Genre: First Wave Ska
Description:
Treasure Isle records, located in Kingston Jamaica, was instrumental in the recording and release of what is considered first wave ska. The first wave spanned from 1960 to approximately 1968. A little thing called Rocksteady began to happen in the long hot summer of 1968, and there was a discernible change of the music played at at the outdoor sound systems that year. We'll get into that more later. This album is a collection of Treasure Isle singles released through the sixties. It should be a good starting point for us.
From the liner notes:
In the ska period covered by this album, a pool of some fifteen musicians provided the session bands for the rapidly-growing number of record labels. Many of them graduates of Kingston's Alpha School for Boys, they would be credited under different names depending on which label they were working for that day. So the Prince Buster All Stars on Prince Buster and Wild Bells, The Upcoming Willows on King Edwards and The Skatalites on Studio one and Coxsone, were all more or less the same musicians, with variations depending perhaps on who was available that day or even who got on with the record producer. Duke Reid occasionally used the Skatalites name, but more often he prefered to credit the individual artist--whoever took the solos on a particular tune or whoever was responsible for the arangement. Although the original Jamaican LP release of this CD was "The Skatalite", few if any of the original 45rpm singles came out under that name.
Accurate session details were a rarity in the Jamaica of the Sixties, and in those days LP sleeves did not list band personel. So it is impossible to say with certainty exactly who plays on what. However, you'll hear at least some of the following musicians on each track: Tenor Saxes: Tommy McCook, Roland Alphonso, Val Bennett; Alto Saxes: Lester Sterling, Karl Bryan; Trumpets: Baba Brooks, Johnny "Dizzy Moore", Raymond Harper, Frankie Anderson; Piano: Jackie Mittoo, Gladstone Anderson, Theophilus Beckford; Guitar: Harold McKenzie, Jerome "Jah Jerry" Hinds; Bass: Lloyd Brevett; Drums: Lloyd Knibb, Arkland "Drumbago" Parks. Compiled at by Duke Reid himself at the tail end of the Sixties, this album is a collection of ska standards, most of them classics from four or five years earlier. The album may have been released in answer to public demand because fans could no longer buy the original singles.
Track List:
01. Yard Broom
02. Carry-Go-Bring-Come
03. Twelve Minutes to Go
04. Magic
05. Strolling In
06. Dan-De-Lion
07. Apanga
08. Eastern Standard Time
09. Rough & Tough (Stranger Cole)
10. Musical Store Room
11. When You Call My Name (Stranger & Patsy)
12. River Bank
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