Jen rides the dread Sidewalk Doctor rhythm, with Woman Of The Ghetto lyrics.
Jackie Mittoo puts any survivors to the sword.

Lovely Impressions impressions on the eve of the group’s departure from Brentford Road.

Dynamite, previously unissued rocksteady version of the monumental Skatalites scorcher from a few years earlier.

Sublimely versioning the almighty Curtis anthem; with another rocksteady clarion-call on the flip, brassy and more stern, by The Hamlins.

A Skatalites charger and a jolt of vintage Ethiopian ska rumpus.

Perfect uptempo rock steady from the Gaylad (copping a little British Invasion, a bit late in the day). The flip carries the swing, though: a magnificent horns cut to Delano’s Tell Me Baby, by The Gaysters.

God’s own ska. Cornerstone of the Far East in reggae. (No Augustus Pablo without it.) We put a dubplate mix on Studio One Scorcher; first ever time out for the second take here.

Beautiful mento sufferers for Ronnie Nasralla in 1966. ‘I am the man who fights for the right, not for the wrong.’
People say that’s the first deejay recording on the flip — the wonderful Lord Comic, and his cowboys. ‘Music is real sweet… For your dancing feet.’

Two fine sides of expert, Curtis-inflected soul-reggae.

Gorgeous…and backed with rudeboy anthem A Man Of Chances.
Two counts of murder.

‘You think you can hold me down, you think you can tie me down… I’m a man for chances.’

Outstanding roots by Noel Gray, at High Times in 1982.

Heavy, slowed-down Green Island excursion, revisited as a duet with the mighty Lennie Hibbert. Originally a Down Beat dubplate special.

This classy lovers was Sharon’s breakthrough, fronting the Now Generation band for Geoffrey Chung in 1973, in an achingly regretful Armstead / Ashford / Simpson song about female disillusionment (laid waste by Cilla Black the previous year).

Two all-time ska masterpieces: back-to-back fire.

Cedric was a jazz nut. Enrolled at Alpha Boys aged eight, he was soon revelling in Ruben Delgado’s new jazz course. He flourished under Lennie Hibbert’s directorship, before setting out in the early sixties with Sonny Bradshaw’s big band, followed by a residency with Leslie Butler and Hedley Jones playing jazz at Club 35 in Montego Bay; then stints with the bands of Granville Williams, Cecil Lloyd and Teddy Greaves. “Kind of easy listening jazz, mixed with some of the regular pop stuff, for dancing.”
Amazingly, by the end of the decade Cedric was living in Philadelphia, on the verge of moving in with the Arkestra. He jammed up in the hills with Count Ossie, at Rockfort; and towards the end of his life, he jammed on the New York subway. Sonny Rollins was his main man. Have another listen to him on Door Peep Shall Not Enter.

It’s all magnificently expressed in these two highlights of the Africa Calling LP, recorded at Treasure Isle with Errol Brown for producer Sonia Pottinger in 1977.
Expertly explosive brass arrangements and brilliant soloing, electric keys and wah wah guitar gently counterposed to nyabinghi group-drumming; with uncontrived spirituality, nothing easy or halfway-house.
Bim.