Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Jamaican 50th Independence Musical Countdown!

ska invita

back on the other side
jamaican%2Bindependence%2B50.jpg


August 6th 2012 marks fifty years of Jamaican independence, and on my blog/facebook I'm marking the occasion with a 50 day musical countdown, posting a piece of Jamaican music from each of the last fifty years, which if I've added it up correctly should take us right up to August 6th.

On the day itself I'll be dropping five new mixes in quick succession: a tribute to Dennis Brown, a tribute to the Greensleeves label, a new roots & dub mix, a mystic/experimental dub mix, and an hour of across the board JA 7's.

check out http://mikusmusik.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/jamaican-50th-independence-musical.html for a bit more of a write up, and the facebook page thing is here http://www.facebook.com/mikusmusik <be nice to see you on there

I think if nothing else its interesting hearing the new directions develop from year to year.
Rather than just doing them in my little corner I thought I'd post them up here too - please post any favourite tunes from the relevant year too.

So starting today it's 1962 - lots of tunes came out to celebrate independence, I've gone for this one, from a time when the Mento sound was still strong.



tomorrow '63 and so on...
 
I will be following this:cool: .

Just listening to a Trojan compilation in the car and musing how the world would be a poorer place if Jamaica didn't exist. So much talent from such a small place.
 
1963
Laurel Aitken ('Godfather of Ska') voices a great optimistic freedom-ska cut here. From what I can tell Mr Aitken had been living in Brixton for three years and had just returned to JA earlier that year, quite possibly influencing the lyrics.


Featured on this LP too...liking the cover
The%2BLong%2BHot%2BSummer.jpg
 
Ska is most definitely boss in 1964, and rather than go for a straight Skatalites track, how about an early Lee Perry vocal - nice message and as firing a ska beat as can be - great tune - Coxsone Dodd production it looks like on the label, and likely Skatalites in some shape or form playing on this too:
Lee Perry: Help The Weak


The flip of this 7 has a great version of Exodus, led by Skatalites founding member saxophonist Tommy McCook - a jazz man, this was supposedly his first ever ska recording.
Tommy Mccook -exodus


The original of this was written by film composer Ernest Gold, the track the main theme from the film 'Exodus, a controversial picture by all accounts for its Zionist line http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus_(1960_film). Politics aside, great score:
Ernest Gold: "Exodus" (1960) - Original Main Theme
 
By the following year of 1966 the new slower rocksteady sound would be taking over from ska - this too-short 1965 killer instrumental suggests what's to come - the tempo slowed right down to the new groove. Wonderful playing from the Skatalites as per usual - produced by Vincent ''Randy'' Chin.

Tommy McCook and The Skatalites - Freedom Ska
 
Nice one ska.

There's a big sound system session on June 30th at the Coronet I'm heading down to once I've finished my duties elsewhere:

86612.jpg


Saturday 30th June 2012

Where: The Coronet
Admission £20
Times 22:00 until 06:00
Nearest Station nearest tube station


About the event:

Dance of the Century
Saturday 30th June 2012
10pm-6am.

50th anniversary of Jamaican Independence

In anticipation of this summers 50th anniversary of Jamaican Independence, The Coronet is proud to host four of the UK’s greatest sound-systems. A night of the finest Reggae music.

Introducing

Saxon Sound (UK World Cup Winner)
Selector – Mussel Head – Trevor Sax – Dennis Rowe

V.Rocket (Midlands No1 Champion Sound)
Selector – Lady V – Parlement – Belly – Val B – Ruben

Sir Coxsone (Outernational Sound 4 Times UK Cup Winner)
Selector – LC – Bird – Conrad – Syfa Shawn – Cox – Craig MC – Mikie Foreigner – Rickey Ranking – Horseman

Fatman (Hi Power Sound UK & Europe No1 Champion Sound)
Selector – Flip – Daddy Farman with full MC Crew.

@
Coronet Theatre
28 New Kent Road London SE1 6TJ
Safe And Friendly Environment
info@coronetlondon.co.uk

Ticket info
Only 500 early bird £20 tickets available for this event.
 
