1944 - 2008 Sad news: rocksteady great (and one of the finest crafters of reggae soul) Alton Ellis passed away recently. I was a late-comer to his magic but I've been beguiled by it ever since. His catalog is massive but I've always had an ear for his stuff from the late '60s and early '70s. Here's three of my favorite. Jah bless. Alton Ellis: I'm Still In Love With You From I'm Still In Love With You (Trojan, 196?) [...]
Alton Ellis - I'm Just A Guy Tommy Squeaker told me today that reggae singer Alton Ellis died last week. I missed this news at the time but couldn't let his death pass without posting a couple of his tunes as I've long been a big fan. Alton Ellis' career lasted a long time. In the days when ska slowed down and rocksteady was king in Jamaica, Alton Ellis was the man. So much so that he became known as 'the Rocksteady Godfather'. He recorded with both Studio 1 and [...]
Alton Ellis est mort . Le chanteur emblématique du rocksteady jamaïcain des mid-60' qui a gravé quelques unes des plus belles chansons de Studio One , label de Clement "Coxsone" Dodd , est mort. Mauvaise nouvelle . Avec la disparition d'Alton Ellis une des plus belles voix du reggae disparait. Une voix si ce n'est LA voix du reggae soul . Alton Ellis/Eddie Parkins/Audrey Adams & The Dewdroppers - My heaven ( [...]
Informed by a post on shimmy shimmy , I realized that Jamaican rocksteady legend Alton Ellis has passed away from cancer. Here are a few of his classics that span over 45 years. Tribute on Myspace and idolator Ellis was known as the " Godfather of rocksteady ", with his 1967 debut album 'Mr Soul Of Jamaica' regarded as a seminal rocksteady album. NME Alton Ellis - Laba Laba Reggae [...]
Reggae music pioneer Alton Ellis, known as the godfather of rocksteady, has died at the age of 70 in a hospital in London, England. Officials at Hammersmith Hospital announced Sunday morning that Ellis had died from cancer.
Filed under: News , R.I.P. Spinner.com : Rocksteady star and reggae pioneer Alton Ellis passed away in London on Friday. He was 70 years-old. Ellis had been in the care of Hammersmith hospital in the weeks leading up to his death, although his family wished for the details to remain quiet,... Read more
Jamaican singer Alton Ellis, whose languorous, soulful vocal style and old-school grace added a romantic sway to ska and gave the world the sound of rocksteady, died Friday in London. Born in 1938 and recording by age 21, Ellis' lover-not-a-fighter attitude and made him kin as much to the American R&B and soul singers he idolized (and frequently covered) as his dance-crazed Jamaican contemporaries. (Over heavenly backing harmonies and a sweet little trumpet break, his 1965 hit "Dance Crasher" cautions rambunctious rude boys to be "gentlemen" rather than juvenile delinquents, wagging his finger with some of the sweetest wordless hooks [...]
Politics continue to figure prominently on the music stage. Art Alexakis of Everclear will has been performing the song “Jesus Was A Democrat” at recent shows. The song is now available as a free download at the band’s site . After a whole three weeks of not offending musicians, another band is complaining about John McCain's use of their music. This time, it's the Foo Fighters . The rockers sent out [...]
r.i.p. download: alton ellis - you make me so very happy (12" mix)
Reggae music pioneer Alton Ellis, known as the godfather of rocksteady, has died at the age of 70 in London, England. Officials at Hammersmith Hospital announced Sunday morning that Ellis, who had cancer, died peacefully Friday night after he had been hospitalized for several weeks. "His life was the music and the stage," said his manager Trish De Rosa. "He was getting a tremendous amount of work right up to the end ? it was very difficult to get him to slow down." Ellis collapsed during a club [...]
1944 - 2008 Sad news : rocksteady great (and one of the finest crafters of reggae soul) Alton Ellis passed away recently. I was a late-comer to his magic but I've been beguiled by it ever since. His catalog is massive but I've always had an ear for his stuff from the late '60s and early '70s. Here's three of my favorite. Jah bless. Alton Ellis: I'm Still In Love With You From I'm Still In Love With You (Trojan, [...]
Been very much enjoying the 14 tracks service from Boomkat : Every week the best tracks are selected from a specific genre for your listening pleasure. So far we've had Detroit techno, downward acid, cover versions and deviant disco amongst many, many others. Here's a few of the tracks I've discovered, starting with this delicate rendition of 'No. 1 (Lent Et Douloureux )'. ISAN - No. 1 (Lent Et Douloureux ) (Z Share) ( YSI ) [...]
Although not nearly as recognized as some of the other Jamaican legends, Alton Ellis' songs are as timeless as any classics, regardless of style or country of origin. Ellis was one of the pioneers of the new sound to strike Jamaica like a bolt of lightening: Rocksteady. The slowed-down beat and heavy Soul influence really gave his music the added punch that helped it stand above most of the other reggae out at the time and go on to influence countless other genres of black music, whether the influence is obvious or not. [...]
I WALK BY YOUR HOUSE The Individuals Plexus : 1982 Available on: Fields/Aqua Marine Bar/None: 2008 [Buy It] SHAME, SHAME Sloan Twice Removed DGC : 1994 [Buy It] FOR SHAME OF DOING WRONG Richard and Linda Thompson Pour Down Like Silver Hannibal : 1975 [Buy It] SHAME, SHAME, SHAME The Harmonettes Til Dalight [...]
"Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts." - Charles Dickens "Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed." - Natalie Clifford Barney "Tears are Summer showers to the soul." - