moore,Derrick Morgan,Eric "Monty" MorrismJackie Opel,The Paragons,Lee "Scratch" Perry,Lord Tanamo,The Pioneers,Ernest Ranglin,Rico Rodriguez,The Skatalites,The Silvertones,Millie Small,Symarip,Lynn Taitt,Toots & the Maytals,The Wailers,Delroy Wilson

 Some of the original Ska Musicians Aubrey Adams,Laurel Aitken,Roland Alphonso,Theophilus Beckford,Val Bennett,Baba Brooks,The Blues Busters,Prince Buster,The Clarendonians,Jimmy Cliff,Clue J & His Blues Blasters,Stranger Cole,Desmond Dekker,Don Drummond,Jackie Edwards.Alton Ellis,The Ethiopians,Owen Gray,Derrick Harriott,Justin Hinds,Jah Jerry Haynes,Lloyd Knibb,Byron Lee & the Dragonaires,Count Machuki,Carlos Malcolm,Tommy McCook,The MelodiansmJohnny "Dizzy" Moore,Derrick Morgan,Eric "Monty" MorrismJackie Opel,The Paragons,Lee "Scratch" Perry,Lord Tanamo,The Pioneers,Ernest Ranglin,Rico Rodriguez,The Skatalites,The Silvertones,Millie Small,Symarip,Lynn Taitt,Toots & the Maytals,The Wailers,Delroy Wilson

 Some of the original Ska Musicians Aubrey Adams,Laurel Aitken,Roland Alphonso,Theophilus Beckford,Val Bennett,Baba Brooks,The Blues Busters,Prince Buster,The Clarendonians,Jimmy Cliff,Clue J & His Blues Blasters,Stranger Cole,Desmond Dekker,Don Drummond,Jackie Edwards.Alton Ellis,The Ethiopians,Owen Gray,Derrick Harriott,Justin Hinds,Jah Jerry Haynes,Lloyd Knibb,Byron Lee & the Dragonaires,Count Machuki,Carlos Malcolm,Tommy McCook,The MelodiansmJohnny "Dizzy" Moore,Derrick Morgan,Eric "Monty" MorrismJackie Opel,The Paragons,Lee "Scratch" Perry,Lord Tanamo,The Pioneers,Ernest Ranglin,Rico Rodriguez,The Skatalites,The Silvertones,Millie Small,Symarip,Lynn Taitt,Toots & the Maytals,The Wailers,Delroy Wilson

A mellow lover's session.. Starring - Keith Poppin,Petter Toty,Carl Dobson,Paula Clarke,Dobby Dobson,Barbara Jones,Donna Marie,Derrick Harriott,Bob Andy,Audrey Hall,Janet Kay,Winsome,Bunny Melody,Donald & Lulu With The Wailers,The Mighty Maytones,Sadiki,Ronnie Davis,Alpheus Taylor,Bunny Malon,8hmrx2af

Ska (/'sk??/, Jamaican [skjæ]) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the upbeat..Aubrey Adams,Laurel Aitken,Roland Alphonso,Theophilus Beckford,Val Bennett,Baba Brooks,The Blues Busters,Prince Buster,The Clarendonians,Jimmy Cliff,Clue J & His Blues Blasters Stranger Cole,Desmond Dekker,Don Drummond,Jackie Edwards,Alton Ellis,The Ethiopians,Owen Gray,Derrick Harriott,Justin Hinds,Jah Jerry Haynes,Lloyd Knibb,Count Machuki,Carlos Malcolm,Tommy McCook,The Melodians,Johnny "Dizzy" Moore'Derrick Morgan,Eric "Monty" Morris,Jackie Opel,The Paragons,Lee "Scratch" Perry,Lord Tanamo,The Pioneers,Ernest Ranglin,Rico Rodriguez,The Skatalites,The Silvertones,Millie Small,Symarip,Lynn Taitt,Toots & the Maytals,The Wailers,Delroy Wilson,Desmond Dekker,Don Drummond,Jackie Edwards,Alton Ellis,The Ethiopians,Owen Gray,Derrick Harriott,Justin Hinds,Jah Jerry Haynes,Lloyd Knibb,Byron Lee & the Dragonaires,https://www.facebook.com/jaSkafestival/

