The mento
In the beginning there was mento. It is the first real popular Jamaican music. Cousin of the calypso of the island of Trinidad from which it derives, mento is the ancestor of ska and reggae, and the leading Jamaican genre of the 1940s. The lyrics that accompany the music are improvised, chronicling daily life or social criticism of local events in an often crude language and satirical tone. If the great names of the genre are male, Count Owen or The Folkes Brothers in the lead, the genre has honored the female voices. Of rural origin, mento is traditionally played with banjo, guitar, double bass, maracas, percussion, but also the rhumba box, a lamellophone in the shape of a large cube providing the bass sounds. There is also a form of urban mento played with electric guitar, piano, saxophone and trumpet. Generally, mento was performed by professional musicians, most often jazzmen. A favorite of Jamaicans in the 1940s, the style gradually lost ground in the following decade to the growing influence of North American music.
The calypso
Often confused with mento, calypso is a distinct musical genre - although the two share many similarities. In the 1950s, calypso brought its blend of African-derived melodies and rhythms to the island - and to all the islands of the Caribbean - and improvised on every theme: love, politics, social problems... Harry Belafonte, American-Jamaican, was the first great singer to immortalize these rhythms with his international successes The Banana Boat Song, Jamaica Farewell or Island in the Sun whose echoes still resonate in the memory of the 1960s. The other Jamaican legend of calypso is Byron Lee. He and his Dragons have crossed many eras and have been one of the favorite groups of ska lovers.
The rhythm'n'blues or shuffle
At the beginning of the 1950s, American rhythm'n'blues was in the spotlight on the island. The Jamaicans were poor and could not afford to buy an electric phone or records. Their first means of listening to this music is the radio (in particular the stations of Florida), the second being the very popular sound systems. People come to dance to this music in dancehalls, a kind of popular ball that takes place in hangars, clubs or in the open air, in the street. The atmosphere is hot, sometimes too much... The sound system is animated by the DJ, who comments, sings and tells about the instrumental versions chosen by the selector. Theoperator takes care of the sound technique. The text is left to the discretion of the DJ: daily columns, popular gazette or free speech, a kind of oral journal with a humorous or saucy tone, set to music with a rhythm'n'blues background; this is the beginning of the talkover, inherited from the traditional mento. Three sound systems were at the forefront: those of Clement "Sir" Coxsone Dodd, Arthur "Duke" Reid and Prince Buster. Very quickly, the idea of producing local music for the sound systems took hold. In 1952, the record industry started in Jamaica. It did not stammer for long. The first producers were naturally the owners of the big sound systems. They released the first instrumental recordings of rhythm'n'blues on the island. They often recorded only one copy of the record for their own use. The pace quickened. The phonographic industry quickly lost its artisanal aspect. Recording studios, sound systems and record stores flourished in the heart of Jamaican life. The Jamaican music industry becomes very productive. Stars emerged, such as the group Clue J & His Blues Blasters (some of whose members would later form the iconic Skatalites). New producers arrived like the famous Prince Buster, a former boxer and ex-emptor of the Coxsone sound systems . Tens of thousands of records are produced each year: creations, covers of existing songs, reorchestrations, different instrumentalists, sung versions, instrumental versions, the production is so fertile that it is impossible to find one's way.
The ska
The swan song of Jamaican blues arrived at the end of 1962 with the release of Forward March by Derrick Morgan and Hurricane Hattie by Jimmy Cliff. Ska was about to dominate the Jamaican scene and reign supreme on the dance floors for the next three years. Born with the early years of independence, ska resonated with the euphoria and excitement of a young people, intoxicated by a new and hard-won freedom. It all began in earnest with the Skatalites, a group formed in 1963 that shook up the country's musical landscape. The group only lived for eighteen months but was incredibly prolific, completely renewing the musical codes of the time. Very rhythmic, ska borrows from the mento of the Jamaican countryside, and from the boogie of American rhythm'n'blues in its famous jerky guitar rhythm. Ska gradually matured instrumentally, thanks to musicians of the caliber of trombonist Don Drummond, a fabulous jazzman who is rightly considered one of ska's greatest benefactors. When he became a member of the Skatalites, Drummond's bittersweet compositions were labeled "Far East" and influenced a whole generation of roots artists in the 1970s. Ska influences were later to be found in the skinhead culture of late 1970s Britain, led by Israelites, the anthem of Desmond Dekker, another "ska king".
