News & Updates — Blood & Fire

One of the most important Jamaican musical figures was the keyboardist/composer Jackie Mittoo. He was a child prodigy who learned piano at four years old, was leading popular club bands recording sessions for Studio One as a teenager. He became the label's Musical Director and was a founding member of The Skatalites, along with Tommy McCook (who shares a date of birth today). Very much influenced by soul music (such as Booker T & the MG's), he not only held down key roles in The Soul Vendors, Sound Dimension and The Soul Brothers, but he also made some funky records...

The great Cuban-born saxophonist Tommy McCook came out of the important Kingston JA-based Alpha Boys School (home to many great Jamaican musicians) and worked on a gazillion sessions of ska, reggae, jazz, rocksteady and soul, and was a founding (and long-time) member of The Skatalites (along with Jackie Mittoo--whose born day is also today). He was Musical Director for The Supersonics and cut a few sides under his own name, as well as the band backing singers like Alton Ellis, Justin Hinds and others. A lyrical tenor player, he cited John Coltrane as one of his biggest influences. Early on...

(Clive Chin, left and Bertram Brown, center. Photo by Malcolm Allen) Jamaican producer Bertram Brown was the man behind Freedom Sounds, founded in '75 and operating into the '90s, an important reggae label from the Greenwich Farm ghetto of Kingston. The imprint put out some great music of social concerns by Prince Alla, Rod Taylor, Phillip Fraser, Horace Andy, Ranking Dread, Michael Prophet, Earl Zero and many, many others, with a special regard for neighborhood talents and singers not part of the island's mainstream. These rootsy 45s usually were with the backing of the Soul Syndicate band (often cut at...

Osbourne Ruddock aka "King Tubby" is the all-time Heavyweight Dub Champion. Where would contemporary music be without this man from the Kingston, Jamaica ghetto of Waterhouse? A radio repair man and electronics expert, Tubby built amplifiers and operated a sound-system starting in the late 50's. He invented the dub remix by dropping out vocals and instruments with his mixing board and adding effects (including his infamous spring reverb). These "versions" soon became their own artform in the hands of Tubby and his methods became known worldwide. His work is featured on hundreds of records and he was mentor to Scientist...