Ska (/'sk??/, Jamaican [skjæ]) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the upbeat..Aubrey Adams,Laurel Aitken,Roland Alphonso,Theophilus Beckford,Val Bennett,Baba Brooks,The Blues Busters,Prince Buster,The Clarendonians,Jimmy Cliff,Clue J & His Blues Blasters Stranger Cole,Desmond Dekker,Don Drummond,Jackie Edwards,Alton Ellis,The Ethiopians,Owen Gray,Derrick Harriott,Justin Hinds,Jah Jerry Haynes,Lloyd Knibb,Count Machuki,Carlos Malcolm,Tommy McCook,The Melodians,Johnny "Dizzy" Moore'Derrick Morgan,Eric "Monty" Morris,Jackie Opel,The Paragons,Lee "Scratch" Perry,Lord Tanamo,The Pioneers,Ernest Ranglin,Rico Rodriguez,The Skatalites,The Silvertones,Millie Small,Symarip,Lynn Taitt,Toots & the Maytals,The Wailers,Delroy Wilson,Desmond Dekker,Don Drummond,Jackie Edwards,Alton Ellis,The Ethiopians,Owen Gray,Derrick Harriott,Justin Hinds,Jah Jerry Haynes,Lloyd Knibb,Byron Lee & the Dragonaires,https://www.facebook.com/jaSkafestival/

The Legendary Ken Boothe, O.D Boothe began his recording career with Winston 'Stranger' Cole in the duo Stranger And Ken, releasing titles including 'World's Fair', 'Hush', 'Artibella' and 'All Your Friends' during 1963-65. Thereafter he released a series of hits on Clement Dodd's Studio One Label. When the rocksteady rhythm began to evolve during 1966 Boothe recorded 'Feel Good'. In 1968 at the age of 17, Ken Boothe released his first album "Mr. Rock Steady", which included numerous hits such as "The Girl I Left Behind", "When I Fall In Love", "I Don't Want to See You Cry", "Home, Home, Home", and the title many regard as one of Boothe's best exponents of song, "Puppet On A String". He recorded the local hit 'Say You" and "Lady With the Starlight". in 1968. In 1971, he inspired the world with his hit song "Freedom Street" on Leslie Kong's Beverley's label. This classic was co-written with BB Seaton, whom Ken had worked with from their Studio One days Derrick Harriott (born Derrick Clinton Harriott, 6 February 1939, Jamaica) is a singer and record producer. He has produced recordings by Big Youth, Chariot Riders, The Chosen Few, Dennis Brown, The Ethiopians, Harriott embarked on a solo career and later formed his own record label, Crystal. His first solo release, "I Care", was a hit, with further hits following with "What Can I Do" (1964), "The Jerk" (1965) and "I'm Only Human" (1965), all of which were included on his debut album, The Best of Derrick Harriott. In 1967 he had further solo hits with "The Loser" and "Solomon", as well as with productions of other artists, including The Ethiopians' "No Baptism", and Keith And Tex's "Tonight" and "Stop That Train

Celebrity Link- The Unbridle Jamaican Reggae Icon Nicky Thomas.Nicky Thomas (born Cecil Nicholas Thomas, 30 May 1949 – 1990) was a reggae singer who enjoyed considerable chart success in Jamaica and in the United Kingdom at the start of the 1970s.Nicky Thomas was born Fruitful Vale, Portland, Jamaica. He began work as a labourer in Kingston where he worked alongside future members of the The Gladiators. His opportunity to cuts some records came when former Jiving Junior and producer Derrick Harriott wrote and produced Run Mr Nigel Run for Thomas. A huge Jamaican hit the song led to him being known as Mr Nigel for a time. He was also successful with Come Home a song from the same session.This was followed by a successful association with producer Joel Gibson better known as Joe Gibbs for whom Thomas recorded the plaintive Running Alone and Lonesome Road issued as by Cecil Thomas, as well as a version of Let It Be credited to Nicky Thomas.Thomas' collaboration with Gibbs resulted in a number of hits including Don't Touch Me, Mama's Song and God Bless The Children.Thomas and Gibbs also covered a number of well regarded R&B hits that included Tyrone Davis' Turn Back The Hands of Time and (Baby) Can I Change Your Mind and Tony Joe White's Rainy Night in Georgia. He topped the Jamaican charts in 1970 with Have A Little Faith, a record that reputedly sold 50,000 copies on its release in the UK. It failed to chart in the UK because the sales were largely through specialist music shops and not statistically counted by the official chart compilers.www.caribbeanradioshow.con www.crsradio.com 661-467-2407

Une émission dédiée aux productions Derrick Harriott avec des hits dans différents styles du Rocksteady au Rub-a-dub. Stay tuned Massives !!!

