Giving rocksteady its due

[Assasin]

Music is bigger than Dancehall
Giving rocksteady its due
published: Tuesday | April 29, 2008


Moss Raxlen and Stascha Bader, producers of 'Get Ready To Rocksteady'. - contributed
HE MAY have played some of the 'baddest' bass lines in Jamaican popular music a but Jackie Jackson is far from a household name. In fact, most persons know him as the husband of singer Karen Smith.
Get Ready To Rocksteady, a film on the beat that preceded reggae, gives musicians like Jackson his due. One month of filming for the project, here is almost complete and it is expected to be released in Europe and North America this year.
"As far as I am concerned, rocksteady was the greatest period in Jamaican music history because the artistes were writing," Jackson, 61, told The Gleaner. "Once the artistes start writing, the [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]music[/COLOR][/COLOR] falls into place."
Harmony groups
The rocksteady period produced a flood of harmony groups including the Heptones, the Melodians and the Techniques. Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Marcia Griffiths and Bob Andy are some of the genre's best-known solo acts.
Jackson was a member of the Supersonics, the house band at producer Arthur 'Duke' Reid's Treasure Isle studio. According to the lanky bassman, they were involved in a 'Cold War' for two years with their rivals at Studio One, which was owned by producer Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd.
Jackson appears along with rocksteady contemporaries like guitarist Lynford 'Hux' Brown, keyboardists Gladstone 'Gladdy' Anderson and Robbie Lyn, in Get Ready To Rocksteady which is a joint venture between filmmakers Canadian Moss Raxlen and Stascha Bader of Switzerland.
Raxlen says he has always loved rocksteady, a slower, heavier bass beat that emerged in the wake of ska.
Starting point for reggae
"It was the starting point for reggae. some of the classic rhythms of Jamaican music were made during 1967-68. A lot of people don't know that," Roxlen said.
Jackson and his colleagues gathered at the Tuff Gong studio in [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]St [COLOR=orange! important]Andrew[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] to put a fresh spin on 16 popular songs from the rocksteady era. The singers included John Holt, Marcia Griffiths, Leroy Sibbles and Dawn Penn.
Roxlen, who is from Montreal, said Get Ready has been in the works for five years. It was produced on a small [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]budget[/COLOR][/COLOR] and will initially be released on DVD and in small theatres throughout [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Canada[/COLOR][/COLOR].
The film, which received financial backing from the Jamaican government, will be distributed by Peace Arch Entertainment.


Hey, Mr Bassie: The best of Jackie Jackson
(1) You've Caught Me Baby - The Melodians
(2) Take It Easy - Hopeton Lewis
(3) Girl I've Got a Date - Alton Ellis
(4) On The Beach - The Paragons
(5) Small Axe - The Wailers
(6) Baba Boom - The Jamaicans
(7) Queen Majesty - The Techniques
(8) Ride Yuh Donkey - The Hightones
(9) Lady With the Starlight - Ken Boothe

Jackie Jackson's favourite rocksteady bass lines

(1) [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Puppet[/COLOR][/COLOR] On a String - Ken Boothe (played by Leroy Sibbles)
(2) I Shall be Released - The Heptones (played by Leroy Sibbles)
(3) I'm In a Dancing Mood - Delroy Wilson (played by Brian Atkinson)
(4) Full Up - instrumental (played by Leroy Sibbles)
(5) You Don't Care For Me - The Techniques (played by Boris Gardiner)
(6) Satisfaction - Carl Dawkins (played by Ronald White)
(7) Home Home Home - Ken Boothe (played by Brian Atkinson)

[Gamma]

i'll keep an eye on this one......i want to gwt a copy when it is released

"dynamic pressure" by the record specialist is a special special chune!!!!

[Assasin]

Yeah man this seems wicked fi reel. I need a copy too on first sight.

[TDowl]

I would have prefer to know this was produce by Assasin & Gamma, so I could NUFF UP de I dem, again farinna know what wi nuh know.

[TDowl]

Brian (Bones) Atkinson was the Bassie for the Serenades out of Rusea's that won the band section at the first festival, word is he was the one that change how the Bass was played.

He was the founder of the Soul Vendors, the original Coxsone Studio band, the Soul Vendors currently reside in Toronto.

[Gamma]

i woulda prefer it tuh....

tdowl....i know some music historians in jamaica that either too lazy to catalogue their firsthand knowledge of the evolution of jamaican music from being there and observing or are not interested in that that kind of a historic pursuit.

bob's eulogy as read by edward seaga was written by garth white...a man with TREMENDOUS insight and knowledge into the times and the music scene. i have been encouraging for YEARS to start putting something together but ........

and so now roger steffens is the professor of reggae music worldwide!

as an yuh evva hear of a musician name jah wobble? the funny thing is that him not even a reggae musician to rahtid!! but yet still him tek on the "jah" moniker from rasta.....

[Assasin]

I have made my little contribution but stay tuned, Family come first, Soon on very soon I will be on the road wid my thing.

Right now we have one distributor in america and he is in deal with Atlantic, No radio station, No TV station, only a few clubs here and there.

[TDowl]

I know a first class musician in Brooklyn and he is as lazy as can be, also a Collector in Toronto who has an entire basement of music and used to hang out a Coxsone, but he will not budge, even a cousin of mine that plays Sax, Keyboards, Trumpet, Gituar & Fiddle, same story.

BTW Have you heard "Welcome Talawah" on Talawah.

[Gamma]

it doesn't ring a bell.....