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Arthur "Duke" Reid CD was a Jamaican record producer, DJ and label owner.
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.
Alton Nehemiah Ellis was a Jamaican singer-songwriter. One of the innovators of rocksteady, he was given the informal title "Godfather of Rocksteady". In 2006, he was inducted into the International Reggae And World Music Awards Hall Of Fame.
Nerlynn Taitt was a guitarist born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, who later moved to Jamaica and became a pioneer of rocksteady music.
The Ethiopians were one of Jamaica's best-loved harmony groups during the late ska, rocksteady and early reggae periods. Responsible for a significant number of hits between the mid-1960s and early 1970s, the group was also one of the first Jamaican acts to perform widely in Britain.
Derrick Morgan OD is a Jamaican musical artist who was popular in the 1960s and 1970s. He worked with Desmond Dekker, Bob Marley, and Jimmy Cliff in the rhythm and blues and ska genres, and he also performed rocksteady and skinhead reggae.
Slim Smith was a ska, rocksteady and reggae singer. In their book Reggae: The Rough Guide (1997), Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton described Smith as "the greatest vocalist to emerge in the rocksteady era".
Sonia Eloise Pottinger OD was a Jamaican reggae record producer. An icon in the music business, Sonia Pottinger was the first female Jamaican record producer and produced artists from the mid-1960s until the mid-1980s.
Tommy McCook was a Jamaican saxophonist. A founding member of The Skatalites, he also directed The Supersonics for Duke Reid, and backed many sessions for Bunny Lee or with The Revolutionaries at Channel One Studios in the 1970s.
John Kenneth Holt OD was a Jamaican reggae singer who first found fame as a member of The Paragons, before establishing himself as a solo artist.
The Techniques were a Jamaican rocksteady vocal group mainly active in the 1960s.
Horatious Adolphus "Pat" Kelly was a prolific, influential Jamaican rocksteady and reggae singer and innovative, groundbreaking sound engineer working with King Tubby, Bunny Lee and Scientist (musician), whose career began in the mid-1960s. He recorded as a solo artist and as a member of the vocal group the Techniques. Slim Smith, who had been the lead vocalist in the band, left The Techniques in 1966 to be replaced by Pat Kelly. The shift from ska to rocksteady suited The Techniques, with a string of hits in 1967 and 1968 notably "You Don't Care" and "Queen Majesty", tunes which were versioned by Big Youth, Tony Tuff, Duke Reid, Tommy McCook, Sonia Pottinger's High Note label with The Revolutionaries, Ronnie Davis, The Itals, Cornell Campbell and many more
The Jamaicans were a ska/rocksteady group formed in Jamaica in 1967, consisting of members Tommy Cowan, Norris Weir, Derrick Brown and Martin Williams.
Cry Tough is a 1993 collection of Alton Ellis recordings from the rocksteady era of 1966-1968. It was released in 1993 by Heartbeat Records, and features the pick of Ellis' work for Arthur "Duke" Reid, plus some tracks produced by Sonia Pottinger. The album contains most of Ellis' original Mr. Soul of Jamaica album, and contains the same tracks as the 1973 Greatest Hits compilation on Count Shelly Records, plus eight additional tracks. Several of the tracks are alternate takes of some of his biggest hits from the era. The backing band is the Treasure Isle studio band of the time, Tommy McCook and the Supersonics. The album was included in the Rough Guides book Reggae: 100 Essential CDs.
Gladstone Anderson, also known by his nickname "Gladdy", was a Jamaican pianist, keyboard player, and singer, who played a major part in the island's musical history, playing a key role in defining the ska sound and the rocksteady beat, and playing on hundreds of recordings as a session musician, a solo artist, and as leader of Gladdy's All Stars, featuring bassist Jackie Jackson, drummer Winston Grennan, guitarist Hux Brown, and keyboardist Winston Wright. As Harry J All Stars the band had a massive hit in Jamaica and United Kingdom with the instrumental song "The Liquidator" 1969. Anderson's work was consistently popular in the late 70s too, as roots reggae, dub and sound system culture increasingly prioritised more conscious and deeply spiritual concerns.
Mr Soul of Jamaica is an album by Jamaican rocksteady singer Alton Ellis. It contains twelve tracks recorded between 1967 and 1970 at Duke Reid's Treasure Isle Recording Studios in Kingston, Jamaica and was produced by Reid and released on his Treasure Isle label in 1974. Although this was his only album for the label, Ellis had already been a star musician in Jamaica from the early 1960s onwards, having recorded for Coxsone Dodd's Studio One label before moving to Treasure Isle, and the album is a compilation of some of his Treasure Isle singles, although some of his biggest hits including "Rock Steady", "Girl I've Got a Date" and "Cry Tough" were left off it.
Winston Jarrett is a Jamaican reggae singer who was part of Alton Ellis's group The Flames in the 1960s before recording with The Righteous Flames and as a solo artist.
"Don't Touch Me Tomato", originally published in 1949 simply as "Tomato", is a song written by Trinidadian musician Sam Manning, and usually performed in the style of calypso, mento, or rocksteady. The song is sometimes credited as "traditional", or ascribed to the French writers Henri Lemarchand and Joseph Bouillon after it was recorded by Josephine Baker. It was first recorded in New York by June Nelson; other notable recordings have been by Marie Bryant (1952) and Phyllis Dillon (1968).
Clifton "Jackie" Jackson is a Jamaican bass player, who was an important and prolific session musician and bassist on ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub and discomix records throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and was later a member of Toots and the Maytals.
Lynford "Hux" Brown was a Jamaican guitarist who featured on many successful rocksteady and reggae records in the 1960s and 1970s, and was later a member of Toots and the Maytals.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Phyllis Dillon Brought Good Cheer With Her Sweet Sound", Jamaica Gleaner , 21 December 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2014
- 1 2 3 4 Hamilton, Andrew "Phyllis Dillon Biography", Allmusic. Retrieved 26 April 2008
- ↑ O'Brien Chang, Kevin & Chen, Wayne (1998) Reggae Routes, Temple University Press, ISBN 978-1566396295, p. 113
- ↑ "Phyllis Dillon, the Rocksteady Queen", Jamaica Observer , 15 February 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2022
- ↑ Augustyn, Heather (2013) Don Drummond: The Genius and Tragedy of the World's Greatest Trombonist, McFarland & Co Inc, ISBN 978-0786475476, p. 132
- ↑ Walker, Klive (2005) Dubwise: Reasoning From the Reggae Underground, Insomniac Press, ISBN 978-1894663960, p. 85
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