Jamaica Festival Songs.

[TDowl]

HISTORIAN, I direct this question to you primarly as the most knowledgeable Musican and keeper of Jamaica Musical history, do you the think the beat of the Festival Songs(Pop) should remain the same?

Please share your insight as to how the singers Jackie Opel (Barbados) and Lord Creator (Trinidad) enchanced the Ska & Roksteady genre?


Will you be using this Forum to impart your knowledge of the musical arts, or are there any other sites that you do so, that I may be better versed in such art.

[Historian]

A Short History (Answers)

TDowl, thanks for the big-up, but I’m 100-percent sure that I am NOT the most knowledgeable of the persons who visit (read and/or post) this forum when it comes to Jamaican music (LOL). In fact, I sincerely hope that I don’t give the impression that I am all-knowing about Jamaican and other music, because I am most definitely not.

To answer your last question first, aside from Willi’s track and field forum next door (which I haven’t posted on in the many weeks since I posted a detailed defense of my beloved Sanya Richards), this is the only Internet site that I post on or visit regularly. I enjoy music discussions, but this is the only message board that I try to impart what little knowledge I have (although I used to do so occasionally on Willi’s message board during the track and field off-season). There are music forums, for example reggaedancehall.com, but I have never posted a comment there, and I try my best to avoid reading anything there anymore as in the past my visits to reggaedancehall.com have always left me so angry that it literally raised my blood pressure (those posters are, to a great extent, blasted idiots and lunatics – no personal offence meant, Bricktop!).

Therefore, when the opportunity presents itself, I will enthusiastically take part in music discussions here on the Reggae Boyz Forum, where obvious intelligence and decorum resides!

Now to your first question, TDowl (an excellent question, in my opinion): I strongly believe that there should never ever be any attempts to formally legislate on the beat of the festival songs. In other words, the nature of the rhythm and other musical elements should be left solely up to the composer or arranger or producer; that is, the people directly involved with the producing of a festival song. In this way, therefore, true artistic creativity will be enhanced and preserved.

Your second questions relating to the incredibly outstanding performers and recording artists Lord Creator and Jackie Opel are not very difficult questions, but nevertheless I find it quite challenging to show precisely how they actually influenced or enhanced (that is, improved) in any major way Jamaica’s emerging music form, ska.

I hope that my personal views below don’t minimize in any way the historical facts of these men's influence on Jamaican music!

Both Lord Creator and Jackie Opel were extremely important in the Jamaican music scene of the 1960s!! An entire generation of young recording artists must surely have been influenced by both, and in particular by the one I regard as the greatest of the pair, Jackie Opel. Nevertheless, in my view the primary enhancement that Lord Creator and the late Jackie Opel brought to Jamaica’s developing music form was their fusion of R&B (and R&B and calypso in the case of Lord Creator) with the emerging ska genre. In my opinion, neither singers actually influenced in strong and obvious ways the direction of the growth and development of ska and rocksteady in the same way that someone like Prince Buster did, but they nevertheless helped to shape the approach of up and coming singers of that era, in addition to by this way shaping the future of the music.

Lord Creator
The Trinidadian calypso singer Lord Creator (real name Kenrick Patrick) was one of several non-Jamaicans who played major roles during the formative period of Jamaica’s first popular music style, ska. Interestingly, from what I can remember about him Lord Creator apparently didn’t migrate to Jamaica deliberately. He first came on vacation and enjoyed the island so much he stayed for many years (one of the reasons, I suspect, was because of the music environment and the success of his recording, “Evening News”).

The very popular Lord Creator played a central role in Jamaica culture at the time. For example, his recording of “Independent Jamaica” was the official Independence song for Jamaica when we became independent, and also the top selling record in Jamaica in 1962 (outselling even Derrick Morgan’s “Forward March,” which was also released in that year). Lord Creator also had numerous other hits in Jamaica.

In my view, Lord Creator probably provided a balance between the emerging rough “rude boy” scenario and a sophisticated approach to the music. In other words, although Lord Creator recorded ska music, his style of singing generally had little similarity with the “rough and tough” styles of many of the Jamaican ska artists of the early 1960s. He was always first and foremost a calypsonian and a singer of smooth ballads, and he adjusted his ballad singing style to fit the ska rhythms over which he sang. To be more specific, Lord Creator’s “unrough” style could be compared with the sophistication of Byron Lee, and was in direct contrast to the “rude boys” of that era (the Prince Busters, Clancy Eccles, and others).

Personally speaking, when friends eventually sent a destitute Lord Creator back to his native Trinidad, that was a move that almost certainly saved this fast slipping alcoholic’s life! Despite his immense hits in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean, by the late 1960s Lord Creator had become a no-holds-barred alcoholic. Thankfully, by the 1990s his fortunes had changed for the better and he returned to live in Jamaica. I’m not sure if he is still in Jamaica today, or if he’s gone back to Trinidad.

Jackie Opel
Jackie Opel, the Barbadian-born singer who migrated to Jamaica, recorded a tremendous of R&B music during the ska era. He was also the lead singer with the Skatalites and played acoustic bass occasionally in that band when their colourful and unpredictable bass player, Lloyd Brevette, failed to turn up. Jackie Opel died in either Trinidad or Barbados many years ago.

TDowl, I hope that I have in some measure answered your questions, boss!

