Jamaican music

Jamaican MusicEvolution and Creation of Reggae

www.stefanwalcott.com

Caribbean Composers’ Handbook – Amazon.com

Road to Unique Expression

The idea of blasting music from the radio or a record player-the best in American R and B or hot jazz- through a configuration of open-air loudspeaker cabinets became popular in the mid 1940s.

Firstly done to attract patrons the music eventually became the event.

Sound System

Apparatus used to amplify recorded music.

Sound system parties became very popular in inner city Kingston areas as entertainment source.

Early system operators: Tom the Great Sebastian, V Rocket, Count Smith the Blues Blaster, Sir Nick the Champ, King Edwards or Lord Koos.

Sound System Cntd.

Music played was American R+B, Hot Jazz and even Be-Bop.

Louis Jordan was a favourite.

Competition was intense as exclusivity was the order of the day.

The more obscure the better.

Created micro-economy of importation and selling of records.

Innovators

Prince Buster – Voice of the People

Coxsone Dodd – Studio One

Duke Reid- Trojan

Decided to produce their own artists locally thus having exclusive access to the music produced.

The Musical Innovation

W.I.R.L – introduced some Mento elements in to the R+B music by stretching off-beats.

This concept was adapted and developed by Coxsone where he wanted to take things further by putting greater distance between homegrown and imported music. He called a meeting with Ernie Ranglin, and bass player Cluett Johnson.

(Coxsone) deliberately wanted to keep the R and B shuffle beat, but he moved the stress to the afterbeat –the second and fourth beats – to such a degree that it turned the arrangement around. ….People used to call in to stress it even more, and this off-beat become the focus of all Jamaican music that followed on after it.’

Track – Easy Snappin.

Addition to Innovation

Buster continued this theory with the accented ‘off’ beat.

Introduced Rastafari to popular music through seminal ‘Oh Carolina’

Featured Folke Brothers singing and Count Ossie drum group.

Jamaican dialect and phrasing also introduced.

Ska

A couple of years into the 1960s and the music had settled down into what was to become classic ska sound.

The new beat owed a lot to the seminal band the Skatalites who worked with the major studios especially Studio One.

Lloyd Knibbs, Tommy McCook, Lloyd Brevette and Jackie Mittoo.

Don Drummond was leader of the group and important influence.

Ska the First

Ska became the first unique and distinct popular genre emerging from Jamaica.

Gained national recognition as radio picked started to broadcast it.

Gained international appeal especially in urban UK; ‘Al Capone’ Top 20 British hit in 1967.

Instrumentation/Texture

Rhythm Section with Acoustic bass.

Horns

Voices

Artists The Skatalites, Millie, Lord Tanamo, Prince Buster, Jimmy Cliff.

Rocksteady to Reggae

Late 1960s saw the birth of a slower heavily bass oriented type of music known as Rocksteady.

Key element the introduction of the electric bass and the now dominant, melodic place it took within the ensemble.

Electric organ also introduced.

Horns were limited due to expense.

Rocksteady dominated by vocal groups.

Instrumentation/Texture

Rhythm Section with Acoustic bass.

Horns

Voices

Artists The Paragons, The Wailers, The Heptones, The Maytals

Reggae

Rocksteady changed in name and form in 1968.

Slightly faster, with new organ pattern and studio effects.

Rasta ideology prominent as well as Burru and Kumina drumming styles.

Aritsts The Israelites, The Royals, The Wailers,

Dennis Brown, The Ethiopians, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, Gregory Issacs, Beres Hammond, Barrington Levy….

Sources

Bradley, Lloyd. Bass culture: when reggae was king. London: Viking 2000. Print.

Katz, David. Solid foundation: an oral history of reggae. New York: Bloomsbury 2003. Print.