Dancehall
Parent categories: reggae - music
Related: Channel One
Definition
In Jamaica, the original term 'dance hall' referred to any large room where people gathered to dance, usually accompanied by a live band or instrumental group, some with vocalists, some without, in the early eighties it became the name of a reggae genre.
A dancehall or dance hall A building or part of a building with facilities for dancing. [Jul 2004]
Dancehall reggae
Somewhere late in 1979 the Roots Radics laid down the riddims for Barrington Levy's first tunes for producer Junjo Lawes, credited at the time as the Channel One Stars. No one could envisage the importance of these sessions, but with hindsight we can point back to them as the inception of Jamaican dancehall music.
Dancehall is a type of reggae which developed around 1979, with artists such as Yellowman, Super Cat, Barrington Levy and others who went on to become the Roots Radics. The style is characterized by a DJ singing and rapping or toasting over raw and danceable reggae music (riddims). The rhythm in dancehall is much faster than in reggae, with drum machines helping to speed this up. In the early years of dancehall, some found its lyrics as crude and "slack", though it became very popular among the youths of Jamaica and then eventually, like its reggae predecessor, made inroads onto the world music scene. In the early 1990s the term Raggamuffin became established too. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancehall [Nov 2005]
Intro
Reggae music is continually developing and mutating, even when it appears relatively static; take, for example, the late 'seventies, a time when international attention increasingly focussed on the great Bob Marley, and the successful hitmaking studios like Channel One and Joe Gibbs. However, that was by no means the whole story; independent producers like Lincoln 'Sugar' Minott, Leon Synmoie, Linval Thompson, Jah Thomas, Percy 'Jah Life' Chin, Henry 'Junjo' Lawes, Ossie Thomas and others were laying the foundations of what would soon become known as 'dancehall' music.
Steve Barrow for Blood and FireThe Death of Bob Marley
Dancehall was a rough, immensely catchy ‘street’ style of reggae. Henry ‘Junjo’ Lawes was the hottest reggae producer of the early part of the 1980s, the originator of the ‘dancehall’ style that has dominated Jamaican music since the death of Bob Marley in 1981. Such names as Yellowman, Eek-A-Mouse, Barrington Levy, and Josey Wales all owed their careers to Lawes; whilst more established acts like John Holt, the Wailing Souls and Alton Ellis also enjoyed revivals after recording over his rhythm tracks for his Volcano label. - wrangle@vicnet.net.
In 1979 Junjo Lawes hired the Roots Radics as backing group for a series of sessions at Channel One, a decision that was to alter the sound of Jamaican music. The tough sound of the Radics was slower and more penetrating than the ‘rockers’ style of the Revolutionaries, Kingston’s other dominant studio house-band. Lawes used a young engineer called ‘Scientist’: as a result, Barrington Levy’s Bounty Hunter album, which emerged from these sessions, came to be considered a classic, shifting reggae in a new direction. -- wrangle@vicnet.net.
Jackie Mittoo
Jackie Mittoo is the unsung hero of reggae music. Playing keyboards professionally from the age of thirteen, he went on to become the musical director at Clement 'Coxone' Dodd's Studio One label from 1965-69. The music he created there is as seminal a body of work as Berry Gordy's at Motown or Rudy Van Gelder's at Blue Note, and the classic rhythms he composed at this time are the foundation of dancehall reggae and still rock any session. Phil Darby
CDs
- Triston Palmer Meets Jah Thomas in Disco Style Entertainment [1 CD, Amazon US]
Reggae music is continually developing and mutating, even when it appears relatively static; take, for example, the late 'seventies, a time when international attention increasingly focussed on the great Bob Marley, and the successful hitmaking studios like Channel One and Joe Gibbs. However, that was by no means the whole story; independent producers like Lincoln 'Sugar' Minott, Leon Synmoie, Linval Thompson, Jah Thomas, Percy 'Jah Life' Chin, Henry 'Junjo' Lawes, Ossie Thomas and others were laying the foundations of what would soon become known as 'dancehall' music. -- Steve Barrow for Blood and Fire
- The Biggest Dancehall Anthems, 1979-82: The Birth of Dancehall [1 CD, Amazon US]
Disc: 1 1. Fally Ranking - Johnny Osbourne 2. Shine Eye Gal - Barrington Levy 3. Firehouse Rock - Wailing Souls 4. Bathroom Sex - General Echo 5. Ice Cream Love - Johnny Osbourne 6. Morning Ride - Yellowman 7. Look Youthman - Barrington Levy 8. Another One Bites The Dust - Clint Eastwood & General Saint 9. Fattie Boom Boom - Ranking Dread 10. Gunman - Michael Prophet 11. How The West Was Won - Ranking Toyan 12. Look How Me Sexy - Linval Thompson 13. Spar Wid Me - Ranking Toyan 14. Ghetto Queen - John Holt 15. Love Tickles Like Magic - Junior Delgado 16. Bounty Hunter - Barrington Levy 17. Jah Love Is With I - Johnny Clarke 18. Chip In - Wayne Jarrett 19. Poor & Humble - Wayne Wade 20. Who No Waan Come - Wailing Souls Disc: 2 1. Wa-Do-Dem - Eek-A-Mouse 2. Yellowman Getting Married - Yellowman 3. Diseases - Papa Michigan & General Smiley 4. Bone Connection - Nicodemus 5. To The Foundation - Dennis Brown 6. Mary Long Tongue - Barrington Levy 7. Sweetie Come Brush Me - John Holt 8. Come Fe Mash It - Tony Tuff 9. Kingdom Rise Kingdom Fall - Wailing Souls 10. River Jordan (Crucifixion) - Barrington Levy 11. River Jordan - Ranking Joe 12. Entertainment - Tristan Palmer, Jah Thomas & Ranking Toyan 13. I'm Not Crazy - Don Carlos 14. Can't Pop No Style - Hugh Mundell 15. Up Front - Wailing Souls 16. Love A Dub - Ranking Dread 17. Mr Chin - Yellowman 18. Trying To Turn Me On - Johnny Osbourne 19. Eventide Fire A Disaster - General Echo featuring Barrington Levy 20. Tribute To General Echo - Clint Eastwood & General Saint
