Jamaica.

The third largest of the Caribbean islands, with an area of about 11,000 km². Formerly part of the British West Indies, gained independence in 1962 and is a member of the British Commonwealth.

1. Introduction.

2. Instruments.

3. Music genres.

OLIVE LEWIN/MAURICE G. GORDON

Jamaica

1. Introduction.

Columbus arrived in Jamaica on his second voyage (1494), naming the island Santiago. During the early 16th century it was colonized by the Spanish and by the time of the English conquest (1655) the indigenous Arawak Indians had been virtually exterminated. With the introduction of slaves from West Africa, beginning in the 16th century, blacks soon outnumbered Europeans, and the 20th-century population is predominantly creole or black with European, Chinese, Indian and Syrian minorities. Although English is the official language, creole (a mixture of English, Spanish and French combined with features from various African languages) is widely spoken and is often the language of folksong texts. Many Jamaicans belong to the Anglican Church but other religions include the Baptist, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim and Ethiopian Orthodox faiths. African and non-Christian cults (for example, the Kumina) and Afro-Christian revivalist sects (such as the Zion Way Baptist and the Pukkomina) are particularly important in rural areas.

Jamaican music is as varied as the people who inhabit the island. Since many are of African descent, much folk music retains features and functions of black African music, blended with elements of European (primarily British) music. Africans were brought from different cultural, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, but despite centuries of slavery and considerable acculturation, African traits are basic to most seemingly European-derived Jamaican folk genres. During the slave era, Europeans continued to visit and settle in Jamaica. In the mid-19th century Chinese and Indian indentured labourers were brought to work on the sugar-cane plantations, and immigrants from the Middle East established themselves as businessmen and traders. East Indian music is still heard in some areas, but the music of Asian communities has remained separate from the mainstream of Jamaican culture.

Jamaican folk music has varied uses and functions. In cult ritual it is used to establish contact with spiritual forces. There may be little demarcation between sacred and secular, and even in work, social and recreational music there may be religious overtones. Music is used to censure and advise, to transmit messages and gossip, to teach group values and to pass on vital social skills and information. Jamaicans adapt their music freely to the occasion. Songs used at wakes may be adaptations of dance tunes; a secular song may be used in a religious setting. The same tune may be used by different groups for different purposes with varied rhythms and improvised ornamentation.

Jamaica

2. Instruments.

Drums are the most important Jamaican instruments. They are used to accompany dancing and singing (both sacred and recreational) and to communicate with ancestral spirits in rituals. Drums of African and Indian origin have been absorbed into Jamaican usage. The names of drums may vary, even though their functions generally are similar. Drum frames are made of wood, clay and metal; wooden ones are made from hollowed tree trunks, hollow trunks like bamboo and trumpet tree trunks, barrels and, in the case of the Jamaican goombay drum, lengths of board fitted at right angles. Tin drums may be tin boxes such as those for the Jamaican Nago and Ettu song and dance celebrations, or tin frames with skin stretched across, as in some village bands. The East Indian tassa drum, used in Jamaica (and also in Trinidad), is a clay or metal bowl about 22·5 to 30 cm in diameter with a goatskin stretched across the open end and secured by thongs.

Drums are tuned by tightening the membranes in various ways: the skin of the tassa drum is heated over an open fire; for other drums, water or rum is put on the skin; pegs at the sides of the goombay drum are hit, forcing its inner frame against the membrane, thus tightening it and raising the pitch. Drums are played with one or two padded or plain sticks, or with the hands; they are either stood on the ground, placed between the knees, gripped under the arm, hung around the neck or straddled. Straddled drums include the Kumina and tambo drums; the drummer uses his heel to change the pitch as he plays the drum with his hands.

Drums are not always used for rhythm; when played in pairs one usually sustains a particular rhythmic pattern while the other improvises in accordance with the rite or occasion. In Kumina the pairs are called respectively kbandu and ‘playing cast’, while in Jonkunnu and the Revivalist cults they are called bass and side drum. When a single drum is used the steady rhythmic pattern is often maintained by sticks, maracas and other percussion instruments.

Sacred drums must be baptized before use, in honour of the deity to whom they are dedicated. This may require a special ceremony to ensure that the drums will perform their function of communicating between humans and spirits. If sacred drums are used for any other purpose, for example to assist research, the drummers must propitiate the spirits. Sacred drums may be played by anyone who knows the rhythm needed to address the particular deity or spirit. Each rite requires special drums, and the drums of different deities, groups or nations are stored in order of importance and power; they are never mixed and may even be kept in separate rooms.

