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List Of Ska Musicians
This is a list of notable bands and musicians who performed primarily ska or ska-influenced music for a significant portion of their careers. Original (starting in late 1950s) *Aubrey Adams * Laurel Aitken * Roland Alphonso * Theophilus Beckford * Val Bennett *Baba Brooks *The Blues Busters *Prince Buster * The Clarendonians *Jimmy Cliff *Clue J & His Blues Blasters * Stranger Cole *Desmond Dekker *Don Drummond * Jackie Edwards *Alton Ellis *The Ethiopians * Owen Gray * Derrick Harriott *Justin Hinds *Jah Jerry Haynes *Lloyd Knibb *Byron Lee & the Dragonaires * Count Machuki *Carlos Malcolm *Tommy McCook *The Melodians * Johnny "Dizzy" Moore *Derrick Morgan * Eric "Monty" Morris * Jackie Opel *The Paragons *Lee "Scratch" Perry * Lord Tanamo * The Pioneers *Ernest Ranglin * Rico Rodriguez *The Skatalites *The Silvertones *Millie Small *Symarip *Lynn Taitt *Toots & the Maytals *The Wailers *Delroy Wilson 2 Tone ska revival (starting in late 1970s) * The Apollinaires * Pauline B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aubrey Adams
Aubrey Wellington Adams (17 June 1920 – 6 August 1990) was a Jamaican pianist and keyboard player who was one of the top bandleaders in Jamaica in the 1950s, and led the Dewdroppers as well as playing with Clue J & His Blues Blasters. Biography Adams was active in the pre- ska era of Jamaican music when he led a band that had a residency at the Courtleigh Manor Hotel, that included tenor saxophonist Tommy McCook among others.Moskowitz, David V. (2006) ''Caribbean Popular Music: an Encyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rock Steady, and Dancehall'', Greenwood Press, , p. 4-5 He also played in Sonny Bradshaw's jazz band.Gambrill, Tony (2007)Sonny Bradshaw is 81 years young, ''Jamaica Observer'', 27 May 2007, retrieved 13 September 2009 He continued to perform in the ska era of the early 1960s, when he played piano for Clue J and His Blues Blasters, and also recorded with Roland Alphonso, Clancy Eccles, Pat Kelly, and the Soul Defenders. His keyboard playing was influential on ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Owen Gray
Owen Gray, also known as Owen Grey (born 5 July 1939),Larkin, Colin (1998) "The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae", Virgin Books, is a Jamaican musician. His work spans the R&B, ska, rocksteady, and reggae eras of Jamaican music, and he has been credited as Jamaica's first home-grown singing star.Eder, Bruce " Owen Gray Biography, ''Allmusic'', Macrovision Corporation Biography Gray was born in Jamaica. He won his first talent contest at the age of nine, and by the age of twelve he was already appearing in public, playing drums, guitar, and keyboards. He attended the Alpha Boys School and turned professional aged 19. Gray was a dynamic performer on stage, who could be gritty or suave as the song dictated.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) ''The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd edn.'', Rough Guides, He was the first singer (of many) to praise a sound system on record, with his "On the Beach" celebrating Clement Dodd's ''Sir Coxsone Downbeat'' system in 1959, one of the first releases ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jackie Opel
Dalton Sinclair Bishop (27 August 1937 – 9 March 1970), better known as Jackie Opel, was a Barbadian singer who possessed a rich, powerful voice with a high octave range. He was known as the "Jackie Wilson of Barbadian culture" and was also a gifted dancer. Bishop was born in Bridgetown, Barbados. In the early 1960s, he was discovered by Byron Lee, the band master of the Dragonaires, who brought him to Jamaica. His styles included ska, R&B, soul, gospel and calypso. He is credited with inventing spouge music, a fusion of ska, calypso, and R&B music. Opel performed duos with Doreen Schaffer and Hortense Ellis, and in 1964 was backed by Wailers Bob Marley and Peter Tosh on "Mill Man", "Hairy Mango" and "A Time to Cry". Opel eventually moved to Trinidad and then subsequently returned home to Barbados. On March 9th 1970 , 85 days before Alison Hinds's birth in England, he died in a car crash on Lower Bay Street, Bridgetown, Barbados Barbados is an island c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric "Monty" Morris
