Larry McDonald | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Lawrence McDonald |
| Born | 11 June 1937 [1] |
| Origin | Port Maria, Jamaica |
| Genres | Reggae, ska, rocksteady |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Percussion |
| Years active | 1964–present |
Larry McDonald is a Jamaican percussionist. [2] [3] 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. [4]
McDonald has over a half century history of recording and performing with a wide variety of artists, [5] such as Gil Scott-Heron, [6] [7] Taj Mahal (musician), [8] [9] Lee "Scratch" Perry [10] and The Skatalites. [11]
In 2009, McDonald released his first solo album [12] "Drumquestra," which features many of his former collaborators, including Sly Dunbar, [5] Uziah Thompson of Bob Marley and the Wailers and the former Count Ossie drummers known as the "Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari." [13] in an orchestra of drummers.
Drumquestra also featured former frontmen from bands Larry performed and recorded with, [5] including Toots Hibbert, Bob Andy, Mutabaruka, Stranger Cole and Dollarman. The album was recorded at a live session at Harry J Studios in Kingston Jamaica by Steel Pulse producer Sidney Mills for Malik Al Nasir's MCPR label in the UAE, who released the album in 2009. MCRP also released two singles off the album the same year, "Head Over Heels" Featuring Dollarman and Sly Dunbar and "Set The Children Free" Featuring Toots Hibbert, the latter of which was subsequently re-mixed for dance-floors by Lenny B. [14]
Shortly after the album was released, Larry was honoured [15] in July 2011, at the 14th annual 'Tributes to the Greats' [16] award ceremony in Jamaica, with a lifetime achievement award for his 50-year contribution to Jamaican music.
From 2011 through 2020, Larry McDonald has been one of the core members of Subatomic Sound System touring and recording both independently and as the band for Lee "Scratch" Perry throughout the US as well as at select performances in Europe at France's 2016 Télérama Dub Festival #14 and Hungary's 2017 Ozora Festival, the UK's 2018 Positive Vibration Festival and Dubai's 2019 Sole Dxb festival.
On Friday 22 March 2013 Larry performed at the United Nations General Assembly with Steel Pulse as part of the UNESCO's International Slavery Remembrance Day event.[ citation needed ]
| Year | Promo CD single | Label | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Head Over Heels (Cat No. CPLM301) | MCPR Music | Larry McDonald Ft. Dollarman |
| Year | 7" single | Label | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | African Home (Cat No. DHM 7240-1) | Afro | Larry McDonald & Bongo Herman |
| Year | Album | Label | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Drumquestra (Cat No. CPLM301) | MCPR Music | Larry McDonald |
Clement Seymour "Coxsone" Dodd was a Jamaican record producer who was influential in the development of ska and reggae in the 1950s, 1960s and beyond.
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.
Ewart Beckford OD, known by the stage name U-Roy, was a Jamaican vocalist and pioneer of toasting. U-Roy was known for a melodic style of toasting applied with a highly developed sense of timing.
The Maytals, known from 1972 to 2020 as Toots and the Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group, one of the best known ska and rocksteady vocal groups. The Maytals were formed in the early 1960s and were key figures in popularizing reggae music.
Lowell Fillmore "Sly" Dunbar is a drummer, best known as one half of the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and reggae production duo Sly and Robbie.
Frederick Nathaniel "Toots" Hibbert, was a Jamaican singer and songwriter who was the lead vocalist for the reggae and ska band Toots and the Maytals. A reggae pioneer, he performed for six decades and helped establish some of the fundamentals of reggae music. Hibbert's 1968 song "Do the Reggay" is widely credited as the genesis of the genre name reggae. His band's album True Love won a Grammy Award in 2005.
Malik Al Nasir, born Mark Trevor Watson is a British author and performance poet, born to a Welsh mother and a Guyanese father. Malik is the band leader of Malik & the O.G's. Spurred by an interest in the early black footballer Andrew Watson, he began to research his family ancestry, discovering both enslaved and slave-owners in his lineage.
