The Skoidats were a band that played music combining elements of ska, Oi!, jazz, and punk rock.
Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the off beat. It was developed in Jamaica in the 1960s when Prince Buster, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, and Duke Reid formed sound systems to play American rhythm and blues and then began recording their own songs. In the early 1960s, ska was the dominant music genre of Jamaica and was popular with British mods. Later it became popular with many skinheads.
Oi! is a subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads and other working-class youth. The movement was partly a response to the perception that many participants in the early punk rock scene were, in the words of The Business guitarist Steve Kent, "trendy university people using long words, trying to be artistic...and losing touch".
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in blues and ragtime. Jazz is seen by many as "America's classical music". Since the 1920s Jazz Age, jazz has become recognized as a major form of musical expression. It then emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African-American and European-American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as "one of America's original art forms".
They had a contemporary sound rooted in the 1960s ska traditions of Baba Brooks, the Ethiopians and the Skatalites. Unlike some ska-related bands, the Skoidats' sound varied greatly from song to song. The Skoidats formed in the summer of 1995 in Helena, Montana, and soon after their inception, they relocated to Missoula, Montana, losing two members. After arriving in Missoula, the two remaining original members recruited a drummer, two members of the University of Montana marching band, and a third horn player who had relocated from the Helena area. The band toured the country four times, and performed with bands such as The Slackers, MU330, Mephiskapheles, The Allstonians, The Scofflaws, Let's Go Bowling and The Skatalites.
Oswald "Baba" Brooks was a trumpet player who played jazz in the 1950s with the Eric Dean orchestra and recorded during the 1960s original Jamaican ska era for producers Duke Reid, Sonia Pottinger and her husband Lindon, King Edwards, and Prince Buster.
The Ethiopians was 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.
Helena is the state capital of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County.
The line-up from the fall of 1995 to the spring of 1997 consisted of Gardner Dunn (Drums), John Knight (Trombone, Vocals), John Chapman (Saxophone, Vocals), Josh Grenz (Saxophone), Chuck Fuller (Bass) and Justin Dillavou (Lead Vocals, Guitar). The formation on their second album consisted of Gardner Dunn (Drums), John Knight (Trombone, Vocals), John Chapman (Saxophone, Vocals), Chuck Fuller (Bass) and Justin Dillavou (Lead Vocals, Guitar).
Discography
Albums
1997: The Times 1999: A Cure For What Ales You 1998: Skoidats & Inspecter7 - Boots And Suits
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