Published:Monday | July 6, 2015 | 12:00 AMRoy Black
Harry J. Recording Studios, which became the happy hunting ground for several early successful Jamaican singers and musicians, including Bob Marley and the Wailers, Toots and the Maytals, Bob and Marcia, Burning Spear, and The Heptones, is again...
Published:Friday | June 26, 2015 | 12:00 AMRoy Black
Six years have flown by since the legendary King of Pop, Michael Jackson, passed away on June 25, 2009. In a dazzling 40-year career, he took dancing to a new level with some self-created dance moves, many of which defied even the laws of gravity....
Published:Friday | June 12, 2015 | 12:00 AMRoy Black
To many Jamaican music enthusiasts, the name Johnny Moore conjures up memories of that late Jamaican trumpeter who helped the Skatalites band to become, arguably, the greatest and most talented aggregation of musicians ever to be assembled on the...
Published:Thursday | June 11, 2015 | 5:45 PMRoy Black
Vinyl records have again been pushed into the spotlight with the recent announcement by Mrs Patricia Chin, director and co-founder of VP Records, that she intends to resume the production of the much sought-after commodity.The very ardent record...
Published:Friday | May 29, 2015 | 12:00 AMRoy Black
Legendary Jamaican ska singer, songwriter, record producer, and sound system operator of the 1960s, Prince Buster, celebrated a birthday last week. The milestone revives memories of some of the most intriguing and dramatic episodes concerning Buster...
Published:Thursday | May 28, 2015 | 9:48 PMRoy Black
At the crack of dawn on Labour Day earlier this week, thousands of Jamaicans embarked on their various chores, totally oblivious of the fact that one of the most iconic musical figures - Desmond Dekker, who laboured incessantly to develop and...
Published:Thursday | May 21, 2015 | 12:00 AMRoy Black
Wilfred ‘Jackie’ Edwards was one of the early Jamaican recording artistes who utilised Latin rhythms to great effect in their recordings. Some say Edwards was Jamaica’s first superstar, having placed four number one singles on the...
Published:Tuesday | May 19, 2015 | 10:39 AMRoy Black
Another Blues giant has passed on. This time it's B.B. King. He made the transition last Thursday, four months short of his 90th birthday.King was third in a line of three luminaries who passed away in quick succession, the others being Percy Sledge...
Published:Friday | May 15, 2015 | 12:00 AMRoy Black
Just before the euphoric rise of the thunderous Jamaican ska beat, there existed a stream of Jamaican recordings that drew heavily from Latin rhythms. Labelled by some scholars as Jamaican ballads, they emerged just at the turn of the 1960s and...
Published:Thursday | May 7, 2015 | 3:24 PMRoy Black
The name Ben E. King became a household one in Jamaica during the 1960s. His love for the island, evidenced by the many trips he made here, and the love the people had for him and his songs, gained for him that status. In a 2005 interview, King was...
Published:Tuesday | April 28, 2015 | 12:00 AMRoy Black
As Jamaican dub and roots reggae makes a heavy resurgence and mark on the music scene, Bunny 'Striker' Lee, pioneer of ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub, dancehall, and record producer in his own right, is promoting his book and documentary.They explain...
Published:Tuesday | April 21, 2015 | 11:14 AMRoy Black
His legacy lives on'When a man loves a woman,can't keep his mind on nothin' else.He'd trade the world for the good thing he's found.If she's bad he can't see it, she can do no wrong.And turn his back on his best friend if he puts her down.When a man...
Published:Tuesday | April 7, 2015 | 12:00 AMRoy Black
Much has been written and said about the late Byron Lee, concerning his contribution to soca music and the establishment of carnival in Jamaica. But there is much more to the man than just soca and carnival. Lee was an outstanding footballer for St...
Published:Thursday | March 19, 2015 | 1:48 PMRoy Black
The 1982 introduction of the compact disc (CD), a digital music playback format that used a laser to record the disc, threatened to eclipse the use of the vinyl record format that was then in use. The demise of the vinyl record seemed real, as CD...
Published:Thursday | March 19, 2015 | 7:19 PMRoy Black
To most of Nat King Cole's fans, he was considered the warm-voiced singer of ballads, love songs and happy songs that sent an aura of romanticism to all who came into contact with his music. But on the contrary, following his adopted path as a jazz...
Published:Monday | February 16, 2015 | 3:30 PMRoy Black
The YAHBA album, Jus' Wicked, is a bubbling 'Yabba pot' of musical selections, featuring a galaxy of stars that were popular during the 1960s and 1970s.If ever there was a collection of songs that linked the present and the future with the past, and...
Published:Thursday | February 12, 2015 | 6:09 PMRoy Black
Greenwich Farm yields musical stalwartsDuring the 1970s, the music coming out of Kingston 13 was the backbone of the Jamaica music industry. The Soul Syndicate Band, which played on over 60 per cent of all recordings done during that era, was an...