Marcia Llyneth Griffiths is a Jamaican singer. One reviewer described her by noting "she is known primarily for her strong, smooth-as-mousse love songs and captivating live performances".
Leroy Sibbles is a Jamaican reggae musician and producer. He was the lead singer for The Heptones in the 1960s and 1970s.
Uzziah "Sticky" Thompson was a Jamaican percussionist, vocalist and deejay active from the late 1950s. He worked with some of the best known performers of Jamaican music and played on hundreds of albums.
Earl "Chinna" Smith, a.k.a. Earl Flute and Melchezidek the High Priest, is a Jamaican guitarist active since the late 1960s. He is most well known for his work with the Soul Syndicate band and as guitarist for Bob Marley & the Wailers, among others, and has recorded with many reggae artists, appearing on more than 500 albums.
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.
Funky Kingston is the name of two albums by Jamaican reggae group Toots and the Maytals. The first was issued in Jamaica and the United Kingdom in 1973 on Dragon Records, a subsidiary label of Island Records, owned by Chris Blackwell. A different album, with the same cover and title, was issued in the United States in 1975 on Mango Records. That album was compiled from three previous Maytals albums by Island Records employee Danny Holloway and peaked at #164 on the Billboard 200. It was also voted the eleventh best album of 1975 in the annual Jazz & Pop poll. In 2003, the American version was placed at number 378 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, 380 in a 2012 revised list and 344 in a 2020 revised list.
The Rocksteady 7 or "David Hillyard & the Rocksteady Seven",are an American Ska and Jazz band from New York, New York that formed in 1992. Since the early 1990s the group has consisted of tenor saxophonist and band leader Dave Hillyard as well as percussionist Larry McDonald. In live performances, they are supported by a rotating cast of musicians, including drummer Eddie Ocampo and Dave Wake on keys among others.
Subatomic Sound System, founded in 1999 by Emch and Noah Shachtman, is an American record label and collective hosting musicians, producers, DJs, and visual artists from a variety of backgrounds and traditions. In late 2008, Subatomic Sound System garnered international attention for a limited edition vinyl 12" featuring their collaboration with Vienna's Dubblestandart and dub inventor Lee "Scratch" Perry, releasing the first songs from Perry in the dubstep genre, one of the first recorded examples of a tangible connection between the popular UK based electronic genre that emerged in the early 2000s and the Jamaican dub from the 1970s where dubstep's origins were rooted and which had been primarily originated by Perry himself. Beginning in 2008, Subatomic Sound System started hosting weekly radio shows on 91.5fm, Radio New York, and webcasts on Brooklyn Radio. In 2011 Subatomic Sound System began performing as Lee "Scratch" Perry's backing band with a hybrid of electronics and live instruments. In 2013 they performed together at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and afterward became Perry's exclusive touring band in North America. In 2017, Subatomic Sound System released their first full-length album with Perry entitled 'Super Ape Returns To Conquer' which debuted No. 5 on the Billboard reggae chart and No. 2 on iTunes US reggae album chart and reached No. 1 on North America World music NACC charts.
Geoffrey Aloysius Chung was a Jamaican musician, recording engineer, and record producer.
Neville O'Riley Livingston, known professionally as Bunny Wailer, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and percussionist. He was an original member of reggae group The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he is considered one of the longtime standard-bearers of reggae music. He was also known as Jah B, Bunny O'Riley, and Bunny Livingston.
Earl “Paul” Douglas is a Jamaican Grammy Award-winning drummer and percussionist, best known for his work as the drummer, percussionist and bandleader of Toots and the Maytals. His career spans more than five decades as one of reggae's most recorded drummers. Music journalist and reggae historian David Katz wrote, “dependable drummer Paul Douglas played on countless reggae hits."
Clifton "Jackie" Jackson is a Jamaican bass player, who was an important session musician on ska, rocksteady and reggae records in the 1960s and 1970s, and later a member of Toots and the Maytals.
Ball of Fire is an album by the Jamaican band the Skatalites, released in 1998 in the United States. The band supported the album with a North American tour, including shows with several Hellcat bands.
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