1.4: Where did ska come from?
Description
This article is from the Ska FAQ, by Tomas Willis tomas@twillis.com with numerous contributions by others.
1.4: Where did ska come from?
In the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica rhythm & blues sounds from
the African-American experience in America were adapted by Jamaican
musicians and blended with traditional Jamaican *mento*, spiced with
jazz, as well as ya-ya, See , and other island sounds and cranked out of
dance hall systems and mobile "sound systems" mounted on huge trucks.
In the late 1950s Jamaica was about to gain independence from Great
Britain, and pioneering Jamaican record producer *Clement "Sir Coxsone"
Dodd*, no doubt in a spirit of nationalism and a desire to get down,
called on his musicians to create a danceable uniquely Jamaican sound.
Bassist *Cluet Johnson (Clue J)* ran the "hardest-driving dance and
recording band" developing this sound in Jamaica and went about the
town greeting his friends with a call of "*Love Skavoovie*." `[SB(JJ)]'
From this greeting, the name of the music naturally developed into
"*ska*."
In late 1960 and 1961 bands recording for Dodd laid down the first
truly ska tracks, distinct from calypso, r&b, jazz and American and
British pop sounds. *Coxone* was in strenuous competition with Arthur
"Duke" Reid, who founded Trojan Records (see ) and Prince Buster (Cecil
Campbell), who left Dodd to found "The Voice of the People", his own
sound system. Chris Blackwell's Island Records provided another vital
nexus for early ska music (see ). There developed "a unique Jamaican
jazz culture where the melody of horns fused with the drums in a free
form music which was mellifluous and rebellious."`[RAR,p.126]' Thus,
ska became Jamaica's first indigenous popular music form. A hit at
home, ska reigned supreme in Jamaica for many years: "The National
Dance", indeed.
As many have stated in alt.music.ska, ska did not spring into sudden
existence out of nowhere. Many of the elements of ska can be heard in
recordings from the late 1950s. It wasn't until these were all brought
together in the Kingston scene under the influences of Coxsone, "Prince
Buster", Clue J, "Duke Reid" and others that ska emerged as a distinct
sound. By the time ska made its "world debut" at the 1964 New York
World's Fair at the the Jamaican exhibition it was an established
phenomenon at home.
More ska history is available from the exciting new Island Records
site, http://www.islandlife.com/tough/1.html.
Ska came to England with immigrants in the early 1960s. Known in
the UK briefly as "Jamaican Blues", ska inspired the formation of the
Blue Beat record company, providing yet another name for the ska sound:
"blue beat". Ska gained popularity in the UK amongst the members of
the "Mod" scene, leading to the residual association of small-brimmed
trilby (pork-pie hats)(1) and scooters(2) with ska music.`[HSBR]' About
the time "skinheads" in the UK were getting into ska, Trojan Records
was still releasing ska hits into the UK top 10 (as late as 1969 or
1970), but by that time rock-steady and reggae were waxing as ska
waned, for a while, at least.
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) The pork-pie (trilby) hat came to the Mods by way of the rude
bwoy fashion of Jamaican immigrants in the UK. See .
(2) For scooter talk, check out the Usenet group alt.scooter or the
Original Motor Scooter Home Page
(http://weber.u.washington.edu/~shortwav) or `The Bollocks Page',
http://www.t5.net/TheBollocksPage/.
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