BBC Review
...an excellent introduction to Jamaican music's golden age.
Martin Longley2002
Studio One was the recording studio and label owned by Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd,a Jamaican fan of US jazz and R&B and the owner of the renowned Downbeat sound system. Dodd also started up the Studio One record label, helping to create the ska and rocksteady sounds of the 60s,and going on to provide a home to the developing reggae sounds of the 70s.
This disc opens with the sweet harmony vocals of the rocksteady era, then switches to reggae and early dancehall DJ cuts. John Holt, Alton Ellis and Ken Boothe repay their debt to pure-voiced Stateside soul, and there are also - less familiar - late 70s gems from the Lone Ranger and Judah Tafari Eskender. The inclusion The Abyssinians and The Gladiators provide some spiritual depth to the proceedings.
This album has been and re-released and repackaged many times, and deservedly so, providing as it does an excellent introduction to Jamaican music's golden age.
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