Eric "Monty" Morris (born c.1942)Campbell, Howard (2016)Eric 'Monty' Morris to perform at Grace Jerk Festival, ''Jamaica Observer'', 12 November 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016 is a Jamaican ska singer, known for his work with the Skatalites and hit singles such as "Sammy Dead Oh" and "Oil in My Lamp". Biography Morris grew up in the Trench Town area of Kingston and like many singers of the era, Morris started by competing in talent contests in the early 1950s, including Vere Johns' ''Opportunity Hour'', and made his first recording with Derrick Morgan.Peter I (2004),What a Man Doeth: Interview with Monty Morris, Reggae-vibes.com, retrieved 2010-07-20. Morris went on to record several singles for Prince Buster and Duke Reid and was the original vocalist for The Skatalites. He also recorded as a duo with Roy Panton. Morris had a hit in 1961 with the song "Humpty Dumpty". In the wake of two big Jamaican hits with "Sammy Dead Oh" and "Oil in My Lamp" he performed in the United ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derrick Morgan
Derrick Morgan (born 27 March 1940)Walters, Basil (2012)A New Day – Songs heralding JA’s Independence", ''Jamaica Observer'', 3 June 2012, retrieved 3 June 2012 is a Jamaican musical artist who was popular in the 1960s and 1970s. He worked with Desmond Dekker, Bob Marley, and Jimmy Cliff in the rhythm and blues and ska genres, and he also performed rocksteady and skinhead reggae. Biography In 1957, Morgan entered the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour, a talent show held at the Palace Theatre in Kingston. He won with rousing impressions of Little Richard and, shortly after that, was recruited to perform around the island with the popular Jamaican comedy team Bim and Bam. In 1959, Morgan entered the recording studio for the first time. Duke Reid, the sound system boss, was looking for talent to record for his Treasure Isle record label. Morgan cut two popular shuffle-boogie sides "Lover Boy", a.k.a. "S-Corner Rock", and "Oh My". Soon after, Morgan cut the bolero-tinged boogie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Moore (trumpeter)
John Arlington "Dizzy" Moore OD was a Jamaican trumpet player and founding member of pioneering Jamaican ska and reggae act The Skatalites. Biography A friend of his attended the Alpha Boys School, which catered for wayward boys and was renowned for its strong musical programme, and impressed by his playing, Moore decided on a strategy of misbehaving to get sent there himself, which worked after (he later claimed) pulling "a couple of pranks" to show that he was "going haywire"."Johnny Moore" (obit.), The Times, 30 August 2008Barrow, Steve & Dalton Peter (2004) "The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd edn.", Rough Guides, While at the school he took up the trumpet and studied musical composition under bandleader Ruben Delgado. On leaving the school, he joined the army, playing in the Jamaica Military Band. He was dismissed from the army after three years on a charge of being "not amenable to military service". He then joined the Mapletoft Poulle Orchestra, and Eric Dean's band, but was t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Melodians
The Melodians are a rocksteady band formed in the Greenwich Town area of Kingston, Jamaica, in 1963, by Tony Brevett (born 1949, nephew of The Skatalites bassist, Lloyd Brevett), Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton.Tony Brevett's Unheralded Greatness , '''', 10 November 2013. Retrieved 10 November 2013 assisted with and [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tommy McCook
Tommy McCook (3 March 1927 – 5 May 1998) was a Jamaican saxophonist. A founding member of The Skatalites, he also directed The Supersonics for Duke Reid, and backed many sessions for Bunny Lee or with The Revolutionaries at Channel One Studios in the 1970s. Biography McCook was born in Havana, Cuba, and moved to Jamaica in 1933. He took up the tenor saxophone at the age of eleven, when he was a pupil at the Alpha School, and eventually joined Eric Deans' Orchestra. In 1954, he left for an engagement in Nassau, Bahamas, after which he ended up in Miami, Florida, and it was here that McCook first heard John Coltrane and fell in love with jazz. McCook returned to Jamaica in early 1962, where he was approached by a few local producers to do some recordings. Eventually he consented to record a jazz session for Clement "Coxson" Dodd, which was issued on the album as ''Jazz Jamaica''. His first ska recording was an adaptation of Ernest Gold’s "Exodus", recorded in Novem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlos Malcolm