Jamaican aerophones and chordophones include the vaccine ‘boom pipe’ or ‘bamboo bass’ (fig.1), the abeng (cow horn), gourds and the bamboo violin (fig.2). The boom pipe is a length of bamboo over one metre long and 5–7 cm in diameter. The player blows in energetic puffs, or pounds it on the ground, producing a deep sound of fixed pitch. Played together, boom pipes may produce two or three different pitches in sequence or harmonically as required. The abeng is played by the Maroons. These are descendants of former slaves of the Spaniards in the early 17th century, who were released by the Spaniards following the conquest of Jamaica by the British in 1655. The Maroons carried on prolonged and successful guerilla warfare against the British. This ended in 1738 with a treaty giving the Maroons a measure of autonomy in their areas of settlement. The abeng played an important part in their wars and is still used to relay messages. Its fundamental pitch can be altered by manipulation of the lips and of the thumb-hole on the horn’s concave side, near the pointed end.

Bamboo violins (a type of idiochord bowed zither; see fig.2) used to be found in isolated areas and were sometimes played with virtuosity. A suitable joint was cut from a green bamboo plant and four strings made by lifting fibres off the main stem. Under these strings a bridge was placed, cut in such a way that the tension of each string gave the required pitch. The bow, soaked in water before use, was made from a length of bamboo (about 50 cm). Gourds are widely used for rattles and maracas. One Kumina group, apparently unique in Jamaica, used hollow gourds as wind instruments; the player blew across a small opening at the top of the gourd producing one hooting note of indefinite pitch.

Many wind and string instruments are used in traditional celebrations; some are still made by hand out of natural materials, but there is a growing tendency to use man-made materials and factory-made instruments. Guitar-like instruments used to be made with gourds forming the resonating chambers, but now the bodies of home-made guitars and banjos are made of wood. Some have four strings, others six. String bass instruments have one to four strings that may be stretched over a length of bamboo or wood or over a resonating chamber as in the double bass. They are sometimes played with a bow but more often plucked. Plucked string instruments such as guitars and banjos are widely played, and are used in secular bands for instrumental solos and to accompany many song and dance genres.

Violins and similar bowed instruments are used throughout Jamaica, mainly for dance music; they are held against the left side of the rib cage and played in florid style.

Flutes, formerly made from bamboo, reeds and hollow stems of plants, are now rarely played, though the indigenous performance style is often heard on more modern instruments such as piccolos and penny whistles. Bamboo is still combined with other materials to make instruments that sound like clarinets, trumpets and saxophones. Bamboo saxophones were made by bending the stem of a living plant into the desired shape and leaving it to grow to the right size. The rhumba or ‘bass box’, a type of lamellophone, is used in Jamaica by bands for dance and other secular genres. As with the African sansa or likembe, tongues of metal are attached to a sound box, each tongue producing a tone of deep quality.

Jamaica

3. Music genres.

The indigenous music of Jamaica can be divided into five categories: ritual, ceremonial, social, work and recreational. Only since the upsurge of national pride following independence have Jamaican scholars begun to study their music. It is not possible to know exactly how the early slaves used music. It must have been a means of expressing emotion, maintaining vital links with the past from which they had been uprooted and communicating with spirits. Ritual, ceremonial and social genres were probably the most common and these still have great importance in Jamaican society at the turn of the century.

(i) Ritual and ceremonial.

Christianity was introduced to Jamaica with the Anglicans and Quakers (in the 17th century), the Methodists (1789), the Moravians (1874) and the Baptists (early 19th century). The slaves soon fused aspects of Christian belief with African tribal ritual, resulting in Afro-Christian syncretized spirit cults of various categories. The Zion Way Baptist and the Pukkumina are both revivalist cults; the Kumina incorporates non-Christian deities and is considered African by its devotees. Jamaicans also categorize cults as ‘spiritual’ (City Mission, Baptist, Free Church, Pentecostal Holiness) and ‘temporal’ (Anglican, Methodist, Seventh-Day Adventist).

