Posted on 08/15/2015 3:18:18 PM PDT by nickcarraway
If there's one musical style that epitomizes summer, it might be the loping island style of ska. It caught fire in early '60s Jamaica, a precursor to reggae.
Player utilities PopoutShare 00:0000:00 download This story is based on a radio interview. Listen to the full interview. But ska has gone through a few iterations.
Ska is really a fusion of American R&B with Jamaican jazz, says Brad Klein, a Minneapolis-based filmmaker who traced the history of ska in a documentary, "Legends of Ska. Without Ska, there is no reggae."
"Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Jimmy Cliff ... all started in ska as teenagers. So, ska is the mother of reggae," he says.
Klein's love affair with ska began when he was working at a reggae record company, selling, doing publicity and promotion. His documentary includes three crucial early ska tracks.
"My goal was to teach people and to show the world that there's much more to Jamaican music than Bob Marley," says Klein.
Not only has ska had worldwide revivals in the punk 1970s (think The Specials, Madness, English Beat) and the 1990s (think The Mighty Mighty Bosstones), it still is popular. Klein says it's most popular in Mexico and Latin America and endures in Japan as well.
Here are a few classic ska tracks.
Guitarist and Skatalites founder Ernest Ranglin is cited as a pioneer by The Guinness Book of Reggae as a pioneer, which says his "Shufflin' Jug, recorded in 1959, is widely regarded as the first ska record. In a 1998 interview, Ranglin considers another of his arrangements, Theophilus Beckford's "Easy Snappin,'" as one of the most pronounced early examples of the rougher sound then associated with the slums and the late-night sound-system street parties.
"In those days, nobody knew what this music would become. I was afraid of hurting my image,'' Ranglin recalled. "I stayed in the background of everything I did.''
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ranglin helped recruit the backbone of ska and jazz pioneers — saxophonist Roland Alphonso, trombonist Don Drummond, keyboardists Jackie Mittoo and Monty Alexander — who would make Jamaican music distinctive over the next two decades.
By the mid-1960s, ska was evolving into a style known as rock steady, which then moved into reggae. Here's Desmond Dekker's "007 (Shanty Town)," from that era.
I was just getting ready to post this, then saw your My Boy Lollipop - yep, it was of its time. Here is the other one I remember.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaMncRaH494
“Jamaican Ska”.. Been hearing some old reggae music on a BBC show called “Death in Paradise”, a mystery show set in the Caribbean.
Ska/Reggae heavily lifted from American/English music.
“Last Train to Skaville” really does have a similar horn arrangement to Johnny Cash’s “Ring of fire”; I think there are other examples, Desmond Dekker’s ‘007 (Shantytown)’ is very similar to another song, “Bristol Stomp” may be it.
“Guns of Navarone” and other songs are rather good pieces all the same.
A ping to you Rudy.
Agreed 100% Also not to be forgotten are Dave & Ansell Collins. I have the strangest music tastes, preferring hard-core old time country, Southern Gospel and big band. The rock revolution totally passed me by but I did acquire a real taste for reggae.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUx1i38Rco8
Dick Clark wants info on ska (this says reggae came first though). Police Squad
Any O.C. Supertones fans here?
Has Tyrone Greene and His Reggae Band put out anymore songs? :>}
LOL!
I know. He has Stevie Wonder down to a science. But after he did that skit every time I hear Reggae that skits pops up in my mind LOL. About as hilarious as Cheech and Chongs Earache My Eye parody on Punk Rock.
I highly recommend an album I recently downloaded from iTunes based on the Death in Paradise BBC series. Really excellent.
In the River of Babylon?
dislike them both
BOUT a interesting as hip hop and rap
Disregard. That was the Melodians. Sorry
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Yep, and he's a musical genius, sorely underrated.
It's a cryin' damn shame.
He can do more on a guitar than 1,000 other guitar geniuses.
Maybe 1,000,000 people worldwide even know who he is.
Yes!!
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