Sir Coxsone honoured for contribution to reggae

Amid a dazzling display of artwork depicting a mural of 24 Studio One icons, Clement Seymour ‘Coxsone’ Dodd was eulogised on Wednesday, January 29, for the work he did in laying the foundation on which Jamaica’s reggae music now stands.

The unveiling of the mural was the high point and final act of an exciting evening that honoured the music mogul on the 88th anniversary of his birth just three days earlier.

The home of Studio One, situated at 13 Studio One Boulevard (formerly Brentford Road) in south St Andrew was where the action unfolded. From as early as 4 p.m. well-wishers, artistes and Studio 1 fanatics were milling around and indulging in nostalgic chatter about the golden days of the entity, while Micky Thompson and the Merritone crew set the stage with music, appropriately taken from the Studio 1 catalogue.

The 24 icons emblazoned on the southern wall at the back extremity of the premises was, however, just a drop in the bucket, when compared to the abundance of talent that Dodd nurtured in his 48 years as a record producer. Many who have passed on, as much as 78, have been inscribed in ‘The Wall Of Honour’, situated on the interior eastern walls, adding to the lavish beauty that the premises have taken on in recent times.

Master of ceremonies, Winston ‘The Whip’ Williams, signalled the start of the main event at approximately 7:30 p.m. After welcoming dignitaries and guests, he invited Chris Wilson, director of A&R at Studio One, to do a video presentation on the entity. It sought to put Dodd into perspective on how Jamaica has developed in terms of its music from the beginning until his passing in 2004.

In the video documentary, the man of the moment unequivocally set the record straight as he related his transition from sound system operator to record producer. “At first we used R&B and the Boogie Woogie stuff. Then came the Rock ‘n’ Roll, which wasn’t very popular in Jamaica. So that is where I decided to go into the studio and make records suitable for dancing. That was about 1955. At that stage we weren’t aware that the music was good enough for commercial purposes. We were just building the music specially for sound system, and your sound gets popular if you are playing records that the other sound systems couldn’t play. So in about 1961, other soundmen started to record by going into the studios. By then I was miles ahead. In 1956, I started recording local artistes like Bunny and Skitter, Lascelles Perkins, Owen Gray and others. In the early days, each of my songs was constructed for dancing to a heavy pounding beat. So when you think of it, dancehall was from the beginning, because that’s where we usually promote our local recordings. Because of the heavy sound I was producing, they called it Coxsone’s Downbeat,” Dodd said. For good measure, he concluded, “In our studio, we had opened it to any and everyone from the ghetto and that is how the trend started.”

Noted musicologist Bunny Goodison added his piece by stressing the point that early Jamaican music, orchestrated by Dodd, came from the blues. According to him: “We dance to the afterbeat (the 2nd and 4th). If you listen to Easy Snappin by Theophilus Beckford and compare it to Roscoe Gordon’s No More Doggin, it’s almost like they are twins,” he said.

Member of Parliament for the area, Mark Golding, brought greetings on behalf of the constituency, in addition to salutations from former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, also an ardent Studio One fanatic.

Andrew Parle, a UK-based graffiti artist and the mastermind behind the mural, was particularly elated to be present in order to witness the unveiling of his handiwork. After a short expression of gratitude by Parle, the unveiling took place amid emotional expressions of oohs and aawhs by the massive gathering.