Jazz from Jamaica

[Rabshakeh]

Inspired by a recent Tyler King substack on Ernest Ranglin.

In the 1950s, Jamaica produced some really excellent jazz musicians like Shake Keane, Joe Harriott, Harold McNair and Dizzy Reece. But I think I only know of these musicians because they had their base in London or New York. 

Presumably Jamaica had a home grown jazz scene to have produced artists like this? Did any of them record in Jamaica? 

[Big Beat Steve]

There should be info on the net but I did not find much at a quick glance either. Maybe the biographies of the musicians you named (another one would be Wilton Gaynair) privde some info for starters. E.g. Harold McNair who played in the band (big band) of one Sonny Bradshaw (who has a Wikipedia entry, BTW) in Jamaica in the 50s before moving to Britain. Others among the list of your names emigrated too early to Britain to have played much professionally in Jamaica.

Are you familiair with the R&B compilation box sets on the Fantastic Voyage label that cover the Jamaican DJ activities (portable "sound systems" that must have been extremely huge there (almost a music industry to itself) in the 50s? I.e. paralleling the Mento period (see Wikipedia entry for a starter) but well before the Blue Beat era.

The music on these box sets is exclusively AMERICAN Jump Blues, R&B and Black R'nR but they are excellently compiled and the very well-done booklets will provide some useful (and sometimes amusing and baffling) background info on the Jamaican music scene in that period.
I have four of them that cover the 1945-60 period:
- Jumping the Shuffle Blues
- Jump Blues Strictly For You
- Jump Blues Jamaica Way
- It's Jump Blues Jamaica Time!
 

 

 

[Dub Modal]

Dub Store in Japan has reissued a few Ranglin titles. There was also a comp put out by Pressure Sounds called Jazz Jamaica or something like that. Has tracks from Tommy McCook et al. which I think were all recorded in JA. That record is a mixed bag however. 

[romualdo]

Honest Jons in the UK is a great source for jamaican/West Indian music (including jazz) - their series "London Is The Place For Me" is worth picking up

https://honestjons.com/shop/search/london_is_the_place_for_me

They also carry a great range of Brit improv/avant jazz - they've rereleased quite a bit of the UK Incus label (including previously unreleased material) on their vinyl imprint

[Rabshakeh]

6 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

There should be info on the net but I did not find much at a quick glance either. Maybe the biographies of the musicians you named (another one would be Wilton Gaynair) privde some info for starters. E.g. Harold McNair who played in the band (big band) of one Sonny Bradshaw (who has a Wikipedia entry, BTW) in Jamaica in the 50s before moving to Britain. Others among the list of your names emigrated too early to Britain to have played much professionally in Jamaica.

Are you familiair with the R&B compilation box sets on the Fantastic Voyage label that cover the Jamaican DJ activities (portable "sound systems" that must have been extremely huge there (almost a music industry to itself) in the 50s? I.e. paralleling the Mento period (see Wikipedia entry for a starter) but well before the Blue Beat era.

The music on these box sets is exclusively AMERICAN Jump Blues, R&B and Black R'nR but they are excellently compiled and the very well-done booklets will provide some useful (and sometimes amusing and baffling) background info on the Jamaican music scene in that period.
I have four of them that cover the 1945-60 period:
- Jumping the Shuffle Blues
- Jump Blues Strictly For You
- Jump Blues Jamaica Way
- It's Jump Blues Jamaica Time!

I'm more familiar with mento/Calypso, blue beat, ska, dancehall etc, than Jamaican jazz. I was just wondering whether there was a jazz scene. It seems strange that an island with such a strong recording industry would have produced breakout jazz exports but not have recorded any of them, or any jazz musicians who stayed.

Possibly the record industry was so strong that jazz just got subsumed into the other genres mentioned here.

[Dub Modal]

Well, there's a Bob Marley interview on CD called So Much Things To Say and he makes some interesting comments about the musical limitations of musicians in JA, which would contribute to a limited jazz scene there. The sound system culture and other musical tastes leaned away from "jazz" specifically as well. Probably hindered sales and gigs that would induce anyone from playing the music explicitly. 

[HutchFan]

I'm only aware of two Jamaican jazz musicians.  One is Ernest Ranglin (mentioned in the first post), and the other is Monty Alexander. 

Several of Alexander's records have Jamaican influences, but I don't think they were made there. 

I have no idea whether there was (or is) any sort of jazz scene on the island.

 

[Dub Modal]

The Pressure Sounds comp I was referring to: 

I also didn't realize that the Island label had a separate sublabel for Jamaican Jazz: 

https://www.discogs.com/label/60795-Island-Jamaica-Jazz

Plenty of Skatalites, Monty Alexander, and Ernest Ranglin there. 

Here's another interesting Jazz Jamaica album: 

They cover Silver's Bernie's Tune. Some of the best musicians from Jamaica represented here too. In addition to Ranglin, there's Tommy McCook, Don Drummond & Roland Alphonso. 

[mjzee]

From what I understand, many of the influential Ska musicians were well-versed in Jazz.  You can hear jazz in solos by the Skatalites. See this link for more details: https://jazztimes.com/features/profiles/jazz-to-ska-mania/  Specifically:

“Most of the musicians who came out of Alpha were largely jazz musicians,” Hussey says, “but they were mostly learning on their own. Hearing recordings and sitting down and assimilating the stuff. Don Drummond was apparently very fond of Bennie Green. Tommy McCook was a great admirer of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. If you listen to some of McCook’s solos you hear Coltrane’s influence. And Johnny ‘Dizzy’ Moore was influenced by Dizzy Gillespie.” 

[Niko]

It seems the keyword here is "Alpha", all those musicians like Reece, Harriott, Gainair, McCook... went to the same school... And most of those who went to the UK went at a very young age, so presumably not that much did happen between Alpha and Emigration

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Boys_School

 

[Big Beat Steve]

2 hours ago, Niko said:

It seems the keyword here is "Alpha", all those musicians like Reece, Harriott, Gainair, McCook... went to the same school... And most of those who went to the UK went at a very young age, so presumably not that much did happen between Alpha and Emigration

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Boys_School

 

That was my understanding too. With the apparent exception of Harold McNair (see my earlier post).

[John L]

I recall reading an interview with an old Jamaican musician who argued that the evolution of the ska beat from calypso came initially from Jamaican musicians trying to swing US style but not getting it right.  

[adh1907]

Rico quotes Parker’s Cool Blues in his trombone solo on Dandy Livingstone’s Rudy:

 

[Rabshakeh]

It does seem like the answer to the question of whether there is was a Jamaican jazz scene is basically "no", subject to the proviso that many of the early instrumentalists had jazz training of sone sort.

I went down a rabbit hole of Francophone Caribbean music last night. There's a whole lot of jazz in there.