Une émission dédiée aux productions Derrick Harriott avec des hits dans différents styles du Rocksteady au Rub-a-dub. Stay tuned Massives !!!      

The man with the velvet voice, singer extraordinaire Joel “Bunny” Brown has been involved in the music business from 1972.  Bunny went on to form a vocal and dance group called The Chosen Few with Errol Brown, Franklyn Spence and Richard McDonald. Derrick Harriott produced a hit album titled “Hit After Hit” with five number one singles: “Ebony Eyes”, “You're A Big Girl Now”, “Shaft”, “Queen Majesty” and “Everybody Plays the Fool”.Bunny Brown was the lead vocalist on all of these singles except “Shaft”. With Polydor the group produced two chart hits, “You Mean Everything To me” and “I can Make Your Dreams Come True”.Bunny also recorded “Strawberry Letter 23” as a solo artiste.  Bunny Brown toured with Heatwave, performing with Earth, Wind & Fire, The O'Jays, Billy Joel, Evelyn “Champagne” King and Yoko Ono. He worked with Luther Van Dross Curtis Blow, The Main Ingredients, Lisa Fisher and Manhattan Transfer's Kenwood Dennard and Delmar Brown. n 1990 Bunny established his own label and production company – Joel's Ark.Bunny continued to tour and record, and also worked as a producer and arranger. He toured with “Electric Avenue” and “Living On the Frontline” star, Eddie Grant as well as on solo concerts. In 2003, Bunny was offered a production deal by and returned to Jamaica (moving from Atlanta his base for some years and where he introduced Reggae to rapper “Little John”) to record the album, “Ready For The World”.Bunny  is  currently touring with the album  “Bunny Brown Sings the Classic Hits Volume 1” and presently back in studio recording a new album, titled “SLY & ROBBIE PRESENTS BUNNY BROWN” produced by Sly & Robbie.www.crsradio.com go tessanne chin you voice.

Winston Jones is a original Lovers Rock Singer ,Song Writer and Producer From Kingston Jamaica.Most Notable Hit Is Stop That Train ! (Winston Jones)(o):Spanish Town Ska Beats (1965)label: Blue Beat Jamaican trio with rightful author Winston Jones, produced by Prince Buster, one year before they switched over to rocksteady as The Spanishtonians.(c):Keith & Tex (1967) [Keith Rowe & Tex Dixon, produced by Derrick Harriott, erroneously credited for years], Derrick Harriott (1968) , Ike Bennett & The Crystalites (1969) [instrumental as Easy Ride], Scotty (1970) [as Draw Your Brakes, also in film The Harder They Come in '72], Crystalites (1970) [as Stop That Man, also produced by Derrick Harriott], Big Youth (1973) [as Cool Breeze], Clint Eastwood & General Saint (1983) [dance hall hit], Vanilla Ice (1991) , Sticks & Fire (1994) , Ocean 11 (1997) ,http://www.originals.be/en/originals.php?id=5880 www.crsradio.com  www.caribbeanradioshow.com 661-467-2407 caribbeanradioshow@gmail.com (c) no contents should used without written permission ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITHOUT PREJUDICE  

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, reggae singer/producer Derrick Harriott began as a member of the Jiving Juniors (from 1958 through 1962) before embarking on his own solo career, in addition to producing other artists, including the Ethiopians, Keith, and Tex. Harriott tended to rework old R&B love songs as reggae tunes, but his best-known song, "The Loser," was an original composition. In 1971, Swing Magazine named Harriott Top Producer of 1970, as he was also one of the first to utilize the now renowned King Tubby's recording studio. The '70s saw the release of such solo albums as Undertaker, Songs for Midnight Lovers, and Psychedelic Lovers. Although not much was heard from Harriott during the '80s in terms of solo releases, the mid- to late '90s saw the emergence of such solo efforts as Sings Jamaican Rock Steady Reggae, For a Fistful of Dollars, Derrick Harriott & Giants, and Riding the Roots Chariot. Leo Graham began his recording career in the mid-sixties as a member of the group The Overtakers. Leo's vocals are distinctive, high yet thin, but totally unique and The Overtakers had a great harmony together. The band released a number of fine singles including "Girl You Ruff" and the rude-boy warning "Beware”. Although Leo had performed lead vocals for a number of the bands hits he started to become more of a harmony singer on others and so left to form a new group,The Bleechers, in late 1968.Taking the name from late-night Kingston ravers who would stay out to the early hours seeking a good time, a practice known as 'Bleeching' in Jamaica,The Bleechers was made up of Leo Graham alongside Wesley Martin and Sammy (Formerly of The Mellotones).They began recording a handful of tunes with Joe Gibbs before moving on to work with the legendary Lee "Scratch" Perry.

