Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish reggae, including harmony groups such as the Techniques, the Paragons, the Heptones and the Gaylads; soulful singers such as Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, Bob Andy, Ken Boothe and Phyllis Dillon; musicians such as Jackie Mittoo, Lynn Taitt and Tommy McCook. The term rocksteady comes from a popular (slower) dance style mentioned in the Alton Ellis song "Rocksteady", that matched the new sound. Some rocksteady songs became hits outside Jamaica, as with ska, helping to secure the international base reggae music has today.
Emmanuel "Rico" Rodriguez, also known as Rico, Reco or El Reco, was a Cuban-born Jamaican ska and reggae trombonist. He recorded with producers such as Karl Pitterson, Prince Buster, and Lloyd Daley. He was known as one of the first ska musicians. Beginning in the 1960s, he worked with The Members, The Specials, Jools Holland, and Paul Young.
Don Drummond was a Jamaican ska trombonist and composer. He was one of the original members of The Skatalites, and composed many of their tunes. In 1966, Drummond was convicted of murdering his 23-year-old lover, Anita "Marguerita" Mahfood.
Studio One is one of Jamaica's most renowned record labels and recording studios; it has been described as the Motown of Jamaica. The record label was involved with most of the major music movements in Jamaica during the 1960s and 1970s, including ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub and dancehall.
Joseph Vere Everette Johns was a Jamaican journalist, impresario, radio personality, and actor, who helped to launch the careers of many Jamaican musicians through his popular talent contests.
Oku Nagba Ozala Onuora, known as the "father of Jamaican dub poetry" is a Jamaican dub poet and performer.
Count Ossie, born Oswald Williams, was a Jamaican Rastafari drummer and band leader.
Phyllis Dillon was a Jamaican rocksteady and reggae singer who recorded for Duke Reid's lucrative Treasure Isle record label in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Lloyd Knibb OD was a Jamaican drummer who is considered Jamaica's most important and influential modern drummer. A master percussionist, he contributed to every style of this nation's popular and not so popular musical forms, including jazz, mento, burru, nyabinghi, rock steady and, by extension, reggae. He is most well known for his contribution to the development of the rhythm of the ska. He played for The Skatalites, and for Tommy McCook & The Supersonics. Knibb recorded for the producers Lloyd "Matador" Daley and Duke Reid.
The Skatalites are a ska band from Jamaica. They played initially between 1963 and 1965, and recorded many of their best known songs in the period, including "Guns of Navarone." They also played on records by Prince Buster and backed many other Jamaican artists who recorded during that period, including Bob Marley & The Wailers, on their first single "Simmer Down." They reformed in 1983 and have played together ever since.
Joseph Abraham Gordon, better known as Lord Tanamo, was a Jamaican-Canadian singer and songwriter best known for his mento and ska work.
Cedric "Im" Brooks was a Jamaican saxophonist and flautist known for his solo recordings and as a member of The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, The Sound Dimensions, Divine Light, The Light of Saba, and The Skatalites.
John Arlington "Dizzy" Moore OD was a Jamaican trumpet player and founding member of pioneering Jamaican ska and reggae act The Skatalites.
Marcia Aitken is a reggae singer best known for her recordings in the late 1970s, produced by Joe Gibbs along with Errol Thompson.
Wilbert Augustus Campbell, known as Count Suckle, was a Jamaica-born sound system operator and club owner who was influential in the development of ska and reggae music, and African-Caribbean culture, in the United Kingdom.
Nyabinghi, also Nyahbinghi, Niyabinghi, Niyahbinghi, is the gathering of Rastafari people to celebrate and commemorate key dates significant to Rastafari throughout the year. It is essentially an opportunity for the Rastafari to congregate and engage in praise and worship. For example, on July 23 of each year, a Nyabinghi is held to celebrate the birth of Emperor Haille Selassie I. During a Nyabinghi celebration men and women have different roles and expectations. Men are expected to remove any hair coverings, whilst women must keep their hair covered. A group of men typically organise themselves in a line or semi-circle and are assigned to beat the drums throughout. The remaining congregation continue to sing well known songs or 'chants', some of which are Hebraic scriptural verses that evidence the divinity of Haile Sellassie. For example, 'I have a little light in I and I'm going to make it shine, Rastafariiii, shine' and 'Holy Mount Zion is a holy place and no sinners can enter there, so let the words of my mouth and the mediation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, of Rastafari'. Nyabinghi is a Rastafari tradition that promotes Rastafari unity, strengthens the Rastafari spirit with fellowship and raises the consciousness and presence of Rastafafari in the heart of those in attendance. At some points passages of the bible are read. Rastafari recognise the significance of Jesus Christ, due to Haile Sellassie I fulfilling the teachings and prophecy of scripture.
Larry McDonald is a Jamaican percussionist. He was born in Port Maria, Jamaica in 1937. McDonald played congas with Carlos Malcolm's band, Toots and the Maytals and the Count Ossie Band. He plays a wide variety of traditional percussion instruments.
Monica Johnson, better known by her stage name Doreen Shaffer, is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, and reggae singer. Known as the "Queen of Ska", she was a founding member in 1964 of the Skatalites. Following the death of Skatalites member Lester Sterling on 16 May 2023, Shaffer is now the last surviving member of the Skatalites.
Rockfort is a community in Kingston, Jamaica that is bounded by Long Mountain range to the north, the sea and Springfield Gardens to the south, Mountain View and Rollington Town to the west, and Harbour View to the east.
Ferdinand "Bobby Little Bra" Gaynair is a saxophone player from Jamaica who now lives in Canada. He was born in East Kingston in the 1920s. He received an Order of Distinction. He was part of the Alpha Boys School. He played and recorded with various musicians including Count Ossie.