Some Jamaican cults share concepts and expressions with other cults of the African diaspora such as Haitian Voudoun, Cuban Santeria and Trinidadian Shango. Through ritual music, cult groups communicate with their gods, goddesses, ancestors and heroes, as well as with the forces of nature at levels which the outsider is rarely allowed to observe; consequently the use of cult music for study or publication is limited. Several rituals involve sacrifices and purification by fire or herbal baths, while all include music. Leaders strive to activate the psychic links that connect humans with the supernatural forces. The symbolism of sound, word, gesture and movement is usually understood by cultists alone and at times only by those at the top of the cult hierarchy. Ritual music usually derives from speech: it includes chanting, improvised melodies and choruses accompanied by drums, cymbals and other percussion, clapping, stamping, groaning and percussive breathing.

The followers of the Kumina cult sing bailo (generally with English texts) and ‘country’ songs, an improvised genre that incorporates many Congolese words and is designed to appease or amuse the spirits. Adherents believe that the ‘country’ songs are taught by the spirits only to those they possess. Kumina songs are usually for a leader and chorus, have melodies with short phrases, and are accompanied by drums (the kbandu and the ‘playing cast’). Revivalist cult music, on the other hand, is often based on Christian hymns and is accompanied by ‘trumping’ (loud rhythmic breathing), hand-clapping and foot-stamping; cultists often sing in ‘unknown tongues’ (using non-lexical syllables). The popular genre ska, which originated in western Kingston, derives from these songs.

Since the 1940s, Rastafarianism has been a strongly influential cult. There are several groups of Rastafarians, some of which are Christian. All claim allegiance to Africa and many maintain that their music is African. In its short history, Rastafarianism has significantly affected national life, especially through its music, poetry, art and general regard for nature. The popular Jamaican music form Reggae owes much of its development to Rastafarian music and musicians.

The dominant feature of this cult music is drumming, using drums from Buru, a Christmas masquerade which dates back to the days of slavery. There are three types of drums: bass, fundeh and repeater. All three are double-headed barrel drums, made from staves with goat-skin heads. The bass drum is 50–70 cm in diameter and is played with a padded stick. The fundeh (20–25 cm) and the repeater (20–23 cm) are smaller and are played with the fingers. The repeater is always smaller than the fundeh, to produce a higher pitch. Drumming provides the foundation for distinctive chanting which is accompanied by other percussion (e.g. maracas, tambourines and scrapers).

In all cult groups that use ancestral languages, ritual songs often include words that ensure secrecy within a small and select group of devotees. This does not apply, however, in the case of events open to the public or to Revival and Rastafarian songs, which all use widely known Jamaican speech style.

Jonkunnu (Junkanoo), originally a Christmas celebration during the early days of slavery, combines West African and English traditions. After the abolition of slavery, Jonkunnu was celebrated on 1 August to commemorate freedom. Processions are led by drums, fifes and men wearing traditional costumes and masks. In some areas where Buru (a variant of Jonkunnu) is practised, the whole procession sings the chorus to a leader’s solo, usually about an embarrassing or scandalous local event. Songs are similar in style to mento (see below).

Hosay (Hussey, Hussein), celebrated mainly by East Indians in Jamaica as well as Trinidad, is a Muslim festival honouring three Islamic heroes: Hussein, Hassan and Ali. Models of elaborate bamboo mosques, tall paper stick-puppets and a moon are carried by men who dance to the accompaniment of Indian drums; sword and stick-fighting are also included.

(ii) Social songs.

These refer to daily activities and events in the life cycle (birth, puberty, marriage, death) and may reflect social and moral standards and group attitudes. They include songs of censure and advice. It is significant that most songs of the life cycle are associated with death, perhaps because the life span of the slave was short, and hardship, illness and death were ever-present concerns. Although the rites of death vary, all share the belief that human life is only one stage in the spiritual journey towards perfection. Upon death it is important to find out what the fate of the soul will be, for the form and content of certain ceremonies depend on this information. Some songs are for comfort, others for laughter, to censure the host or to mourn. The singing may be contemplative and comforting, or, more often, strident and full-throated. Gestures and dance movements are at times gentle, at others quite abandoned. On occasion, two different groups gather at the home of the deceased: one remains inside to comfort, the other keeps a little way off to give frank and often irreverent comments and warnings.

Little of the music connected with marriage and fertility ceremonies survives. Weddings are often preceded by celebrations which include songs and dances accompanied by drums, sometimes with flutes, clarinets, guitars and violins, and music and dancing follow the solemnization of the marriage.

