![]() With this in-built market research and the forum to advertise his music Dodd had local acts queuing to record, among them the Skatalites who created the template for Fifties ska which then got slowed down and became reggae.ĭodd recorded lovers' rock (Delroy Wilson's Dancing Mood) and primal reggae. So popular was Theophilus Beckford's Easy Snapping he released it as a single, then he recorded other acts at various studios before opening Studio One in '63.Īt his sound system Coxsone would often play dub plates from the studio session (a one-off pressing) to test them on audiences. When the music changed to rock'n'roll in the late Fifties Dodd recorded local acts at RJR studios - but only for one-off discs which he could play through the handmade speakers of his sound system which he designed. He'd go to the US to buy records which he'd bring home and scratch names off so rivals such as King Stitt wouldn't know who they were by. It was the start of DJing and Downbeat became the No 1 show in town with Dodd its star. He returned to Kingston and started his Downbeat Sound System in dancehalls at which he would, in the manner of US radio jocks he'd heard, talk and improvise before playing records he'd bought in the States. Studio One is such a seminal label it is often called "the Motown of Reggae", and not just because Dodd (like Motown's Berry Gordy) ran his studio like a Detroit production line with an in-house band supporting an ever-changing roster of acts.Īs a youth Dodd (right) went to Florida as a farm worker in the mid-50s and fell in love with black r'n'b and blues. ![]() There are huge bags beneath them, his greying dreadlocks are tucked under a huge tea cosy, his wiry beard unkempt.īut his most distinctive features are a bottom lip the size of a sausage and a single sharp tooth which projects out of his otherwise empty gums.īut King Stitt - aka Winston Spakes - is one of Jamaica's earliest and best DJ toasters and was there at the start of Studio One, the classic JA record label founded by Clement "Coxsone" Dodd.Ī partial list of Studio One artists includes the Abyssinians, Big Youth, Burning Spear, Ernest Ranglin, the Ethiopians, Freddie McGregor, and the young Wailers of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingstone. His glazed eyes appear to look in different directions. As a result of the popularity of these 12" singles Coxsone Dodd compiled and released three "Showcase" albums.King Stitt is something to see all right. The vocals and dubs were mated for a musical extravaganza. During the seventies in Jamaica the 12" mix of popular songs became the vogue. Excellent musicians like the late great Jackie Mittoo (who can be credited for providing a complete legacy of "riddims" still going strong today and enjoyed by many Reggae lovers all over the world), Don Drummond, Count Ossie, Leroy Sibbles, Roland Alphonso and Ernest Ranglin laid riddims for singers and vocal groups like The Wailing Wailers, Delroy Wilson, The Viceroys, Wailing Souls, Sugar Minott, Horace Andy, Freddie McGregor, Dennis Brown, Burning Spear, to name but a few. When the beat slowed down it became Rocksteady, then evolving into militant rock called Reggae. In search of a cultural dance beat for Jamaica his studio musicians created Ska. Producer from as far back as 1959 Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd can be regarded as the founder of Reggae music and his "Studio One" imprint as the most legendary record label in the history of Reggae.
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