Groundins
By: Charles H.E. Campbell
The musicians who formed the
Skatalites were successful jazz players on the live local circuit.
Unfortunately the group stayed together as a unit for less than two years.
However, the musicians continued to record for various producers. By the band's
formation in 1964, they had been doing studio sessions for Clement 'Coxson'
Dodd, Duke Reid, Prince Buster and other producers for up to 10 years. For the
sound systems operating then, R&B music was the staple played in the
dances, but its popularity was on wane in North America. Of necessity, the
sound system operators began to produce their own music, initially, exclusively
for their systems, and then eventually they released them through regular
outlets. The Jamaican musicians employed, tried to copy the R&B of
that early period 1953-1959. This sound, minus the American feel, was
called Blue-Beat. Later, by mixing a touch of Jazz and Mento, a new genre
evolved in the early 60s.
Ska was, therefore, the
ultimate replacement for R&B. The lasting significant influence of the
R&B is the emphasis on the after-beat, which has become a main
characteristic of Jamaican pop music. This, in fact, completed the ancestral/
spiritual connectivity and circle with clap-hand singing in Jamaican churches
and mento music, which had earlier influenced American Jazz at its dawn ...
plantation music, was at the root of all these musical idioms.
At first, the ska beat was
vibrant, mirroring the hopes, aspirations and optimism of the Jamaican masses.
As hopes however, began to fade and disillusion set in, the first generation of
post -independence musicians and artistes — influenced in large part by
Rastafari — created two distinctive characteristics of Jamaican music. Firstly,
there was a slowing down of the music and a stylistic change to staccato
sounding bass lines, as henceforth, it was not played on the first beat.
Secondly, using many Rasta songs adopted from church hymns, social themes,
including a recognition and honour of Africa, laments about poverty, topical and
protest songs which urged us to preserve and protect our roots, became the
dominant lyrics of the decade of the 60s.
In the 60s and the 70s rock
steady and reggae music began to penetrate international markets through the
works of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Burning Spear, Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the
Maytals, Dennis Brown, Millie Small, Desmond Dekker, Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson,
Alton Ellis, Bob Andy, Lee 'Scratch' Perry's music and numerous others. Through
the appeal of their songs and the worldwide penetration of the touring Reggae
Sunsplash festival, between 1984 and 1996, Reggae music became the anthems of
the disenfranchised and dispossessed across the globe. The Rasta language was
popularised through the music, becoming the lingua franca of the urban youths,
freedom fighters and human rights activists, indigenous and repressed peoples.
Dancehall music arrived at the
cusp of the technological revolution. With the discovery of digital recording
in early to mid- 80s, Jamaica's output of recorded music per capita became
greater than any other country in the world. While it has a heavy reliance on
this technology, is totally stripped down, raw and minimalist, the rhythms of
early dancehall music exemplified by the team of King Jammy, Steely and Clevie,
were drawn from African-based, rural folk forms such as Etu, Pocomania and
Kumina.
In its incipient stages, Reggae
was promoted mainly by its Diaspora, but has since become main-stream. Today,
everywhere in the world you go, people are listening to Reggae, from Ska to
Dancehall. Generations have discovered that, culturally, reggae music and
"livity" means a humane, spiritual, wholesome life. To quote Michael
Manley, "it is commentary; satirical at times, often cruel; but its
troubadours are not afraid to speak of love, of loyalty, of hope, of ideals, of
justice, of new things and new forms. It is this assertion of revolutionary
possibility that sets reggae apart."
Email: che.campbell@gmail.com