The rocksteady
But the era of ska ends, it gives way to rocksteady ... The title Dancing Mood
by Delroy Wilson marks this transition. The rocksteady, less light than the ska and with the accents sometimes sullen, at the same time protesting and consensual, is a slowed down ska which appears on the Jamaican musical scene in 1966, after a particularly hot summer, seems the cause of this new languor.Brass instruments gave way to guitars and keyboards, as heard in the hits of the trios The Heptones or The Paragons, stars of the genre. A transition between ska and reggae, rocksteady reflected the aspirations of a generation that was beginning to mature and to take social and political issues into account. The rude boys
, young people from working class neighborhoods, idle and left to their own devices, live at the rhythm of ghetto life, violence and poverty mixed together. They identify with a lifestyle and a revolt that is expressed in music, among other things. It is besides under the name of Wailing Rude Boys that Bob Marley and his group start their career. In this musical universe in perpetual movement, many artists, producers and musicians, contribute to the birth of a new rhythm. The Skatalites slowed down their tempo even more and gave birth to what is today called reggae with heavier rhythms.The reggae
Born in the streets of the poor districts of Kingston, in the yards of the ghetto of Trench Town, the reggae also takes its roots in the movement of the Rastafarian religion. This neighborhood has seen the birth and growth of artists such as Alton Ellis, Joe Higgs, Ken Boothe or The Wailing Souls. The climate of permanent tension, linked to promiscuity, poverty and violence, favors the development of this music which takes the side of the underprivileged and transmits an egalitarian message. Many reggae artists adopted the Rastafarian religion. The origin of the word "reggae" is still uncertain; mutilation of the English word " regular ", which defines its binary rhythm, alteration of the Latin " rege ", "the king", in reference to the king of kings, the Tafari ras, Haile Selassie. Although reggae is associated with Bob Marley, he is not its father. It is Toots Hibbert and his group The Maytals whose style is inspired by traditional gospel music and the rhythms of Ray Charles and Otis Redding, who in 1968 sang Do the Reggay, thus becoming the first to use the term. And above all to lay the foundations of reggae music - its famous syncopated binary rhythm and its chord played off beat - the result of a long maturation of influences mixed with various musical currents: mento, burru, ska and American rhythm'n'blues. His trio Toots and the Maytals remained popular well into the 1980s, embracing every evolution of Jamaican music. Their greatest hits are Monkey Man, 54-46 Was My Number, Six and Seven Books, Funky Kingston or Pressure Drop
.Beyond its rhythms and emblematic imagery, it is the whole Rasta ideology that is conveyed by reggae: hopes, beliefs and social and political struggles. The lyrics of the songs crystallize the anger of the ghettos, and even call for a revolt against political oppression. The lukewarm protests of the singers of yesteryear were replaced by violent militant stances that asserted themselves as discontent among the poor grew. This class of reggae artists will pay a heavy price for their social activism and political commitment, vexations and violence against them are commonplace. Several times mistreated by the police, Bob Marley will be victim of an attack in 1974 and will have to take refuge during one year in the United States to escape the pressure in a country in state of emergency.
But reggae is also a unifying music that warms hearts and erases racial, social and political barriers. Initially confined to Jamaica, reggae will soon cross borders. It is the producer Chris Blackwell who will make this music known in England. His record company Island was the first - along with Trojan - to produce and market Jamaican music in Great Britain, and his favourite artists were the Wailers. Together, they opened the way to the international scene for reggae and its artists. From recordings to concerts, from Europe to Africa, reggae soon knew no borders. Alongside traditional reggae, other forms flourished such as lover's rock, a more melodious reggae with less committed lyrics (Gregory Isaacs), or dub and by extension the dub poet
, whose undeniable representative remains LKJ (Linton Kwesi Johnson). Some groups and artists have left their mark on the history of Jamaican reggae (and by extension on the history of music): Lee Scratch Perry, Toots and the Maytals, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Culture, Mikey Dread, The Wailing Souls, Pablo Moses, Third World, Burning Spear, Blach Uhuru, U Roy... In Jamaica, there is still the question of the future of reggae, deprived of its international spokesman. Great Britain also has many groups, often composed of Jamaican musicians who have emigrated or are second generation, such as Aswad, Steel Pulse or the Cimarons. And legendary bands such as The Clash or The Police will open wide the doors of their compositions to Jamaican aesthetics.Even today, listening to reggae in Jamaica is a bit like tasting wine in France: you are spoilt for choice. There is no lack of events throughout the year. At the end of January, for example, the Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival programs, as its name does not indicate, a lot of reggae (in addition to jazz and blues of course) in Montego Bay. January still, in Saint-Ann, the Rebel Salute, one of the most famous festivals in Jamaica, gathers thousands of reggae fans and all the big names in the field. In February, on the 6th to be exact, theanniversary of Bob Marley's birth is celebrated on the island, with numerous concerts in Kingston, Nine Mile, Negril... Every February, it's also Reggae Month, a true ode to music with concerts by major stars, readings and an awards ceremony. Later in the year, on July1st, it'sInternational Reggae Day, an international day of reggae with concerts all over the island. Finally, in December, the Reggae Marathon
, the 10 km of Negril, takes place every year, with many reggae concerts the day before and a race in a good mood. As for the clubs, there is a plethora of them which program reggae. But few of them have the same flavor as the Dub Club of Kingston and its roots Sundays.The dub
At the end of the 1960s, among the great sound systems (all competitors, of course) on the island, there was King Tubby's Home Town Hifi - a genius sound engineer who would become one of Jamaica's most famous producers - and Ruddy Redwood's. The latter was very well connected and close to Duke Reid, head of the Treasure Isle label, which was very popular at the time. The latter, very well connected, was close to Duke Reid, owner of the Treasure Isle label, which was very popular at the time. One day, when Redwood was picking up albums at Reid's studio, a track started by mistake without the vocal track. Ruddy Redwood saw something new in this track without vocals and recorded both versions (with and without vocals) and decided to play the purely instrumental version in his sound system. A hit. The public asks for more, pushing to play the instrumental continuously. Put in the perfume of this success, King Tubby also decides to seize very quickly this novelty by adding to the instrumental parts a whole series of effects: reverberation, saturation, echo, amplification, etc. Dub was born and had a life of its own, with its own codes, its hits and its legends. And the legend among the legends, it is obviously the inenarrable Lee Scratch Perry. Brilliant, ebullient, mystical, provocative and poetic, in turn singer, composer, author, talent scout, artistic director, arranger, sound engineer, producer and painter, he has, among other things, given a new dimension to dub in the 1970s, although he remains mainly remembered for his collaboration with the Wailers. In addition to the latter, he produced the greatest of the island: Max Romeo, U Roy, King Tubby or The Congos... He and dub were two important elements in the development of electronic music in the following decades.
The dancehall
In the 1980s, as in many other musical trends, the revolution came from technology, against a background of emigration and musical crossbreeding. Electronics replaced acoustics, the drum machine made its appearance, the tradition of talkover came back in force. Traditional reggae has given way to the new dancehall style, a digitized reggae whose lyrics have sometimes lost their militant side and whose rhythm has accelerated to make people dance better. Dancehall was born in the hands of singers like Yellow Man and Sister Nancy and their respective hits Zungguzungguguzungguzeng and Bam Bam, which imposed a new way of singing with unprecedented agility. It is also the return in force of the sound systems, from now on gigantic piles of loudspeakers and amplifiers... At the end of the 1980s, the king of dancehall is Shabba Ranks, who won a Grammy Award with his licentious ragga. "Ragga" or " raggamuffin " is a synonym and refers to the same music. If a few years ago Elephant Man, Shaggy, Beenie Man and Sean Paul were the main representatives of the style, Bounty Killer, Ward 21, Vibz Kartel took over before passing the torch to Mavado and Busy Signal, Popcaan and more recently Skeng. In Jamaica, raggamuffin defines the resourceful attitude of urban youth, most often disheveled, who live from day to day and are the privileged clientele of dancehalls. Since the beginning of the 1990's, the conscious and rootsy side of reggae has reappeared, notably at the initiative of singers like Luciano or Garnett Silk. This revival wave is still growing and the number of conscious artists is increasing, with names like Sizzla, Capleton, Jah Cure, Anthony B, or Junior Kelly. Dancehall concerts are very frequent all over the island; they are big public events whose DJs have become the stars. The big Jamaican musical event is the Reggae Sumfest which takes place every year in Montego Bay in July. Roots reggae and dancehall are featured and many fans from all over the world attend. This unique music has propelled Jamaica to the forefront of the international scene and has definitely established itself as one of the most vibrant and influential trends in world music.