Reggae music history with Keith &Tex,Beverly Kelso Wailer The late 60s produced some very fine groups in Jamaica; in particular harmony trios, but also some duos patterned after their American contemporaries, such as the influential southern soul act Sam & Dave. One of those duos coming up at the time were in the Derrick Harriott stable, where Texas Dixon and Keith Rowe - better known as Keith & Tex - scored with some very memorable songs directed by the architect of the rock steady beat, Lyn Taitt with The Jets. Hits like 'Tonight' and particularly 'Stop That Train' (originally a ska number by The Spanishtonians from a few years previous) are connected to the classics that came out of the short-lived rock steady era.    Beverley Kelso is a Jamaican singer. She was a backing vocalist, and one of the founding members of The Wailers (between 1963–1966).[1] The death of Junior Braithwaite in 1999 and the death of Cherry Smith in 2008 left Kelso and Bunny Wailer as the only surviving founding members of the Wailers (although Cherry Smith is not listed on the band's website as an official member due to her limited contribution to the band.

  Dennis Brown was born on 1 February 1957 in Kingston, Jamaica, He began his singing career at the age of nine, while still at junior school.  He was fan of American balladeers such as Brook Benton, Sam Cooke, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin and Nat King Cole. He regularly hung around JJ's record store on Orange Street in the rocksteady era. Brown's first professional appearance came at the age of eleven. Bandleader Byron Lee was impressed with Brown and booked him to perform on package shows featuring visiting US artists, where he was billed as the "Boy Wonder". Delroy Wilson ,Errol Dunkley, John Holt, Ken Boothe, and Bob Andy were some of Brown's greatest influence.Brown's first recording was an original song called "Lips of Wine" for producer Derrick Harriott, He recorded for Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's Studio One label, and his first session yielded the single "No Man is an Island", recorded at age twelve and released in late 1969 and  become a huge hit throughout Jamaica.   Brown's health began to deteriorate, with longstanding respiratory problems exacerbated by cocaine use leading to him being taken ill in May 1999.He was diagnosed with pneumonia and died at the University Hospital of cardiac arrest. Brown's funeral,  was held on July 17, 1999 in Kingston and featured live performances by Maxi Priest, Shaggy,  Brown's sons. Brown was  buried at Kingston's National Heroes Park. Brown was survived by his wife Yvonne and thirteen children. Dennis Brown has distinguished himself as one of the finest and most talented musicians of our time. The Crown Prince of Reggae as he  has left us songs which will continue to satisfy the hearts and minds of us all for generations to come. more :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Brown caribbeanradioshow@gmail.com

The Starlites-Some a Weh a Bawl-1975 The Aggrovators-Sun is Shining Dub-1977 Laurel Aitken and Tiger-Nobody but Me-1970 Junior Murvin-Police and Thieves Dub-1975 Lee Scratch Perry-Rainy Night Dub-1973 Derrick Harriott and U-Roy-Penny for your Song Dub-1974 Big Youth-Tipper Tone Rocking Version2-1973 The Clash-One More Dub-1980 Sylvan White-World of Confusion Dub-1978 Keith Hudson and Errol Thompson-Golden Snake-1971 Nora Dean-Night Food Reggae-1972 Gregory Issacs-Mister Cop Dub-1976 Morwells Unlimited-Grab and Flee Dub-1979 Roots Radics meets King Tubby-The Highest-1979

INTERNATIONAL Reggae recording artist,Tinga Stewart (born Neville Stewart, c.1955, Kingston, Jamaica). Stewart won the Festival Song Contest three times, twice as a singer and once as a songwriter.Stewart's career began in the late 1960s, his first single being 1969's "She's Gone", with Ernest Wilson of The Clarendonians. He worked with producer Derrick Harriott in the early 1970s, with releases such as "Hear That Train", and performed on the PNP bandwagon in 1971, in support of Michael Manley's election campaign.[1] He sang with The Wildcats, Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, and The Boris Gardiner Happenning, then went solo and had a local hit in 1973 with "Funny Feeling", and won the 1974 Festival Song Contest with Ernie Smith's "Play de Music", which went on to become a hit in both the Jamaican chart and the United Kingdom reggae chart