You should do this as a blog piece somewhere.
that was kind of the idea:
[...] check out http://mikusmusik.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/jamaican-50th-independence-musical.html for a bit more of a write up, and the facebook page thing is here http://www.facebook.com/mikusmusik <be nice to see you on there
it'll be on here and blood and fire boards for prosperity (for what its worth), and i was thinking probably do a youtube playlist at the end.

I think to create a seperate blog for it would warrant more info and better research on my part, which I dont have time right now (barely managing to get this together!) ;)
 
that was kind of the idea:

it'll be on here and blood and fire boards for prosperity (for what its worth), and i was thinking probably do a youtube playlist at the end.

I think to create a seperate blog for it would warrant more info and better research on my part, which I dont have time right now (barely managing to get this together!) ;)

Well i mean somewhere kind of definite where it will stay..... Id totally link to it from my blog (not that thats a particularly exciting prospect with only a few regular readers lol).
 
:D
only the 13th word in the OP!
and tut tut if you've not been on the Mikus blog! :eek:

Oooops, I've a bad habit of skim reading, I can do books in a matter of days and just get the general gist of them as well as picking up on shit spelling and grammar :(
 
1966

I don't plan to go into too much detail on what happens year to year every time, but worth setting the scene a little a bit for the pivotal year that was 1966. As more people move from the country to the towns, so increases the number of people struggling to make ends meet. The initial optimism of Independence that swept the country starts to make way for a new social realism, and this comes to be reflected in the music. The rudeboy culture affects the music in form and content: Rocksteady reflects the new realities and sets a tempo for the music that will last long into the future.

As Alton Ellis coined/popularised the term, I think its only right to go for a track of his, and Cry Tough has to be my favourite, mainly for the quality of the vocals, including the wonderful three-part harmonies provided by The Flames. 1966 also seems to mark the popularisation of the vocal harmony group, such a crucial ingredient in so many classic JA recordings over the decades.

Alton Ellis's songs about rudeboys always came down on the critical side - in fact I read that at one point he berated the Wailers for glamourising them. That aside it can be said that 1966 also marks a moment where rebel voices increasingly make it to record, another theme that would come to prevail if not define so much JA music.

This extended version posted here is also of interest because its the earliest example I've heard of the use of delay in a proto-dub style. I can't find out if this was ever released at the time, I'd guess more likely held back as a soundsystem special, but interesting to see the new innovations beginning to bubble through.



It is also worth noting that 1966 is the year that Haile Selassie visits the island, giving a huge boost to the Rastafari movement, which in turn will come to have an enormous impact on the music to come...
 
Nice one Ringo. Funny never remember hearing that swing intro on Take Over Now before.

By the way there was a great Rocksteady mix posted on these boards a couple of years back - well worth a download:
http://soundcloud.com/neil-argonaut/argonaut-sounds-rocksteady-mix-1
260x260x1c5fdfdfc09368fd5bf769754f645e62.jpg.pagespeed.ic._fnvf-jGJg.jpg

Argonaut Sounds Rocksteady Mix, mixed by Neil in late 2009 all from vinyl, so hope you don't mind a wee bit of crackle;

All feedback appreciated.

Enjoy.

Tracklisting:uRock steady - Alton Ellis / Come on Little Girl - The Melodians / It's Raining - The Three Tops / I Don't Mind - The Bassies / Loving Pauper - Dobby Dobson / Lonely Street - The Conquerors / Queen Majesty - The Techniques / Mabrouk Wailing - Tommy McCook and the SUpersonics / Evening Time / Jackie Mittoo / I'm Just A Guy / Alton Ellis / Ease Up - the Bases / It Mek - Desmond Dekker / Wear you to the ball - The Paragons / My Conversation / Slim SMith and the Uniques / Cry Tough / Alton Ellis and the Flames / Burial - The Wailers / You Don't Care - The Techniques / The Great Wogga Wogga - Dennis Alcapone / Love Is a Treasure - Freddie McKay / Love Is a Treasure - Lizzy / Last Train to Expo '67 - The Melodians / I'll Get Along Without You - The Melodians / Why Did You Leave Me - Alton and Phyllis / Moodorama - Roland Alphonso / Love Was All I Had - Alton Ellis / Rougher Yet - Slim Smith / These Guys - The Sensations / Only A SMile - The Paragons / Rock Steady - Alton Ellis
 
Back
Top Bottom