Poniedziałek 28 Gru 2009, 20:08

A couple of weeks ago I was at a birthday party, and when some reggae was playing a friend of mine remarked that she liked it. Then I offered to compile a cd-ful of tracks in this genre, so as to give her an idea of what this music is about.
The result is available for all to take: you can find the link at the end of the journal entry.

First I thought I would just pick a few reggae favourites and be done with it - as I had started a "favourite" folder, this wouldn't have been difficult. This folder already contained some rocksteady tracks as well, so I decided to broaden the spectrum, and try to introduce my friend to the development of the various genres in a chronological order.

Now, I do not in any way pretend to be an expert of Jamaican music; let's just say that this compilation is as much a collection of my favourites as an introduction to Jamaican music. I'm sure many important artists/songs of each genre are not featured on the cd, yet I tried to bear in mind who were the greatest.
All in all, I think and would like to believe that these tracks represent the overall colourful nature of Jamaican music: the playfulness of ska, the coolness of rocksteady, the spirituality of roots reggae and dub, and the use of riddims.

I broke down the album to several chapters, but there are some inconsistencies.
The first - it's a grave mistake, actually - is that track no. 8 is classified here as rocksteady. My only excuse is that I took this track from the Studio One Rockers album, where it also follows Marcia Griffiths' Feel Like Jumping. It never occurred to me to separate these two fantastic songs stylistically…
The second is that I put Baby I Love You So by Jacob Miller in the dub section of the cd. This, on the other hand, can be an act of pure consistency, seeing that the riddim was produced by Augustus Pablo himself! ;-)
The third - a minor one in my opinion - is that Linton Kwesi Johnson is based in the UK (but was born in Jamaica).

Tracklist:
Ska
01. Justin Hinds & The Dominoes - Carry Go Bring Come
02. The Skatalites - Simmer Down
03. Desmond Dekker - 007 (Shanty Town)
Rocksteady
04. Alton Ellis - Rocksteady
05. Hopeton Lewis - Cool Collie
06. Toots and the Maytals - 54-46 That's My Number
07. Marcia Griffiths - Feel Like Jumping
08. Freddie McGregor - Bobby Bobylon
09. Lee "Scratch" Perry - The Upsetter
Reggae (mostly roots reggae)
10. Max Romeo - Every Man Ought To Know
11. The Heptones - Cool Rasta
12. Toots and the Maytals - Rasta Man
13. Max Romeo & The Upsetters - I Chase The Devil
14. Horace Andy - Money Money
15. Lizzard - Milk And Honey
16. The Mighty Diamonds - Pass The Kouchie
Dub
17. Augustus Pablo - Keep On Dubbing
18. Jacob Miller - Baby I Love You So
Dancehall
19. Sister Nancy - Bam Bam
20. Tenor Saw - Ring The Alarm
Dub poetry
21. Linton Kwesi Johnson - Di Black Petty Booshwah

The link to download the album:
www dot mediafire dot com /?xtyneytnnim

Feel free to comment if:
- you liked the album;
- you did not like the album;
- found more inconsistencies, mistakes in the classification of tracks;
- have anything to add.

Enjoy!