Scratch Radio : The Skatalites

The following is from an article in UK music magazine, Mojo.

Born amid the rigid discipline of a Jamaican reform school, The Skatalites were the ultimate ska supergroup burning a wild, jazz-fuelled path across reggae history. Lloyd Bradley tells their incendiary tale.

Ask Jamaica's Prime Minister about The Skatalites and he'll come over all misty-eyed. Never mind that, at the moment, PJ Patterson is running a country that seems to be sliding into chaos, his party is hurtling towards a general election nobody thinks they'll win and he is enduring an Opposition campaign that has become increasingly personal. Tell him you want to talk about the orchestra that, to all intents and purposes, was ska's house band from 1964 to 1996 and he'll gladly clear his calendar for an hour or so.

The Skatalites at Studio One: Knibb (drums), Mittoo (piano),
McCook (standing with sax), Don Drummond (insert).

His fondest memories of what he precisely refers to as "the most formidable aggregation of talent Jamaica has ever seen, and is ever likely to see in the future" go back to before the orchestra was formalised under the name Skatalites - which didn't happen until 1964. Back then he was a jazz-crazy young lawyer just returned from university in the UK and the likes of Don Drummond (trombone), Tommy McCook (sax), Roland Alphonso (sax), Johnny 'Dizzy' Moore (trumpet), Lester Sterling (sax), Lloyd Brevett (bass), Lloyd Knibbs (drums), Jackie Mittoo (piano) and Jerry Hines (guitar) were best known for their explosive live performances in Kingston's nightclubs. He'll talk at length about the monumental cutting contest between Ernest Ranglin and Don Drummond, when the former was challenged to see if he was good enough for the band: "Ernie sent for his instrument and as the band played a tune called Indian Summer, they duelled for nearly an hour, Don on trombone and Ernie on guitar as each matched the other's portion. Everybody stopped dancing and retreated to the side to applaud this battle royal as neither would give up."

from Left
(1) Lloyd Brevett, (2) Clement "Coxsone" Dodd
(3) Roland Alphonso, (4) Johnny "Dizzy" Moore

PJ Patterson even managed the band for a while, 40-odd years ago, making sure the orchestra got paid and sorting out such legal disputes as speeding tickets and "domestics". He never got paid for his services but still puffs up with pride as he harks backj to the group, name-checking their lawyer from the bandstand. Patterson's warmth towards The Skatalites is far from unusual among countrymen of his age group. Ska was a fully-fledged musical revolution. American cultural colonialism - big band jazz and R&B - had been overthrown, and this new, indigenous, popular music form became the soundtrack for a nation that became independent from the United Kingdom in 1962. These were the first local musicians to become stars in their own right.

Given the circumstances it wasn't surprising that ska swept the island. Less predictable, though, was the wealth of talent contained within the orchestra and how it manifested itself in this new musical style. The Skatalites had the sort of rigid sense of purpose combined with an almost other-worldly creativity that would have given Duke Ellington pause for thought; yet it was uniquely Jamaican, totally reflective of the people of that fledgling nation, what they had been and what they would become. Ska couldn't have happened anywhere else at any other time or without this particular cast of characters. Likewise the tri-part catalyst for the music was equally, uniquely Jamaican - a Catholic children's home, Rastafari, and jazz sensibilities that gained something in the crossing from the USA.

Scratch Radio is run by Chris Azevedo @ [ E-mail ]