An Introduction to Reggae and Jamaican Music
Lecturer: Keith McCuaig
Jamaica
Population: 2.8 Million
Jamaica: A History of Colonialism • Claimed by Spain in 1494 • African people forced into slavery from 1513 onwards • Jamaica is taken by British in 1655 • Escaped slaves known as the Maroons • Maroons held on to their West African culture, including music (esp. drums) • End of slavery in Jamaica: 1834 • Jamaican Independence: 1962
Pre-Reggae Musical Styles • • • • • • • • • •
African and British influences; East Indian Revival Zion and Pocomania Quadrille Jonkanoo Work Songs Ring Play/Ring Shouts Mento Jazz and Jamaican Jazz US R&B Afro-Cuban forms
Jamaican Folk Music Traditions Revival Zion and Pocomania • African and Christian religious elements • Music called Kumina Ex: Jamaican Cult Music (Folkways, 1954) http://www.folkways.si.edu/uplifting-table-revival-zion-2/caribbean-sacredworld/music/track/smithsonian
Jamaican Folk Music Traditions Quadrille bands and Jonkanoo • Slaves often taught how to play European instruments (fiddle, fife) • Euro musical system and tonality (i.e.: major scale) Quadrille (example) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz7L5cWSeqU
Jonkanoo (John Canoe, Junkanoo) • Fife and Drum music (with example) • •
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6mRdPP6wRo Mississippi, then Jamaica (audio only)
Jamaican Folk Music Traditions Work Songs • Common is virtually all cultures globally • Agriculture, laundry, hard labour, prison, etc. Ring Play/ Ring Shout • Entertainment, call and response • Body as percussion, improvisation, dance
Ex: Folk Music of Jamaica (Folkways, 1956) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkEnq802Ldo • Work songs @ 11:08 • Ring Play @ 16:00
Mento • First recorded Jamaican music • Drew on JA folk music • Influenced later forms of JA pop music • Sometimes called Jamaican Calypso • 1950s: performed for tourists on North Coast Ex: Lord Lebby – “Etheopia (sic)” (1955) • Country style
Mento Common Mento topics: • Humour • Everyday life of poor Jamaicans • Latest news • Sex Ex: Hubert Porter, George Moxey & Calypso Quintet – “Dry Weather House” (c. 1951-6) • Uptown style
Rumba Box
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDAwWxPG39A
Mento Band
Sweet & Dandy Mento Band, Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Motta’s Mento • Stanley Motta (1915-1993) • Hispanic Jewish background • Owned Garage and Auto Shop in Kingston, which also sold records • 1951, opens first JA recording studio – MRS (Mott’s Recording Studio)
• US and UK market for calypso (and mento) • Records pressed in London Ex: Lord Fly – “Medley” (1952) • 1st record from MRS
Mento Ex: Harry Belafonte - Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” (1956) • Belafonte: US-born to Jamaican parents • Day-O is a Jamaican folk song • Mento style • Work song origins • Call and response
Byron Lee and the Dragonaires • • • •
Long-standing band, 50s-90s Biggest JA band in 1950s, show band North Coast hotels, clubs Versatile: – Jazz, R&B, Mento, Calypso, Ska, etc.
• Backed touring musicians – Sam Cooke, Chuck Berry Fats Domino
Ex: Byron Lee and the Dragonaires – “Kingston Calypso” (1963) • Dr. No Soundtrack
Alpha Boys’ School • Founded in 1880s for orphans and poor children • “Unmanageable boys” • Basic education and trades
• 1890s-Present: music training • Classical, marches, jazz • Graduates would perform for tourists at fancy hotels, and later in recording session
Jamaican Jazz • Jazz performed in Jamaican since at least 1930s • Colonial-era social clubs, hotels, etc. • Alpha Boys’ School Alum:
Ex: Bertie King – “Blue Lou” (1955)
Jamaican Patois Louise Bennett, “Miss Lou” (1919-2006) • Poet, singer, author, educator Ex: Louise Bennett – “Jamaica Language” (1983) • Patois as legitimate language • Becomes a hallmark of Jamaican music
Ex: Louise Bennett – “Linstead Market” (1954)
Other popular musical styles • Afro-Cuban forms – Rhumba, Bolero, Mambo – Heard on radio from Cuba
• African-American music – Big band jazz (30s, 40s) – R&B (40s, 50s)
US R&B and Sound Systems • Records • Radio (New Orleans, Nashville, Miami) • Sound Systems – Large mobile discos – Initially just a turntable and large speaker – Started to replace most live music by end of 1940s – Live band, especially large swing orchestras, were expensive – “Dancehalls:” lawn, fenced-in plots of land in Kingston
Duke Reid’s Sound System, c.1957
The Big Three Sounds Systems Mid-1950s to early-1960s: • Duke Reid: Trojan Sound – Ex-police, tough, gun-lover, older