(iii) Work-songs.

This tradition in Jamaica is one of the oldest, and although cooperative labour continues, with increasing industrialization and mechanization, work-songs are becoming obsolete. Slaves were not allowed to talk during work (almost all their waking hours) but they exchanged news, messages and even ridiculed their masters in song, without attracting unfavourable attention. The songs took on the rhythm of the tasks and helped to lighten the labour. A conch (lambi) or a cow horn is still used to summon workers to a ‘digging match’ (cooperative work session). A farmer who wanted to clear his land for planting needed many hands to complete the task quickly and well; friends gathered at his farm with the tools, and he furnished food, drink, water and a ‘singer man’. This singer man's function was to maintain rhythmic unity in the work being done; unity was enhanced by the call and response singing of the singer man and workers. The singer man also clowned to entertain the workers and had to be able to improvise topical lyrics. Most work-songs were associated with agricultural labour, but there were songs for almost every task: planting, reaping, fishing, weaving nets, hauling houses, washing clothes and housework. Most of the men’s songs were in robust leader and chorus style, but women often sang alone or in an integrated group. Generally work-songs have short, catchy tunes and are in two sections: the verse is sung by the bomma (the caller, who does not participate in the work) and the chorus by the bobbin. Rhythmic accompaniment is provided by pickaxes, mallets, cutlasses or other tools used in the work at hand.

(iv) Recreational.

Calypso originated in Trinidad and Tobago but has spread throughout the Caribbean. These songs are entertaining, aiming chiefly to amuse, but they also philosophize and appeal to civic duty. The lyrics are topical. Steel bands, guitars, drums and other percussion instruments are used to play calypsos and to accompany calypso singers.

Limbo is a contest to see who can dance, bending backwards, under the lowest horizontal bar. Now performed throughout the West Indies for entertainment, limbo originated from the way a slave would attempt to escape, without being seen by guards, by going under rather than over a fence. Maroons of Jamaica used it as part of masumba, a now obsolete traditional game. Mento is an indigenous Jamaican song and dance style characterized by a strong syncopation on the last beat of each bar. The songs are often used to ridicule or censure people in veiled or symbolic terms.

The quadrille is a set of dances of European origin used in Jamaica and throughout the West Indies. In Jamaica dances include the mazurka, polka, schottische and mento. Quadrille bands include drums and other percussion instruments; guitars, banjos, string bass or rhumba box supply the harmony; and fiddle, flute, saxophone, trumpet, clarinet (often home-made), harmonica, voice, or comb and paper (as well as guitars and banjos) supply the melody. These village bands usually have up to 15 players and their repertory, in addition to these European-derived set dances, may include popular tunes played in mento style. In the 19th century, bands frequently played at bruckins and brams (outdoor dances), bowsarrows (costumed country dances), maypole dances, ‘crop-over’ dances for the cane harvesting and for many other folk festivals. Very few folk and traditional bands remain, however, and music for traditional events is now often heard through recordings. Live performance sometimes incorporate amplified bass guitar and there is one amplified fiddle in use.

Singing games were a strong feature of Jamaican life up to the middle of the 20th century and were performed both by adults and children. They are still used for entertainment and socializing at village fairs, dinkies (wakes) and at moonlight revels. Children and adults usually play these games separately, even if both groups are present. Whether the games are of European or African origin, they are transformed by Jamaican speech and song styles and are altered to suit the particular group and occasion. Most of the games stress participation rather than competition and teach skills considered important in society. Cantefables (traditional prose tales with brief sung verses) and story songs are used to enliven stories, to underline characterization and for narration purposes. The function of the music dictates the form and style, which may be recitative, chant (ex.1), lyrical melody or a combination of these.

Since political independence there has been an increasing attempt to study traditional song and dance genres and to revive folk forms. Groups such as Rastafarians, Tambo and Ettu dancers and the Kumina cultists, which in the past functioned more exclusively in their own settings, began to participate in the public independence festivals which began in 1963. Recently, expositions and competitions have been promoted by the government, tourist industry and private enterprise. Many of these are staged in Kingston, Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and other main urban centres. Kingston has many performance venues and a well-publicized programme of musical events; however, much vibrant but unadvertised musical activity takes place all over the island, fairly spontaneously as well as for seasonal and locally-marked occasions.

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