Tag Archives | Jamaica

Rocking Steady with Phyliss Dillon

Jamaica’s Phyliss Dillon is as steady as rocksteady gets.

Rocksteady is a form of ska that arose in the rough urban neighborhoods of Kingston in the mid-’60s. Slower in tempo than ska, running contrary to the optimism that gripped must of the rest of post-independence Jamaica, rocksteady formed a bridge between boisterous dancehall ska and the more rootsy, political grooves of reggae. In this video we meet Phyliss Dillon, the groovin’ “Queen of Rocksteady.” We let the Queen sing us out on the last post of our Jamaica week. Onward!

The Jolly Boys happily make Mento

Let’s meet Jamaica’s treasured mento icons, The Jolly Boys. 
“Mento” is Jamaican “country” played initially in rural areas with a simple guitar/drum/sax and/or banjo accompaniment in which vocalists sang mainly humorous lyrics about rural life. In the 1950s, Mento’s “Golden Age,” the style embraced Trinidadian calypso (though it remained distinct) and become popular in urban dance halls. The Jolly Boys have been at the heart of Jamaican mento since their formation in 1945. Though they continue to tour and record, they remain loyal to their main local gig as the house band at GeeJam, a Port Antonio, Jamaica, hotel. As of their appearance in this video, they’re sure at the top of their game.

Kumina in Jamaica

We start our week of music of Jamaica with Jamaican Kumina, an early Afro-Caribbean religious folk music that paid, and still continues to pay, homage to “the spirits” through communal drumming, chanting and dance.

We begin here because most subsequent genres of Jamaican music can trace its roots back to kumina, and through kumina, back further to Africa. Jamaican Kumina is an ancestor of Nyabinghi music, which itself intertwined with ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub, dancehall and beyond. This video will start you on your way.

Jammin’ in Jamaica

This week in our online class we’re fortunate enough to travel to Jamaica, a small island nation that has had a disproportionate influence on global music and culture. Jamaican musicians have either originated or advanced so very many musical styles such as, in roughly chronological order, Kumina, Nyabinghi, Mento, Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae, Dub and Dancehall/Ragga. Though we’re going to meet a few of these genres over the course of the week, there won’t be enough time. We’ll leave wanting more, and more, and more….

We visit Jamaica and SING!

Enjoy this week’s live class! If you want to join the fun, check out the livecast class schedule and contact me to be “in the room” on Zoom. If you can’t make it to Zoom, watch live classes, or watch anytime, on All Around This World’s facebook page. This week in class we sang “We Are Happy,” “Mento Star,” “Ay Zuzuma,” “Jane and Louisa” and “Nyabinghi,” and danced to three generations of SKA.

You’ll Find All the Caribbean in Bob Marley

There is nothing one has to say about music from Jamaica beyond “Bob Marley.”

… and our three month All Around This World tour of the Caribbean ends with this Jamaican legend…all of the Caribbean’s history, strugle, power and passion comes together, as it does in this video, in Bob Marley.

And Then Scratch Perry Met Bob

Lee “Scratch” Perry was a visionary musician and producer who many music historians credit with morphing ska into the reggae we know today. The most influential and best-known of all Jamaican styles of music, reggae fused the grooves of rocksteady, the spiritual drive of Nyabinghi music and the global political imperative of the late ’60s. “Scratch” Perry worked with (or against) almost every popular Jamaican musician during the 1960s, including a young, talented Marley named Bob. Meet Perry in this video. Reggae icon Bob Marley continues to inspire generations with his message of unity through shared struggle and personal and popular revelation as a means of achieving peace.

This is SKA!

Jamaican ska is driving, danceable music that rose in 1950’s Jamaica, fusing Jamaican “mento” with American R&B.

Jamaican ska became popular internationally in the 1960s, really took hold in early ’70s England where it fused with early punk, and is still popular today. We love this video clip from “This is Ska!,” a 1964 BBC documentary that introduced ska to a generation of British youth. After watching this bit you will want to watch the whole documentary. Here goes.

If you want to be a Mento Star, show me your motion

“Mento Star” is our tribute to “Gal a Gully,” a song in the genre of Jamaican mento made famous by mento icon “Lord Composer.” Mento is a pre-ska, pre-reggae form of Jamaican folk music that blends traditions brought to Jamaica by West Indian African with more European folk. Want to sing along? “If you want to be a mento star, if you want to be a mento star,
then show me your motion.” We love the phrase “show me your motion” — what a great way to say “get up and dance!”

Nyabinghi Drumming

Jamaican Nyabinghi drumming is religious Rastafarian music that adherents perform in communal drumming circles while chanting Rastafarian prayers.

Every Jamaican Nyabinghi drumming circle worth its salt features several distinct drums: the THUNDER (the bottom, bass drum of the ensemble), the FUNDE (a middle-pitched drum that keeps “the heartbeat” of the rhythm), the REPEATER (the highest-pitched drum, it improvises rhythms and is believed to carry the spirit of the session), and, often, the SHAKA: the sekere, which accents and provides character to the rhythms. This video gets you in the Jamaican groove.

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