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Reggae is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first popular song to use the word reggae, effectively naming the genre and introducing it to a global audience. While sometimes used in a broad sense to refer to most types of popular Jamaican dance music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that was strongly influenced by traditional mento as well as American jazz and rhythm and blues, and evolved out of the earlier genres ska and rocksteady. Reggae usually relates news, social gossip, and political commentary. It is instantly recognizable from the counterpoint between the bass and drum downbeat and the offbeat rhythm section. The immediate origins of reggae were in ska and rocksteady; from the latter, reggae took over the use of the bass as a percussion instrument.
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.
Catch a Fire is the fifth studio album by the reggae band The Wailers, released in April 1973. It was their first album released by Island Records. After finishing a UK tour with Johnny Nash, they had started laying down tracks for JAD Records when a disputed CBS contract with Danny Sims created tensions. The band did not have enough money to return to Jamaica, so their road manager Brent Clarke approached producer Chris Blackwell, who agreed to advance The Wailers money for an album. They instead used this money to pay their fares back home, where they completed the recordings that constitute Catch a Fire. The album has nine songs, two of which were written and composed by Peter Tosh; the remaining seven were by Bob Marley. While Bunny Wailer is not credited as a writer, the group's writing style was a collective process. For the immediate follow-up album, Burnin', also released in 1973, he contributed four songs. After Marley returned with the tapes to London, Blackwell reworked the tracks at Island Studios, with contributions by Muscle Shoals session musician Wayne Perkins, who played guitar on three overdubbed tracks. The album had a limited original release under the name The Wailers in a sleeve depicting a Zippo lighter, designed by graphic artists Rod Dyer and Bob Weiner; subsequent releases had an alternative cover designed by John Bonis, featuring an Esther Anderson portrait of Marley smoking a "spliff", and crediting the band as Bob Marley and the Wailers.
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.
Horace Andy is a Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer, known for his distinctive vocals and hit songs such as "Government Land", as well as "Angel", "Spying Glass", and "Five Man Army" with English trip hop group Massive Attack. He is also famous for a cover version of "Ain't No Sunshine". Andy is often described as one of the most respected and influential singers in Jamaica.
Bob Marley and the Wailers were a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae band. The founding members, in 1963, were Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer.
There are several subgenres of reggae music including various predecessors to the form.
Leslie Kong was an influential Chinese-Jamaican reggae producer.
Dr Alimantado, also known as The Ital Surgeon, is a Jamaican reggae singer, DJ, and producer.
People from the Caribbean have made significant contributions to British Black music for many generations.
"The Tide Is High" is a 1967 rocksteady song written by John Holt, originally produced by Duke Reid and performed by the Jamaican group The Paragons, with Holt as lead singer. The song gained international attention in 1980, when a cover version by the American band Blondie became a US and UK number one hit. The song topped the UK Singles Chart again in 2002 with a version by the British girl group Atomic Kitten, while Canadian rapper Kardinal Offishall had a minor hit with his interpretation in 2008.
Rupert Lloyd Edwards is a Jamaican reggae singer and record producer.
John Kenneth Holt CD 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.
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.
Keith Anderson CD, better known by the stage name Bob Andy, was a Jamaican reggae vocalist and songwriter. He was widely regarded as one of reggae's most influential songwriters.
Bob Andy's Song Book is a 1970 album of songs by Jamaican reggae singer and songwriter Bob Andy, recorded between 1966 and 1968. Andy had first found fame as the lead vocalist of The Paragons, but his peak as a solo artist came in the late '60s when he recorded a string of singles for Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's Studio One label. In 1970, these singles were compiled on the Song Book album. Many of the songs on the album have since been covered by a range of artists, including Taj Mahal, who covered "Desperate Lover" on his 1974 Mo' Roots album. Vocal harmony on three tracks on the album are performed by Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh of The Wailers, and backing comes from Studio One band the Soul Vendors, whose members included Jackie Mittoo and Roland Alphonso. The album was re-issued on CD in 1997, with extended versions of "Desperate Lover" and "Feeling Soul". In the Rough Guides book Reggae: 100 Essential CDs, the album is described as "a masterpiece that belongs in anyone's CD collection - and not just of reggae music", and it has also been described as "one of the era's classic albums".
Vincent "Randy" Chin was a Jamaican record producer and entrepreneur who ran the Randy's shop, recording studio, and record label, later moving to New York City and setting up the VP Records empire, now the world's largest independent label and distributor of Caribbean music.
Tyrone Evans was a Jamaican reggae singer and musicians. He was one of the founding members of the rocksteady group The Paragons, who had a worldwide hit song with "The Tide Is High".
David Madden is a Jamaican trumpeter known for his solo recordings and as a member of Zap Pow, as well as playing on records of Bob Marley and many other great reggae artists.
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Biography by John Dougan". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
- ↑ O'Brien Chang, Kevin & Chen, Wayne (1998), Reggae Routes, Temple University Press, ISBN 978-1-56639-629-5, p. 41.
- ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 64. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
- ↑ Roberts (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). p. 33.
- ↑ Campbell-Evans, Cecelia (2014) "Time heals all (Paragons) wounds", Jamaica Observer , 10 November 2014. Retrieved 10 November 2014
- ↑ "Reggae icon Bob Andy has died | Loop Jamaica". Loop News.
