Though Jamaican pop was recorded in English, most Americans know very little about the history of the country's music, its artists or hits. Interestingly, Jamaican rhythms are hardly foreign to American ears. For example, the following U.S. hits were powered by Jamaican rhythms: Millie Small's My Boy Lollipop, Johnny Nash's Hold Me Tight, the Beatles' Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Eric Clapton's cover of I Shot the Sheriff, Blondie's cover of The Tide Is High, the Clash's Guns of Brixton and the Police's Roxanne, to name just a handful. In other words, we're more familiar with Jamaican music than we realize.
I've always felt that the biggest barrier to American appreciation of Jamaican music has been a general lack of knowledge about the music's history. The reason we love jazz, R&B and rock is because we know their histories and how they evolved. Music is a story first and foremost. It's how we place music and artists in time and understand how genres developed. Without the story, entire forms wither on the vine because no one bothered to bottle it.
The history of Jamaican pop music has been lost on the American market, probably because it never had a champion—someone to organize an engaging history, discography or documentary. The same is true of Latin music, and if it wasn't for Creed Taylor, Stan Getz and other jazz musicians, the same would have be true of the bossa nova.
From the 1950s onward, Jamaican music was entwined with U.S. pop. Two factors contributed to the intermingling of the two countries' music trends. The first was Jamaican workers returned home with U.S. records and Jamaican artists adapting the sound or those songs. The second was the rise of the Jamaican record industry, driven largely by the country-wide record stores and the tradition of street parties with DJs manning elaborate outdoor stereo systems trying to outdo each other by playing obscure recordings.
For the sake of simplicity, Jamaican pop can be divided into three broad categories—ska, which emerged in the late 1950s and early '60s, and merged Jamaican beats with jazz and R&B horns; rocksteady, which surged in the mid-1960s and was influenced by the soft sounds of American soul; and reggae, which emerged in the early '70s by abandoning pop sounds of the States and the U.K. for home-grown songs with social and political messages about Jamaican poverty and injustice.
I've obviously broad-stroked here. Jamaica's pop music history is much more detailed and complex in terms of influences and its movements. But this three-phase framework will simplify the music for those who don't know much about it.
Justin Hinds played a big role in the ska and rocksteady movements. In 1964, he had a huge ska hit with Carry Go Bring Come, featuring his vocal group, the Dominoes. The song topped the Jamaican charts for two months. Over the next two years, Hinds and the Dominoes recorded more than 70 singles. In 1966, he shifted to rocksteady's hypnotically rhythmic ballads. As reggae evolved in the early '70s, Hinds inched into the form but tended to stick with the earlier forms that brought him local fame. But rather than record American hits with Jamaican flavor, which many rocksteady artists did in the '60s and beyond, he recorded original, inventive material.
Now Omnivore, one of the great revivalist labels co-founded by Grammy Award-winning producer Cheryl Pawelski, has reissued two superb rocksteady albums by Hinds—Travel With Love (1984) and Know Jah Better (1992). What makes these album special is the seductive and penetrating way Hinds developed his songs. The relaxing music feels as if you're being rocked in a hammock and his vocals remain soothing and determined.
I love rocksteady—in particular artists such as Alton Ellis, Bitty McLean, John Holt and Ken Boothe. Hinds is a smart addition with an original feel.
Justin Hinds died in 2005.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Justin Hinds and the Dominoes' Travel With Love on CD here. The new release features the album's original eight tracks plus 10 bonus tracks. You'll find Know Jah Better here. Both have been reissued by Omnivore.
JazzWax clips: Here Miss Windell from Travel With Love...
Here's Love in the Morning from Know Jah Better...
And here's Hinds and the Dominoes's Carry Go Bring Home, their 1964 ska hit...
I've always felt that the biggest barrier to American appreciation of Jamaican music has been a general lack of knowledge about the music's history. The reason we love jazz, R&B and rock is because we know their histories and how they evolved. Music is a story first and foremost. It's how we place music and artists in time and understand how genres developed. Without the story, entire forms wither on the vine because no one bothered to bottle it.
The history of Jamaican pop music has been lost on the American market, probably because it never had a champion—someone to organize an engaging history, discography or documentary. The same is true of Latin music, and if it wasn't for Creed Taylor, Stan Getz and other jazz musicians, the same would have be true of the bossa nova.
From the 1950s onward, Jamaican music was entwined with U.S. pop. Two factors contributed to the intermingling of the two countries' music trends. The first was Jamaican workers returned home with U.S. records and Jamaican artists adapting the sound or those songs. The second was the rise of the Jamaican record industry, driven largely by the country-wide record stores and the tradition of street parties with DJs manning elaborate outdoor stereo systems trying to outdo each other by playing obscure recordings.
For the sake of simplicity, Jamaican pop can be divided into three broad categories—ska, which emerged in the late 1950s and early '60s, and merged Jamaican beats with jazz and R&B horns; rocksteady, which surged in the mid-1960s and was influenced by the soft sounds of American soul; and reggae, which emerged in the early '70s by abandoning pop sounds of the States and the U.K. for home-grown songs with social and political messages about Jamaican poverty and injustice.
I've obviously broad-stroked here. Jamaica's pop music history is much more detailed and complex in terms of influences and its movements. But this three-phase framework will simplify the music for those who don't know much about it.
Justin Hinds played a big role in the ska and rocksteady movements. In 1964, he had a huge ska hit with Carry Go Bring Come, featuring his vocal group, the Dominoes. The song topped the Jamaican charts for two months. Over the next two years, Hinds and the Dominoes recorded more than 70 singles. In 1966, he shifted to rocksteady's hypnotically rhythmic ballads. As reggae evolved in the early '70s, Hinds inched into the form but tended to stick with the earlier forms that brought him local fame. But rather than record American hits with Jamaican flavor, which many rocksteady artists did in the '60s and beyond, he recorded original, inventive material.
Now Omnivore, one of the great revivalist labels co-founded by Grammy Award-winning producer Cheryl Pawelski, has reissued two superb rocksteady albums by Hinds—Travel With Love (1984) and Know Jah Better (1992). What makes these album special is the seductive and penetrating way Hinds developed his songs. The relaxing music feels as if you're being rocked in a hammock and his vocals remain soothing and determined.
I love rocksteady—in particular artists such as Alton Ellis, Bitty McLean, John Holt and Ken Boothe. Hinds is a smart addition with an original feel.
Justin Hinds died in 2005.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Justin Hinds and the Dominoes' Travel With Love on CD here. The new release features the album's original eight tracks plus 10 bonus tracks. You'll find Know Jah Better here. Both have been reissued by Omnivore.
JazzWax clips: Here Miss Windell from Travel With Love...
Here's Love in the Morning from Know Jah Better...
And here's Hinds and the Dominoes's Carry Go Bring Home, their 1964 ska hit...
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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