1025 - Mojo Special 1. Various - Shufflin' on Bond Street: Jamaican R&B and Ska Instrumentals (1959-1966)

Track Listing

1. Watermelon Man - Brooks, Baba & Band
2. Duck Soup - Drumbago's Orchestra
3. Green Door - Alphonso, Roland
4. What Makes Honey - Reid, Duke Group
5. Joker - Reid, Duke Group
6. Blackberry Brandy - Alphonso, Roland
7. Rude Boy - Reid, Duke
8. Country Town - Brooks, Baba & Band
9. Thunderball - McCook, Tommy & His Supersonics
10. Rainfall - Brooks, Baba & Band
11. Cotton Tree - Skatalites
12. Nuclear Weapon - Skatalites
13. Western Flyer - Brooks, Baba & Band
14. Froggy - Brooks, Baba & Band
15. Mad World - Brooks, Baba & Band
16. Storm Warning - Lynn Taitt and The Comets

Review

Here we go with an album which is outside the main Mojo list, every three albums or so you will get one under the heading Mojo Special, and that will either be something from their Jamaican music list, Movie Soundtrack list or musical compilation list. We start with some Jamaican Ska.

If one is not very knowledgeable about Jamaican music it is natural to think that Ska is something like the Police or even some Clash tracks... but really when talking about it in the context of Jamaican music it is more akin to big band jazz music than to any kind of rock. What it does have in common with the Ska of the West in the 80s is the constant insisting rhythm at the back, like a faster walking rhythm.

This collection of tracks shows us an evolution of Ska up until the mid 60s when it started changing into Rocksteady, and there is great music here, at the beginning too close to Big Band music to be particularly original, it does start transforming itself into a completely unique style with the use of burru drumming and elements particular to Jamaica. The music is fun, fast and funky and it should be mandatory listening to anyone who wants to know where Jamaican music actually comes from.

Track Highlights

1. Nuclear Weapon - Tommy McCook and the Skatalites
2. Duck Soup - Drumbago's Orchestra
3. Storm Warning - Lynn Taitt and The Comets
4. Rude Boy - Reid, Duke

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

There are different theories about the origins of the word ska. Ernest Ranglin claimed that the term was coined by musicians to refer to the "skat! skat! skat!" scratching guitar strum. Another explanation is that at a recording session in 1959 produced by Coxsone Dodd, double bassist Cluett Johnson instructed guitarist Ranglin to "play like ska, ska, ska", although Ranglin has denied this, stating "Clue couldn't tell me what to play!" A further theory is that it derives from Johnson's word skavoovie, with which he was known to greet his friends. Jackie Mittoo insisted that the musicians themselves called the rhythm Staya Staya, and that it was Byron Lee who introduced the term 'ska'.

Nuclear Weapon - Tommy McCook and the Skatalites: