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Zi. NG Magazine - The ten most influential Caribbean musicians of all time. Music expert Thomas Hudson takes a look at some of our region’s most talented artists and discovers how, over the generations, their influence has spread across the world. Lists, particularly arbitrarily chosen best- 1. So when Zi. NG asked me to come up with a list of the 1. Caribbean, I was enormously flattered and enormously apprehensive. If there’s one thing certain about what follows, it’s that few, if any, fans of Caribbean music will agree with all of my choices, although I’d like to think that at least a couple are hardly open to dispute (yes, I do mean Bob Marley and the Mighty Sparrow).
So before getting into the top 1. I’ve lost the plot by not doing so. Firstly I should point out that the non- inclusion of the wonderful musicians from the Spanish, French and Dutch- speaking islands is because I don’t know enough about their music to feel confident writing about it, but I have been assured by the people at Zi. NG that your time will come. No apologies, though, for the fact that most of those I’m going to mention are either from Trinidad and Tobago or Jamaica.
Trinidad has by far the longest history of recorded music. The first calypso – or kaiso – single by Lovey’s String Band, dates back to 1. Jamaica’s record industry didn’t get going until the 1. That’s largely due to calypso’s longstanding popularity in countries with recording facilities, first the United States and then England. The influence of U. S.- based bandleaders like Lionel Belasco, Wilmoth Houdini and Gerald Clark was enormous leading up to the Second World War, and among the calypsonians who recorded in New York in the 1.
Roaring Lion, Attila the Hun, Lord Beginner, Growling Tiger, King Radio and Lord Invader. The Lion and Attila were honoured guests on America’s most popular radio show, hosted by Rudy Vallee, and Invader’s Rum and Coca Cola became a huge hit for the Andrews Sisters (with Invader suing, successfully, for his share of the royalties which, legend has it, he spent on rum, but that’s another story). Calypso’s popularity declined in the States after the Second World War, but it continued to be recorded significantly in England, with a number of A- List calypsonians among the first wave of Caribbean immigrants who arrived there in the late . Among them were the Lion, Lord Kitchener, Mighty Terror, Invader and Beginner. All had a lasting influence on Caribbean music and are revered to this day.
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Starting in the sixties, a multitude of other calypso artists were also worthy of inclusion, among them Chalkdust, Stalin, Spoiler, Melody, Merchant, Ras Shorty- I, Shadow, Blakie, Duke, Superblue, Penguin and Maestro. Jamaica’s emergence on the international scene took a lot longer to happen, but when it did – wow! It’s no exaggeration to say that the music that tens of millions of young people around the world are listening to today - rap and hip hop - owes its existence to the pioneers of ska and reggae. The MCs at Jamaican sound system dances in the . The very first was Count Machuki, quickly followed by King Stitt, and in turn U- Roy, I- Roy, and Big Youth. One of their number, Kool DJ Herc, emigrated to New York and introduced this new sound to parties in the Bronx, where it intrigued many listeners.. The rest, as they say, is history.
Jazz was the music of choice in JA in the . But the musicians who emerged from them were soon to become the foundation stones of the modern Jamaican recording industry – among them the supreme guitarist Ernest Ranglin, along with the original members of the Skatalites, Tommy Mc. Cook, Roland Alphonso, Don Drummond, Lester Sterling, Jerome “Jah Jerry” Haines, Johnny “Dizzy” Moore, Lloyd Brevett, Lloyd Nibb and Jackie Mittoo.
Or, further still, perhaps the politics of a song are not only carried in its lyrics. J S Bach allegedy wrote a coded attack on his patron Frederick the Great into.
And they're awesome songs too, and fun. And hundreds of free lessons on my site to. Get the latest Rolling Stone new music news, song and album reviews, free music downloads, artist videos & pictures, playlists and more.
The epic achievements of these musicians alone would fill a book. Just one example: they were the backing band for the first recording session, in 1.
Clement “Coxson” Dodd they could sing and were worth giving some studio time. A song called Simmer Down, the first No. Wailers, with lead vocals by one Robert Nesta Marley. Among the dozens of JA artists I’d love to have included here are Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, Alton Ellis, Bunny Wailer, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Joseph Hill, Sly and Robbie, Joe Higgs, Count Ossie, Winston “Burning Spear” Rodney, Mutabaruka, Desmond Dekker and Leroy “Heptones” Sibbles. Apologies and maximum respect to all of them.
And so, my 1. 0 most influential Caribbean musicians, in no particular order, are.. Oh, yes, he’s also toured and recorded for three decades or so with the great dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. Bovell’s career dates back to the days in the early .
His influence on British reggae was so pervasive that at one stage he played bass on no fewer than 1. UK reggae charts, and the remarkable cross- section of artists he’s worked with includes Fela Kuti, Alpha Blondy, I- Roy, Steel Pulse, Aswad, the Slits and Madness. It’s hardly surprising that an artist with such a wide range of accomplishments credits a veritable smorgasbord of influences on his music: Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, B. B King, the Beatles, the Jackson Five, the Who, Sparrow, Lee Perry, Bob Marley, The Drifters, Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes. Buju once told me that whatever tangents his career might go in, he’d never lose sight of his dancehall roots. And while he’s branched out in a multitude of musical directions, he’s never recorded an album or made a stage appearance that didn’t incorporate varying doses of dancehall.
Like many dancehall artists, Buju has caused a considerable amount of controversy with lyrics that were anti- gay and sexist, but that was when he first burst on the scene in the early 1. Murderer, Untold Stories, 2. Psalm, Not an Easy Road, Circumstances, Give I Strength, Destiny and the hypnotic and absolutely gorgeous Rastafari. Buju was honoured in 2. Best Reggae Album Grammy for Before the Dawn, but by then, sadly, he had become the victim of a highly questionable . An appeal is pending, and reggae fans around the world - myself included - are hoping fervently that it’s successful. That she’s up there with the best of the guys – Sparrow, Kitch and Rudder – is equally undisputed.
But Calypso Rose’s greatest achievement has been to open up the previously male- dominated art form to women, who, until she burst on the scene in the late 1. However, for the better part of two decades, Rose’s great voice and wonderful melodies went unrewarded. As she puts it, “I put licks on all the men, and it would be too embarrassing. They deny me the rights of owning what is mine.” But she persevered, and in 1. Tempo won the Road March crown at Carnival – the first time a woman had been awarded the coveted title. The following year she won the title again, with Soca Jam, and also, singing I Thank Thee and Her Majesty, became the first woman to be crowned Calypso King. The title was quickly changed to Calypso Monarch, and it’s now almost routine for a woman to win either the Road March or Monarch titles.
The fact that this was a comparatively brief episode in his career as singer, songwriter, producer, arranger and often bizarre individualist is what makes Scratch all the more remarkable. Perry’s musical apprenticeship began when he worked at Clemend “Coxson” Dodd’s fabled Studio One, and it was Perry the Wailers turned to when their career needed a boost in 1.
Perry also produced classic reggae by Junior Byles, Max Romeo, the Heptones, Gregory Isaacs, the Congos and Junior Murvin, and worked with the Clash. In his Black Ark studio, he worked musical miracles with the most basic of equipment, and had a profound influence on the evolvement of dub, as well as working with toasters such as U- Roy, Prince Jazzbo, I- Roy and Big Youth. Aldwyn “Lord Kitchener” Roberts.
The master of melody, Lord Kitchener, always immaculately attired and, with movie- star good looks, had a career that spanned seven decades, from the late .