Sound System’s references and literatures are out there in a massive stack of books, journals and articles over the web. But one thing in common that will always be found is, exhilarating! Yes, it’s always nice to get information about this Jamaican sound system culture. In this issue, kultur summarises some names that because of their love, knowledge, passion and arts deserve to be crowned as the founding fathers. We’ll split this highlight into two series for the year-end special edition. And this is the first series.
The Sound System culture from Jamaica is arguably an important milestone for the development of music in the world. Sound System is the reason and a root cause to the birth of Ska, Reggae, Rocksteady, Dub, Dancehall and many more in between that we all know today.
Sound System is indeed a powerful tradition that nurtures the beauty of Jamaican music through its magnificent work of arts from the activists. It’s a tradition that has been going on for 80 years!
The Pioneers
Jamaica only had National Radio JBC (Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation) in 1959. Two decades earlier, news and entertainment were only available from the broadcasting programs from foreign radio channels. Even until 1940, not many Jamaicans were able to own a radio device. As a result, they gathered together to enjoy radio broadcasts. It is also a medium for Jamaicans to socialize. Starting from youth activities, social politics and of course enjoying music. Until finally creating a new space for the people, do the dance!
In the 1940s, from the Luke Lane – Kingston, Jamaica. A local Jamaican businessman of Chinese descent, Tom Wong is well known for his movement. He came with a truck loaded with a generator, record player and a stack of big speakers, bringing a music party on the streets for the people. The unit he worked on was later known as the sound system. Tom “The Great Sebastian” Wong, (taken from the name of a prominent trapeze performer) was later will be remembered as one of the sound system pioneers who influenced many future sound system units not in Jamaica but to the world. Tom was not alone, Count Smith The Blues Blaster and Sir Nick The Champ were also part of the important history in this era.
At that time Tom was backed by the great support from the likes of Duke Vin, Prince Buster (a former boxer who later became a Jamaican music legend) and last but not least, support from the legendary historical icon, Hedley HG Jones or more known as Hedley Jones to embraced his glory days. Hedley, is the inventor of “House Of Joy”, a big stack of the speaker cabinet that has become the prototype for the speaker set of the sound system’s today. He’s not only supports Tom alone, he involved in many sound system units after The Great Sebastian, he is known as a genius figure in the Jamaican music scene. He was the first musician to build the cello and electric guitar by his hands, the stuff that he also made for other musicians in Jamaica. Even from the exceptional knowledge he has, he contributed to Jamaica, a (system of) Traffic Light!
Alongside Jacky Eastwood and Fred Stanford, Hedley pioneered the development of the sound system that has dominated Jamaican nightlife and music since the 1950s.
In this timeframe, most of the music that was played by those sound system pioneers was dominated by imported Rhythm & Blues and a slight of local mento music productions. The Rhythm & Blues set was obtained from US medium-wave radio. The shifted trend of Rhythm & Blues to Rock N ‘Roll in America turned out to be a ’cause’ which then encouraged the development of a new phase for music in Jamaica.
From the street-style of these sound systems, this culture moved towards and gave a force to the birth of The Sound Of Jamaica. Recording studios in Jamaica are now directly connected to the sound system acts. Even though it was still limited. Among them, a studio owned by legendary mento producer Stanley Motta and radio facilities such as RJR (Radio Jamaica and Rediffusion Network), JBC and Federal. The latter, managed by legendary producer Ken Khouri as a pioneer. Later, this studio became the property of Bob Marley through his label; Tuff Gong.
Inevitably, one of the important messages from this sound system culture is, togetherness and the collectivity. Sound system is indeed a team effort kind of movement. The collaboration between Selector (ones who play the record), DJ/Deejay (an MC who controls the mic) and Soundman (Soundman) is a manifestation of the team work ethos. Soundman has shared the same crucial role as Selector and DJ even though they are more often far from the spotlight. Some of the soundmen pioneers in this era, who later influenced many sound engineers in Jamaica, among others, are; Bill Garnett who started his career on Federal radio with an Australian technician named Graeme Goodall. Bill Garnett was instrumental for many recording studios in Jamaica such as Randy’s (VP Records) and studio of Joe Gibbs and Harry J, he even briefly worked at the legendary Channel One studio in the early 1970s. Meanwhile, Graeme Goodall’s role as a mentor can be traced to the supreme kind of work of the engineer who gave birth to the classic proto-deejay track produced by Studio One, Sylvan Morris and the early dub protagonist, Lynford Anderson. Lynford was Graeme Goodall’s right-hand man while working as an engineer at Edward Seaga‘s WIRL (West Indies Records Limited) who later became Prime Minister of Jamaica.
To be continued…
(Sam)
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