[Farmah]

Historian, that was a VERY nice post on some of the Caribbean's music greats. Forgive me for saying this, but I do believe you are the forum's best authority on music wthout a doubt! Was Jackie Opel also known as Jackie Richards?

When you get some time, as you have done above, please give us your literary view on the following former greats: Selvin "Scientist" Morris; Byron Lee; Prince Buster; Lord Laro & Sonny Bradshaw. There is also another pioneer but I cannot recall his name. He is credited for creating
(I believe) the first box guitar(?) and I think he also had something to do with the traffic lights in Jamaica. These are some of our great pioneers who should get some Big Ups!

Again, thanks for your illuminating view on some of our former greats.

[TDowl]

Jamaican Music

TDowl, thanks for the big-up, but I’m 100-percent sure that I am NOT the most knowledgeable of the persons who visit (read and/or post) this forum when it comes to Jamaican music (LOL). In fact, I sincerely hope that I don’t give the impression that I am all-knowing about Jamaican and other music, because I am most definitely not.

To answer your last question first, aside from Willi’s track and field forum next door (which I haven’t posted on in the many weeks since I posted a detailed defense of my beloved Sanya Richards), this is the only Internet site that I post on or visit regularly. I enjoy music discussions, but this is the only message board that I try to impart what little knowledge I have (although I used to do so occasionally on Willi’s message board during the track and field off-season). There are music forums, for example reggaedancehall.com, but I have never posted a comment there, and I try my best to avoid reading anything there anymore as in the past my visits to reggaedancehall.com have always left me so angry that it literally raised my blood pressure (those posters are, to a great extent, blasted idiots and lunatics – no personal offence meant, Bricktop!).

Therefore, when the opportunity presents itself, I will enthusiastically take part in music discussions here on the Reggae Boyz Forum, where obvious intelligence and decorum resides!

Now to your first question, TDowl (an excellent question, in my opinion): I strongly believe that there should never ever be any attempts to formally legislate on the beat of the festival songs. In other words, the nature of the rhythm and other musical elements should be left solely up to the composer or arranger or producer; that is, the people directly involved with the producing of a festival song. In this way, therefore, true artistic creativity will be enhanced and preserved.

Your second questions relating to the incredibly outstanding performers and recording artists Lord Creator and Jackie Opel are not very difficult questions, but nevertheless I find it quite challenging to show precisely how they actually influenced or enhanced (that is, improved) in any major way Jamaica’s emerging music form, ska.

I hope that my personal views below don’t minimize in any way the historical facts of these men's influence on Jamaican music!

Both Lord Creator and Jackie Opel were extremely important in the Jamaican music scene of the 1960s!! An entire generation of young recording artists must surely have been influenced by both, and in particular by the one I regard as the greatest of the pair, Jackie Opel. Nevertheless, in my view the primary enhancement that Lord Creator and the late Jackie Opel brought to Jamaica’s developing music form was their fusion of R&B (and R&B and calypso in the case of Lord Creator) with the emerging ska genre. In my opinion, neither singers actually influenced in strong and obvious ways the direction of the growth and development of ska and rocksteady in the same way that someone like Prince Buster did, but they nevertheless helped to shape the approach of up and coming singers of that era, in addition to by this way shaping the future of the music.

Lord Creator
The Trinidadian calypso singer Lord Creator (real name Kenrick Patrick) was one of several non-Jamaicans who played major roles during the formative period of Jamaica’s first popular music style, ska. Interestingly, from what I can remember about him Lord Creator apparently didn’t migrate to Jamaica deliberately. He first came on vacation and enjoyed the island so much he stayed for many years (one of the reasons, I suspect, was because of the music environment and the success of his recording, “Evening News”).

The very popular Lord Creator played a central role in Jamaica culture at the time. For example, his recording of “Independent Jamaica” was the official Independence song for Jamaica when we became independent, and also the top selling record in Jamaica in 1962 (outselling even Derrick Morgan’s “Forward March,” which was also released in that year). Lord Creator also had numerous other hits in Jamaica.

In my view, Lord Creator probably provided a balance between the emerging rough “rude boy” scenario and a sophisticated approach to the music. In other words, although Lord Creator recorded ska music, his style of singing generally had little similarity with the “rough and tough” styles of many of the Jamaican ska artists of the early 1960s. He was always first and foremost a calypsonian and a singer of smooth ballads, and he adjusted his ballad singing style to fit the ska rhythms over which he sang. To be more specific, Lord Creator’s “unrough” style could be compared with the sophistication of Byron Lee, and was in direct contrast to the “rude boys” of that era (the Prince Busters, Clancy Eccles, and others).

Personally speaking, when friends eventually sent a destitute Lord Creator back to his native Trinidad, that was a move that almost certainly saved this fast slipping alcoholic’s life! Despite his immense hits in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean, by the late 1960s Lord Creator had become a no-holds-barred alcoholic. Thankfully, by the 1990s his fortunes had changed for the better and he returned to live in Jamaica. I’m not sure if he is still in Jamaica today, or if he’s gone back to Trinidad.

Jackie Opel
Jackie Opel, the Barbadian-born singer who migrated to Jamaica, recorded a tremendous of R&B music during the ska era. He was also the lead singer with the Skatalites and played acoustic bass occasionally in that band when their colourful and unpredictable bass player, Lloyd Brevette, failed to turn up. Jackie Opel died in either Trinidad or Barbados many years ago.

TDowl, I hope that I have in some measure answered your questions, boss!

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