• Clement Dodd: Sir Coxsone’s Downbeat – Excellent taste in music, younger
• Prince Buster: Voice of the People
Sound System Competition • • • •
Loyalty to your sound Competition sometimes violent Paid enforcers Trips to US to buy “exclusive” records
• Sound Clash: try to mash up, batter, or murdah the other sound
What did Sound Systems Play? • Fats Domino and Little Richard were popular in Jamaica • These and other US artists also performed in Jamaica • Sound Systems however often played “Blacker” styles (i.e. not crossover R&B hits) Ex: Wynonie Harris – “Good Rockin’ Tonight” (1947) Ex: Willis Jackson – “Later For the Gator” (1958) • aka Coxsone’s Hop
Music Producers Sound System owners started recording their own songs to play (Producer: Label) • Duke Reid: Treasure Isle and Trojan (late 50s) • Clement Dodd: Studio One (1962), elsewhere in 50s Non-Sound System owners’ labels: • Chris Blackwell: R&B (1958) • Edward Seaga: West Indies Records (1958)
Jamaican R&B • Boogie Style: Ex: Clue J and his Blues Blasters – “Shuffling Jug” (1957) (prod. Clement Dodd) Ex: Laurel Aitken – “Boogie In My Bones” (1958) (prod. Chris Blackwell) Ballad Style: Ex: Alton & Eddy – Muriel (1960) (Alton Ellis and Eddy Perkins, prod. Dodd)
Prince Buster (1938-2016) • One-man record company: singer, writer, producer • Wants to sound more Jamaican, less emulating US sounds Ex: Prince Buster – “They Got To Go” (1960) • Early ska/proto ska • Offbeat guitar (Jah Jerry) – Like Banjo in Mento
• Saxes on offbeat at end of song (very ska)
Ska (1961-1965) • Jamaican Independence: August 6, 1962 • Musical Independence • Elements of US R&B and pan-Caribbean styles Ex: Derrick Morgan – “Forward March” (1962) Ex: Jimmy Cliff – “Miss Jamaica” (1962)
• Both recorded by Leslie Kong, Beverley’s
Leslie Kong (1933-1971) • Chinese Jamaica producer • Beverley’s (record label) Ex: Derrick and Patsy – “Housewife’s Choice” (1962) Ex: Shirley and Lee – “Feel So Good” (1955) • Morgan also worked as Kong’s A&R – Desmond Dekker, Bob Marley (Feb. ‘62)
Arthur “Duke” Reid (1915-1975) • Sound Systems: trips to US looking for records • Producer, label owner, Treasure Isle, Trojan Ex: Justin Hinds & The Dominoes – “Carry Go Bring Come” (1964) • Rasta POV – lyrics on next slide • One of the top ska vocal groups – Along with The Wailers and The Maytals
“Carry Go Bring Come” This carry go bring come, my dear, bring misery (x2) You're going from home to home, making disturbances It's time you stopped doing those things, you old Jezebel The meek shall inherit this world, you old Jezebel It needs no light to see you're making disturbances It's better to seek a home in Mount Zion high Instead of keeping oppression upon a innocent man For time will tell on you, you old Jezebel How long shall the wicked reign over my people?
Clement “Coxsone” Dodd (1932-2004) • Sound System: Sir Coxsone’s Downbeat • Record producer, label owner: Studio One • Studio Owner, opens 1963 at 13 Brentford Road: – Jamaica Recording and Publishing Studio
Ex: The Wailers – “Simmer Down” (1964) • Response to “Rudeboy” culture – more on Rudeboys in Rocksteady section
The Skatalites • Worked with Dodd, Reid and others • Backed all the top vocalists – The Wailers, The Maytals, Stranger Cole, etc.
• Instrumentals – 100s of 45s
• June 1964-August 1965 Ex: The Skatalites – “Guns of Navarone” (1964) • Top-selling ska record
The Skatalites • • • • • • •
Roland Alphonso, Tommy McCook, Lester Sterling (sax) Don Drummond (trombone) Johnny “Dizzy” Moore (trumpet) Lloyd Knibbs (drums) Lloyd Brevett (bass) Jackie Mittoo (organ, piano, keys, arranger, bandleader) Jerome “Jah Jerry” Hinds (guitar)
Ex: The Skatalites – “Eastern Standard Time” (1964)
Ska moves beyond Downtown Kingston • By 1964, the Skatalites played in Uptown Kingston • Divide of city, rich and poor
World’s Fair, NYC 1964 • Jamaican gov’t sends Byron Lee’s band, not the Skatalites (no ganja) • Jimmy Cliff, Millie Small, Prince Buster • “Ghetto” side of the music not fully accepted in JA yet
Blue Beat Records • Founded 1960, London, UK • Licensed JA music for sale in UK • Music from all the top producers – Bigger market in UK compared to JA
• Became generic term for ska in UK • 1962: Chris Blackwell moves to London • Licenses songs from JA, export market • By 1963, 10,000 copies of a record sold in UK
Jamaican Music Goes International • First International hit: Ex: Millie Small – “My Boy Lollipop” (1964) • Millie still a teenager • 6 million records sold • Charted in US, UK and Canada • Recorded in London, UK musicians • Chris Blackwell (prod.), Ernest Ranglin (arr.) • Barbie Gaye cover
