A style of Jamaican popular music and dance. From 1961 to 1965 it was the predominant popular style in Jamaica, and can claim to be its first truly indigenous music. A stylistic amalgam of African-Cuban and New Orleans influences, jazz, quick-time rhythm and blues and Rastafarian rhythms, it primarily originated with the Skatalites, who recorded under a variety of names and provided ska’s chief musicians. The group’s line-up consisted of piano (Jackie Mittoo), guitars (Ernest Ranglin, Lyn Tait and Jah Jerry), bass (Lloyd Brevett), drums (Lloyd Knibbs), and a horn section (Lester Sterling, alto saxophone; Tommy McCook, ‘Ska’ Campbell and Roland Alphonso, tenor saxophones; Karl Bryan, baritone saxophone; ‘Dizzy’ Johnny Moore and Baba Brooks, trumpets; Don Drummond, trombone). It was popularized by the seminal Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd of Studio One, and ‘Duke’ Reid of Treasure Isle, and its influence has now flourished worldwide. Using a staccato guitar to accentuate the upbeats of its distinctive double-time shuffle rhythm in simple quadruple metre, ska’s chugging melodies and propulsive horn section represented youthful emancipation as Jamaica celebrated its independence.
Ska’s many early stars included Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals, the amusingly salacious Prince Buster, the father of reggae music Joe Higgs and his partner Roy Wilson, Alton Ellis, Carlos Malcolm and his Afro-Jamaican Rhythm, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, and early Bob Marley and the Wailers. Ska has experienced two revivals in the United Kingdom: in the late 1960s its rhythm patterns were adopted by Judge Dread, then in 1980 the ska-based ‘Two Tone’ movement united black and white musicians in groups like the Beat, the Specials, Selector and Madness. In the 1990s American pop groups influenced by ska, such as No Doubt, Sublime, the Toasters and Let’s Go Bowling, achieved commercial success.
ROGER STEFFENS