I’ll freely admit it: I love classic Caribbean music. Calypso, Ska, Rocksteady, Mento, Bluebeat, Reggae, and other cross-pollinated and intermingling classifications take up a lot of space on my shelves and hard drives. There’s something I find endlessly fascinating about the way that american R&B and jazz got transported to new territories, mingled with the existing local folk musics, and spun off into whole new forms. I love the vibe, the feeling, the summertimey atmosphere, and the sincerity that runs through so much of these records… And this disc is a great example.
In 1964, Millie Small scored a worldwide smash with “My Boy Lollipop“, and record labels were suddenly looking for more of this “Ska” stuff to release. At about the same time, The World’s Fair was in full swing in New York, and the Jamaican government sponsored a music festival as part of the festivities. Artists including Prince Buster, Byron Lee, Desmond Dekker, and a young Jimmy Cliff performed and further cemented America’s interest in this strange exotic music.
Soon therafter, Epic records decided to record an album of authentic Ska in Kingston, Jamaica. This was to be one of the (if not the) first full LPs of this new sound to be released in the United States.
And as for how the album actually got made, there seems to be some confusion (and the liner notes don’t offer much help, consisting of only a few paragraphs on the development and history of “The Ska” as a music and dance craze). It’s presented as a custom-recorded compilation by the cream of Jamaican talent, though there’s some evidence that it consists in part of singles that had been released previously. Production credit is shared by two noted R&B studio men of the time: Carl Davis and his regular collaborator, the legendary Curtis Mayfield (whose unique brand of gospel-inflected soul would, in turn, be a great influence on the later development of Jamaican popular music)… But at least one source I’ve read is skeptical that they actually had any hands-on involvement in the making of the record.
Anyhow, that’s all kinda beside the point. Which is- no matter how it came into existence, this record is fantastic. There’s twelve tunes and just over a half hour of music here, with contributions from Jimmy Cliff, Lord Creator, The Techniques, The Charmers, and Winston Samuel. It’s basically a dozen slight variations on a theme: swinging beat, horn fanfares, organ riffs, lyrics of the “moon/june/spoon” nature. Songs about pretty girls and ones about dancing and ones about heartbreak and ones about the state of the world, delivered in an absurdly cheerful fashion no matter the subject.
Key tracks are, well, the whole thing. There’s not a lot of variety here, but that hardly matters. It’s a simple formula: equal parts sweet vocals, loping rhythms and sheer enthusiasm; shake well; dance the night away. And really, that’s exactly what I want… A fun, summertimey record that makes me smile every time I listen to it.
“The Real Jamaica Ska” has been reissued a few times over the years. It’s currently available for download here (with an oddly rearranged track listing and a couple early Bob Marley songs tacked onto the end). The edition I have is this CD, which can usually be found used for a few bucks. Sources used for this review include “Reggae Routes” by Kevin O’Brien Chang/Wayne Chen and “Reggae And Caribbean Music” by Dave Thompson, both highly recommended.