Richie Stephens to produce a Ska documentary

[Islandman]

For the past three years, Stephens has been experimenting with the genre, even developing a hybrid, ska-tech, to bring the sound to a younger Jamaican audience.

But he still feels this has not been sufficient to bring home the importance and relevance of this music form. As a result, the documentary was born to further his passion.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/enter...ska--ska_80265

[Sir X]

Good news , it seems to be coming home .They need to incorporate Alpha boys school as a tourist attraction where a Ska night is billed at the begining and end of every school term to raise funds and keep the heritage.Dem caaan leff out Alpha.

[Gamma]

You know seh you and I are at idem on this!

[Sir X]

Not just this alot of things..hehe ..grudgingly.Its coming home , Gamma a forward looking promoter would bathe.

[Islandman]

Yes there seems to be some effort to reclaim the legacy. Whsts really needed is a touring ska band or two, and a club or two. Jamaican musicians who make a living playing it and not just do it for the novelty or nostalgia.

Give you a joke, my daughter has a friend who plays on her soccer team, I knew her father was of Jamaican heritage , spoke to him a few times but not a lot. The other day she was spending some time at my house and she said casually "my great grandpa taught Bob Marley how to play music". i didn't take her so seriously but later on I asked what his name was , she said "I call him Uncle Ernie, I think his last name is Ranglin or something" LOL!

Of course she was surprised when she heard me talk about him as something extra special, or that I heard of him at all. I had to pull for a book on Jamaican music and show her what they said about him, and play My Boy Lolipop and a few other songs for her and my daughter.

[Gamma]

Boss you were that close to GREATNESS?!

Yuh blessed!

[Jangle]

So just last week I was home and decided to give my older daughter a crash course in Reggae and it's origins. She came here at a very young age and is very Americanized and into this Hip Hop music. Every time I hear some new Hip Hop song sampling some old R&B beats, I always point out to her that these tunes are not new, and I always rub it in that Hip Hop came from Jamaican music. So I started with Mento and moving through Ska on to Rock Steady into the 80's when the music changed with Paul Blake and his computerized music onto Dancehall. I was pleasantly surprised when I played "The Liquidator" by The Harry J All Stars she recognized the music and said she knew it from another song. So I played her The Staple Singer, "I'll Take You There". I gave her a little history about Studio One which was the Jamaican Motown and gave her a taste of the early DJ's like U-Roy, Big Youth, Prince Mohammed and how they laid the foundation to her Hip Hop. She was surprised to learn about the Jamaican influence on a group like Major Lazer.

This documentary by Richie Stephens is a very good thing as Jamaica's history is passed down orally and not well recorded.

[Sir X]

Yuh a talk , MY X , little girl - I have programmed her on the oldies , she knows most ska and lovers rock riddims , doesnt know who are the players of the instruements or the names of the tunes but she humms and whistles , they tease her that she likes her grandpa and my music ....yuh think she care.

Still love her yankee/jamaican new world music, but a suh it guh.

[Islandman]

Hoping I can get a chance to meet him when him next pass through my neck of the woods. THAT would be a blessing!

The master at work...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsbWsKvyQTU

[Jangle]

Irie vibrations at Harry J

Five of the albums Bob Marley and The Wailers did for Island Records were recorded at Harry J Studios in Kingston — Catch A Fire and Burnin' (both released in 1973); 1974's Natty Dread, Rastaman Vibration (1976) and Exodus ( 1977).

Each made charts in the United Kingdom and United States.

Tara Johnson, daughter of producer Harry “Harry J” Johnson said recording the Marley albums helped raise the facility's profile.

Johnson also released music through a subsidiary label called Jaywax. International success came in 1969 with the instrumental The Liquidator, which was recorded by his session band, The Harry J All Stars. It reached number nine on the British pop chart; its opening lines are sampled for The Staple Singers' monster 1972 hit, I'll Take You There.

Johnson was also responsible for Sheila Hylton's hit song, The Bed's Too Big Without You, originally done by The Police.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/enter...5?profile=1116

[Gamma]

originally done by The Police or the other way around?

[Jangle]

RJRGLEANER Honour Awards | Surviving seven decades in music

Recipient: Ernest ‘Ernie’ Ranglin

Category: Entertainment: Lifetime Achievement Award

“I really had to go through some rough times to accomplish all that I have,” said Ernest ‘Ernie’ Ranglin of his noteworthy career as a musician and as one of the contributors to the development of Jamaica’s distinct rhythms.

A true music polymath, Ranglin has tackled every Caribbean genre from mento, ska, reggae and Afro-Cuban to Latin-Caribbean infused jazz. Though jazz is not the first genre to come to mind when one thinks of music originating from Jamaica, music exploration for Ranglin knew no bounds.

He delved into the deepest realms of the jazz and blues underground in New Orleans in the United States, as well as the home of the indigenous peoples of Africa to dig up musical ‘roots’, literally trying his hand at the lot – and today, he stands out as a true survivor of the odyssey.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/n...-decades-music

[Gamma]

by the Police to rhatid!!