Studio One Roots
March 27th, 2002 by freddie96
STUDIO ONE ROOTS
(Soul Jazz Records)
The incomparable Mark Ainley of Honest Jon’s strikes again. In the space of this one year, there have been four vintage reggae compilations to die for: ‘Studio One Rockers’, ‘Studio One Soul’, ‘Darker Than Blue’, and now ‘Studio One Roots’. And Mark Ainley has had a hand in all of them. I sure would like to see his record collection. It must be something else.
This latest selection of prime Studio Cuts is intended to set the record straight about Studio One, and Coxsone Dodd’s contribution to the rootsier side of Jamaican music. As Lloyd Bradley, author of ‘Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King’, attests in his liner notes, the presumption is generally that roots reggae was more the product of young ’70s Jamaicans breaking away from the ‘reggae establishment’ represented by Duke Reid, Coxsone Dodd and Prince Buster.
The reality was otherwise, not least because Studio One was Jamaica’s first entirely black-owned recording studio, and one which paid musicians for their time rather than per tune: two conditions which allowed Dodd to experiment with musical forms throughout his long career as a producer. The fact that his was also the only studio where weed could be openly smoked completes the picture. For a huge number of Jamaican musicians, Studio One was Mecca.
And sure enough, there is a wealth of deep, roots music here, for the most part from a range of artists who have been languishing in obscurity until now. As you’d expect, there are some complete gems: Freddie McGregor’s ‘Africa Here I Come’, L Crosdale’s ‘Set Me Free’, which blends the sweetest soul reggae with a deep spirituality, as does Cornell Campbell’s ‘Natty Don’t Go’, and Winston Jarrett’s ‘Fear Not’. And for fans of the instrumental, there are also two beauties: ‘Meditation’ by The Cyclones with Count Ossie, and Lennie Hibbert’s ‘More Creation’.
Overall the material on this album has been a revelation to me – it sounds nothing like the good-time tunes normally associated with Studio One. History lessons don’t come much more enjoyable than this. All respect to the teacher – and I don’t mean Jah. FB
