News & Updates — dancehall

There are so many interesting artists born on July 15 that it is impossible in my schedule to write pieces about them. So here are some shorties, along with a video or two for each. --Francis Bebey / July 15, 1929 - May 28, 2001 This unique Cameroonian composer and his interesting DIY synth-pop crossed with traditional music has been justly making new fans in recent years. --James Jacson / July 15, 1932 - Aug 10, 1997 Happy cosmic birthday to James Jacson, one of my favorite characters from Sun Ra's Arkestra. Jacson is the one who was instructed to...

John Holt was a successful Jamaican singer from the rocksteady years thru to pop-reggae, lover's rock/ballads and into the dancehall era along with contributions to some house music productions. Kingston-born, he got his start as a teenager, winning local talent contests before recording sides with Lesley Kong and "Rum Bumper", a duet with Alton Ellis, for Randy Chin. He joined The Paragons, one of the great groups of the rocksteady era, releasing several singles for Studio 1 and Treasure Isle, including the original versions of "The Tide Is High" and "Wear You To The Ball" (a tune U-Roy had a...

Among the greatest and most influential of Jamaican singers, Lincoln "Sugar" Minott was already a known entity on the Kingston scene by 13. After working as a selector on various sound systems he started The African Brothers (with Tony Tuff & Derrick Howard) in 1969. They were a successful unit through the early '70s, especially with their rasta perspective. At 18 Sugar started working as a session musician at the famed Studio 1, becoming a recording artist under his own name shortly thereafter. His '70s & '80s recordings for Studio 1, Channel One, Wackie's, Taxi, Trojan and his own Black...

Happy born day shout-out to Lincoln "Style" Scott, the great Jamaican drummer with Dub Syndicate, the Roots Radics (who became the Channel One house band around '79) and about a million Adrian Sherwood/On-U Sound projects. His earliest record appearances were with Sugar Minott ("Hard Time Pressure") and David Isaacs. In '78 he became drummer for Prince Far-I & the Arabs, who were also largely the same group as Sherwood's Creation Rebel. With the Radics he helped lay the foundation for what became known as dancehall music. He played with Gregory Isaacs (that's Scott on "Night Nurse"), Barrington Levy, Eek-A-Mouse, Bunny...

The original hippy, the mystical eden ahbez wrote a tune called "Nature Boy" and by chance was able to hand it to Nat King Cole who turned it into a mega-hit in 1948. He looked like a hippy long before it was a thing and lived outdoors in Los Angeles. He lived under the "L" of the Hollywood sign and held a job as a piano player in a raw foods store. He was a vegetarian, straight edge and an anti-vaxer and wore a white robe. This lifestyle inspired "Nature Boy", and after the hit by Cole, ahbez became an...