09.27.12 - Rhythm n Blues, Rocksteady n Ska

LISTEN TO THE ARCHIVE AT JAMAICAROCK.COM

Prince Buster

Having recently picked up a new (old) 45 of Dave Barker's "Set Me Free", it got me into listening to his other songs and led me into an RnB and rocksteady n ska type of mood. Dave Barker is a beautiful singer that was born in Kingston, JA. Having started out doing some recordings for Harry J and Coxsone while working at the Studio One pressing plant, he then joined Winston Riley for a bit singing with The Techniques but hit the most success partnered up with Ansel Collins for their big track "Double Barrel". I have also included a song or two by Prince Buster, Ken Parker, Laurel Aitken and The Skatalites. There are also some lovely songs by Rita Marley in here and of course (as I do love them) some great cover songs as well. You can check the playlist above, though for some reason the EVR playlists run out of room for me and so then some songs at the end will be listed at the top, fyi...

09.20.12 - Dubwise / Roots Radics Selections

LISTEN TO THE ARCHIVE AT JAMAICAROCK.COM

Emch, Style Scott, QM

A convenient continuation of the previous week's Keith Hudson show, this show features other dub pioneers such as King Tubby, Lee Scratch Perry, Scientist and more. The Dub Champions Festival that has just happened this weekend was inspiration to get me listening to more dub than I have in a long time. Which, obviously, is a good thing.

The Dub Champions Festival (www.DubChampions.com) was put on by Subatomic Sound, and lucky for us Emch from Subatomic was in a studio not too far from the EVR studio and managed to drop by towards the end of the show to talk a bit about the festival. An even luckier surprise was that he had Style Scott of the mega-band Roots Radics with him! What a very nice and cool guy, I would love to have him on again to talk about some more history with us. Hope you got to check them all out this weekend, Roots Radics played "Rids the World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires" with none other than Scientist himself! And Johnny Osbourne! Killer show. I missed the Lee Perry one (caught him with Emch last time though) and I am sure that was great too. Big ups to Subatomic Sound for helping bring more dub events to NYC.

09.13.12 - Keith Hudson Tribute

LISTEN TO THE ARCHIVE AT JAMAICAROCK.COM

This show is dedicated to and inspired by the great producer and artist Keith Hudson aka "The Dark Prince of Reggae", known for his influence on dub music.  Most of the songs on the show are sung by or produced by him, though I did include some other songs by artists he has worked with or that I thought went with the sound of the Hudson tunes. I apologize for some technical difficulties early on in the show, apparently the needles were a bit worn, and once we figured that out and replaced them, everything was alright...

I recommend reading up about Keith Hudson if you do not know a lot about him, his career is filled with so much work that I was unaware of. Here is a link to his wikipedia page here and also a discussion on a blog to whether or not "Pick A Dub" is officially the first dub album or not here. Apparently Ian Curtis of the English band Joy Division was a huge fan and I end the show with his favorite Keith Hudson song "Turn The Heater On", followed by a tribute cover from New Order that was made for Curtis. I love seeing the influences of Jamaican music throughout music all over the world, and I can only imagine how far-reaching Keith Hudson's have been.

09.06.12 - Alton Ellis Tribute Show

LISTEN TO THE ARCHIVE AT JAMAICAROCK.COM

Alton Ellis

Alton Ellis (1938-2008) was a musician best known as the innovator of rocksteady music. He began recording in the late 1950s and continued until his death in 2008, but he reached his period of greatest popularity in the late 1960s.

Ellis was born in Trenchtown, Jamaica, and learned to play the piano at a young age. In his teens, Alton and Eddie Perkins formed Alton & Eddie, and began recording for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One, scoring a hit in 1958 with “Muriel”. 

Ellis launched his solo career after Perkins left for the United States around 1965. He moved to Treasure Isle and began recording with the back-up trio The Flames. His first hit for Treasure Isle was “Dance Crasher”, a plea for peace, and he followed it up with “Get Ready - Rock Steady”.

Ellis’ most well-known song is probably “Girl, I’ve Got A Date”, or “I’m Still In Love With You”, a song that has been versioned many times by artists such as Sean Paul, Althea & Donna (As ‘Uptown Top Ranking’).

In 2006, Ellis was inducted into the International Reggae And World Music Awards (IRAWMA), Hall Of Fame. (- via Last.fm)

Alton Ellis' birthday was this past September 1st, and this show is a tribute to him. I started with some of his first tunes and took you through his ska, rocksteady, soul and roots. His musical innovations will never be forgotten.

08.30.12 - Bushman LIVE in the studio

LISTEN TO THE ARCHIVE AT JAMAICAROCK.COM

Busman LIVE in the EVR studio

For this show I was honored to welcome Bushman back to the studio. The first visit from him was a couple years ago on Deadly Dragon Sounds in promotion of "Bushman Sings The Bush Doctor", and now he is back with what I know is going to be a big album, "Conquering Lion".  I started out the show with one of my favorite tunes "Call The Hearse", and then play some of his other tunes amongst some favorite modern roots and things like that. Towards the end of the show I play some songs from the upcoming album such as "Somewhere", and we get to talk to the man himself about it!

