Ska’s popularity was not confined to Jamaica and the music crossed over into the mainstream charts in both the UK and US in the mid-60s. The first wave of ska superstar vocalists included Laurel Aitken, Derrick Morgan, Desmond Dekker and Toots Hibbert. The Skatalites, led by trombonist Don Drummond, and featuring an all-star cast of musicians, including Roland Alphonso, Tommy McCook and Jackie Mitoo, were the top instrumental group, and also served as the Studio 1 session band. Two such owners, Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd and Duke Reid, along with producer Leslie Kong, were hugely important in ska’s development, forming their own labels and acting as producers for local artists. Ska pioneer Ernest Ranglin, who lays claim to inventing the guitar chop, was famously quoted as saying that the point of difference between R&B and ska beats is that the former goes ‘chink-ka’, while the latter goes ‘ka-chink’.īy the early 1960s, ska was the most popular musical genre in Jamaica, and 45s were being released rapidly by the owners of the mobile sound systems to blast at revellers at the multitude of street parties held on the island. Its distinctive sound incorporated a scratchy guitar chop that stressed the off-beat, rhythmically propelling the music forward in unison with the horns all the while, a walking bassline and on-tempo drums were holding things together. This fresh take on American music gradually developed into a new uniquely Jamaican genre, namely ska. While still in the ballpark of R&B, these recordings also incorporated influences from traditional styles such as mento, also known as Jamaican folk music, and calypso, an Afro-Caribbean style. Inspired by these sounds, Jamaican producers started to record versions of those records by local artists. In the early 1950s, Jamaicans were busy listening in to American music via radio stations in New Orleans and Miami, in particular, the R&B and jump blues of artists such as Fats Domino and Louis Jordan.
Jamaica’s revolutionary back-to-front beat developed as a fresh and frantic take on US R&B and has been filling dancefloors with sweaty herberts ever since.
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