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Sound Lab

Clement “Coxsone” Dodd’s Studio One genius  
By WAYNE MARSHALL  |  April 12, 2006

EARLY WAILERS: With a wide palette of voices in Bob, Bunny, Peter, and Junior, and the day's best arrangements by the day's best band, the music bursts with exuberance.When people think reggae, the first name that comes to mind is Bob Marley. Far fewer know the name of the man who not only gave Marley and the Wailers their start but who was perhaps more instrumental in laying reggae’s solid foundation than any other individual: Clement “Coxsone” Dodd. A sound-system innovator, record producer, and the first black studio owner in Jamaica, Dodd parlayed entrepreneurial acumen and impeccable taste into one of the largest legacies in recorded music at Studio One, his studio and label. Studio One played a central role in the Jamaican ska, rocksteady, and reggae booms of the ’60s. And much of that music is now being reissued by the Rounder imprint Heartbeat.

In addition to issuing hundreds of albums and countless hit singles, Studio One boasted a house band featuring the island’s finest players. Having cut their teeth in Kingston jazz bands and on the hotel and cruise-ship circuit, they were versatile virtuosos. Under the guidance of Dodd and his team of crack engineers — among them, Sylvan Morris and a young Lee “Scratch” Perry — Studio One’s band produced a corpus of backing tracks, or riddims, that would outpace even the original songs recorded on them, providing what has amounted to a Jamaican “Real Book,” of sorts. These riddims and recordings (sound quality is crucial to their character) have been versioned, re-licked, and sampled thousands of times over.

It was Dodd’s engagement with American culture — in particular, the music of African-Americans — that would prove his ticket to success. The sound of Studio One — a sound as engaged with contemporary R&B and soul as with Jamaican folk and pop traditions — expressed a new sort of cultural alignment for many Jamaicans. Jamaicans tuned into the sounds of America via radio broadcasts. Dodd himself was inspired by the jive-talk stylings of black radio DJs and began collecting R&B records while working in Florida. He returned to Kingston with big speakers and big plans. Before long, “Sir Coxsone’s Downbeat” was the eminent sound system (the name for mobile discos with stacks of speakerboxes) on the downtown scene.

As Dodd relates in liner notes to the reissues — The Best of Studio One,Full Up: More Hits from Studio One,Downbeat the Ruler: Killer Instrumentals from Studio One, and Bob Marley and the Wailers: One Love at Studio One 1964-1966 — when the American music industry shifted from R&B to rock and roll, he decided to meet the dancehall’s demand for more boogie-woogie and jump blues. The Jamaican music industry began advancing a sound as local as it was international. And Studio One became its premier outlet.

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Related: Timeline: Reggae in Boston, Reggae revival, Seminal ska, More more >
  Topics: Music Features , Entertainment, Music, Bob Marley,  More more >
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Comments
Sound Lab
Sugar Minott is primarily known as a singer, not a DJ, or toaster. I saw hm play with Jackie Mittoo at a club on JFK in Cambridge that I can't remeber the name of. Jackie held a note while standing on top of his piano and no one in the crowd knew how BIG he was in Jamaican music. But aren't these "reissues" reissued over and over again? Like the Bob Marley stuff keeps coming out the same in different packages to exploit the igmorant market. Dig deep and love music
By onlineinspection on 04/13/2006 at 1:37:35

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ARTICLES BY WAYNE MARSHALL
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    Since riding a crunked-up reggae riddim to popular acclaim with the 2004 single “Culo,” Miami rapper Pitbull has been angling for club dominance.
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    In 1939 Arthur Goldberg went to Hollywood and crowned himself Art Rupe, a suitably slick moniker for an entrepreneur in the booming post-war culture industry.
  •   SEMINAL SKA  |  December 06, 2006
    Heartbeat Records’ Studio One reissue series continues not only to shore up the legacy of Studio One honcho Coxsone Dodd but to present an expansive, rich portrait of Jamaican popular music.
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    Tego Calderón’s debut album, 2003’s El abayarde , caught the ears of both the reggaetón street and the critical elite. The rise of reggaeton: From Daddy Yankee to Tego Calderón, and beyond. By Wayne Marshall
  •   SOUND LAB  |  April 12, 2006
    When people think reggae, the first name that comes to mind is Bob Marley.

 See all articles by: WAYNE MARSHALL

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