Roots Archives Forum

Hey boys , i have a few question about this style , which artist are early dancehall ?? maybe Frankie Paul , Big Youth , Barrington levy?? , maybe one can anserw me , i am new in dis style.

Another question i have is when a dancehall artist play in a gig they play with a band ?? its a different between the early dancehall gigs and the actually dancehall gigs??

thanks i hope one can anserw

peace!!

Hi Leon,
Bit of a novice myself, but I think the stuff produced by Junjo Lawes on Greensleeves is really the starting point for the Dancehall style. Apologies if this is inaccurate.

PP

I personally think that Sugar Minott was one of the main artists whos recordings towards he end of the Seventies seemed to influenced the direction of reggae from the roots sound of the seventies to the dancehall sound of the 80`s.

But to be honest I think that even without his music the dancehall scene would still have developed the way it did because it was the Jamaican public more than anyone artist who, through their demands in wanting to hear something new at the dances, ensured the music continualy evolved.

For an Singer, Musiciam, Producer or Studio to stay at the top and "Carry the Swing" they had to give the public what they wanted to hear.

This was also pretty much the same with the sound systems who played the lawns / dances. The more specials / dub plates they played the bigger the following.

It really was musical evolution through supply and demand.

Dave

hi
we start to speak about dancehall at the end of the 70's
if you want to buy lps you must concentrate yourself on this period (it's for me the best time in ja)
you can buy the junjo or linval thompson productions on greensleeves with artists like wailing souls,barrington levy,meditations,don carlos,eek-a-mouse,yellowman & fathead....
the waterhouse sound is terrible too,with singers as half pint,king everall,michael palmer,black crucial...(both volumes of "waterhouse revisited"or"the posee"3 chapters xtra)
of course prince jammies productions are wonderfull

look for producers:junjo/jammies/winston riley/linval thompson/georges phang/hoo kim brothers/sugar minott/roy francis/ranking joe/augustus pablo/vivian jackson....and many others
after 85,it's the begining of the digital era I really love it too
"redman" and "king jammy$" are my favourites digitals sounds producers
if you want a list of extra lps contact me and it will be a great pleasure for me to help you
good vibes
jm

Linval Thompsons as a producer is my king in early dancehall... Heavy riddims!!

Barry Brown is certainly a typical "early dancehall" singer... Barrington Levy sticks quite good to that... But remember its just a new drum pattern more binary that is in the right line of the 70's... Before it gets digikal.

You better check anything backed by the Roots Radics, the incoutournable early dancehall band from Channel One... They were the one and only during this period, even more than the singers!

Guidance

"incoutournable"? What does that mean?!

It's french for unavoidable or inescapable.

To get the best out of early dancehall I would advise that you check out 12 inch 45s from this era. This way you'll get that brilliant dance hall combination of vocal cut, DJ cut and dub cut all on one record.

Some great labels for this stuff are:

Midnight Rock, Greensleeves and Jah Guide / Jah Life.

With Greensleeves you have to pick through loads of different stuff to get the best early dancehall numbers. But Jah Thomas' Midnight Rock's 12 inch catalogue is just about wall to wall killer dancehall.

Jonti wrote:"incoutournable"? What does that mean?!

Damn... I thought it was one of those words you took from french, pronunciating it ina very frenchy style...

But Im wrong it seems! Still learning english on RA...