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Jammin’ in Jamaica

All Around This World -- The Caribbean featuring 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….

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.