08.23.12 - Tenor Saw, 80s Digital and More

LISTEN TO THE ARCHIVE AT JAMAICAROCK.COM

Tenor Saw

Clive “Tenor Saw” Bright was raised in the Payne Avenue district of West Kingston. His first single, “Roll Call” was recorded in 1984 for George Phang’s Powerhouse label, on the “Queen Majesty” rhythm. He moved on, with his friend Nitty Gritty, to work with Sugar Minott’s Youth Promotion sound system and label, having hits in Jamaica with “Lots of Sign”, “Pumpkin Belly”, “Run Come Call Me”, and “Fever”. His most successful single, however, was “Ring the Alarm”, voiced over the “Stalag” rhythm for Winston Riley’s Techniques label. The singles’ success saw Tenor Saw work with Prince Jammy, recording “Pumpkin Belly” on Jammy’s (then) new “Sleng Teng” rhythm. Further hits followed in 1986 with “Golden Hen” (on the Uptempo label), and Minott issued Tenor Saw’s debut album, Fever, that year. In common with most dancehall albums of the period, most of the rhythms were digital copies of older tunes from the 1960s and 1970s, usually produced originally by Coxsone Dodd or Duke Reid. Thus, “Shirley Jones” versions Keith “Slim” Smith’s “Rougher Yet”, and “Eeni Meeni Mini Mo” versions “Real Rock” from Studio One, while “Roll Call” versions The Techniques’ “Queen Majesty” from Duke Reid, while “Lots of Sign” versions “Tonight” by Keith & Tex, produced by Derrick Harriott. - (from Last.fm)

Thinking of Tenor Saw this week, then when I looked him up online I had noticed that he passed away in August of 1988. I decided to do a show on him, some of my favorite 80s digital productions from huge talents such as King Tubby and King Jammy, as well as artists from this era and a few songs about artists passing too soon, that Tenor Saw is mentioned in.

08.16.12 - Marcus Garvey Tribute Show

LISTEN TO THE ARCHIVE AT JAMAICAROCK.COM

Marcus Garvey

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., born August 17, 1887, was a Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. He founded the Black Star Line, part of the Back-to-Africa movement, which promoted the return of the African diaspora to their ancestral lands. This show is a tribute to him, filled with songs devoted to him and Africa out of the mouths and hearts of Jamaican artists and musicians.

08.09.12 - Shinehead LIVE in the studio

LISTEN TO THE ARCHIVE AT JAMAICAROCK.COM

Shinehead LIVE in the EVR studio

I can't express to you how lucky I feel to be able to have one of my favorite artists on the show, and to play records and have tons of fun with him while doing this. Shinehead is not just an amazing musician, he is also just a really cool human being. He brought a bunch of his vinyl ("Vinyl is final!" - Shinehead) and we took turns playing some of our favorite tunes and also had a friendly tune fi tune as well. I started out the show with a killer Shinehead dub plate of mine (big ups Byze One!) and then went into a few tunes of Sluggy Ranks, who sadly passed in a car accident this July 29th, 2012.

RIP to another big talent passing before his time.

08.02.12 - Jamaican 50th Independence Special

LISTEN TO THE ARCHIVE AT JAMAICAROCK.COM

This year marked the 50th anniversary of Jamaica's independence from the United Kingdom which was August 6th of 1962. In honor of this there were celebrations all over the world and I wanted to celebrate on the show by playing songs devoted to the island. The show starts with a beautiful rendition of the Jamaican National Anthem sung by the mega talented Shinehead! Happy Independence, Jamaica!

07.26.12 - Curtis Mayfield Tribute

LISTEN TO THE ARCHIVE AT JAMAICAROCK.COM

Curtis Mayfield

At least once a year, I love to do a Curtis Mayfield tribute show. Not only is he an obviously outstanding and influential musician, he is also responsible for my DJ name. The Impressions "Minstrel & Queen", which I started the show off with, is the song that influenced the Techniques to do "Queen Majesty" which then spawned the Queen Majesty riddim that is still being used for new tracks today. The whole show is an homage to Curtis Mayfiels and The Impressions, with actual Jamaican cover songs of theirs, as well as songs from other Jamaican male singers and harmony groups.

07.19.12 - Jamaica Rock Premiere

LISTEN TO THE ARCHIVE AT JAMAICAROCK.COM





















Hey everyone, welcome to Jamaica Rock. Not only is it the name of the show on East Village Radio, it's the name of how I want to describe my choice in reggae music. I start the show off with a song from one of my favorite artists, Johnny Osbourne's "Rock With You". I was lucky to have him as a guest on Deadly Dragon Sounds, and hope to have him on this show as well. Thanks again to the Deadly Dragons for all of their hard work on the other show and all of the amazing guests that came through, you can still check out the archives and special guests HERE. I hope you continue rocking with me in this new show and time...