One of the best ska comps around, "...full of the ragged, loose joy that is part and parcel of early ska"
V.A. - Studio One Ska (Soul Jazz Records SJRCD 085)
Tracks : 1 Jackie Mittoo - El Bang Bang 2 Ken Boothe & Stranger Cole - Arte Bella 3 The Wailers - Put It On 4 The Skatalites - Addis Ababa 5 Roland Alphonso - President Kennedy 6 Joe Higgs - Song My Enemies Sing 7 The Skatalites - Beardsman Ska 8 Delroy Wilson - I Want Justice 9 Tommy McCook's Orchestra - Sampson 10 The Ethiopians - I'm Gonna Take Over Now 11 Tommy McCook - Freedom Sounds 12 The Maytals - Marching On 13 The Skatalites - Exodus 14 Roland Alphonso - Look Away Ska 15 Don Drummond - Don Cosmic 16 Roland Alphonso - Scambalena 17 Andy & Joey - You're Wondering Now
Review by Steve Leggett (AMG) Jamaica
earned its independence in 1962, and in many ways ska was the joyous
and energetic expression of that event, a music that burst past its
lineage of American jazz and R&B into a kinetic area all its own,
and until around 1965, when the hangover began to wear off and the
slower, moodier rhythms of rocksteady began to take over, ska presented
the fingerprint of Jamaica to the world. Front and center in the ska
explosion was Clement Dodd's immortal Studio One, which opened its
doors in 1963, and that studio's house band, the Skatalites, who are
featured in one way or another on every track on this fine sampler of
Studio One's ska years. Every side collected here is a classic, but
Jackie Mittoo's "El Bang Bang," Tommy McCook's "Sampson" and Don
Drummond's "Don Cosmic" (all three musicians were big parts of the
Skatalites collective) are particular standouts, full of the ragged,
loose joy that is part and parcel of early ska.
review from DustyGroove Another
chapter in the Studio One story, as told by the top notch selectors at
Soul Jazz, and as with the earlier editions in their Studio One series,
this one's another mighty batch of Jamaican rhythm and blues. Like so
many other Coxsone Dodd productions, you can hear the foundations of
many future generations of Jamaican music running through these titles,
17 jaunty ska numbers laced with jazz inflected solos laid down by
Tommy McCook, Roland Alphonso, Jackie Mittoo and the Skatalites, or
harmonized vocals courtesy the Ethiopians, Maytals and others. As
you've come to expect, this is an ace package with excellent notes and
archival photos, loaded down with classic performances and hard to get
nuggets, too!
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