Carlos Malcolm OD (born c. 1934) is a world renowned Jamaican trombonist, percussionist and bandleader who helped cultivate the infamous Jamaican genres of music known as Ska and Reggae. Biography Carlos Malcolm was born in Panama c. 1935Porter stated that he was 69 in 2004. to Jamaican parents and grew up in Kingston.Greene, Jo-Ann " ''Ska-Mania: The Sound of the Soil'' review, ''Allmusic'', Macrovision Corporation, retrieved 15 November 2009. His father, Wilfred Malcolm, went to Panama and worked as a bookkeeper in the Panama Canal Zone. He became a prominent business man in the city of Colon, established homes in both countries and sent his five children back to Jamaica to be educated. Having studied the liturgy and music of the Anglican (Episcopalian) Church, Wilfred Malcolm was an Anglican church choir director for many years. He also played trombone in the "Jazz Aristocrats," a Panamanian Dixieland band for which he was manager, and he took the band to Jamaica in 1936.Po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Count Machuki
Winston Cooper (c.1929–1995), better known as Count Matchuki or Count Machuki, was a Jamaican deejay. Biography Cooper was born c.1929 in Kingston, Jamaica,Moskowitz, David V. (2006) ''Caribbean Popular Music: an Encyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rocksteady, and Dancehall'', Greenwood Press, , p. 70-71 and began working on sound systems in the 1950s, when the music played was largely American R&B. His stage name of Count Matchuki derived from his habit of chewing matchsticks. He initially worked on Tom Wong's ''Tom the Great Sebastian'' system and later the ''Tokyo the Monarch'' system, before moving on to Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's ''Downbeat'' Sound System.Katz, David (2003) ''Solid Foundation: an Oral History of Reggae'', Bloomsbury, , p. 10Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) ''The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd edn.'', Rough Guides, , p. 17, 123 He added talkovers to the songs, emulating the jive talk of American radio DJ's at the request of Dodd, who became familiar wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byron Lee & The Dragonaires
Byron Lee and the Dragonaires (known as Byron Lee's Dragonaires after Lee's death and now The Dragonaires) are a Jamaican ska, calypso and soca band. The band played a crucial pioneering role in bringing Caribbean music to the world. Byron Lee died on 4 November 2008, after suffering from cancer for a sustained period. History The band was originally formed around 1950 by Byron Lee and his friend Carl Brady, taking its name from the St. George's College football team for which they played. The band originally played mento, and performed their first shows in the college common room to celebrate the team's victories. After a few years of playing at parties, birthdays and weddings, Lee decided to turn professional. By 1956, the Dragonaires had become a fixture on Jamaica's hotel circuit, playing under their own name and also providing backing to visiting American stars including Harry Belafonte, Chuck Berry, The Drifters, Sam Cooke, and Fats Domino. The Dragonaires prided t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lloyd Knibb
Lloyd Knibb OD (8 March 1931 – 12 May 2011) was a Jamaican drummer who is considered Jamaica's most important and influential modern drummer. A master percussionist, he contributed to every style of this nation's popular and not so popular musical forms, including jazz, mento, burru, nyabinghi, rock steady and, by extension, reggae. He is most well known for his contribution to the development of the rhythm of the ska.Miller, Herbie (2011)The Rhythmic Innovation of Lloyd Knibb, ''Jamaica Gleaner'', 16 May 2011, retrieved 16 May 2011 He played for The Skatalites (in the 1960s up to his death), and for Tommy McCook & The Supersonics. Knibb recorded for the producers Lloyd "Matador" Daley and Duke Reid. Biography Born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1931, Knibb, grew up on Bond Street, close to where a local band rehearsed, and he made his own drum kit from a wooden box and paint cans to practice the sounds that he had heard. Like a lot of musicians in the 1940s, he honed his craft i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
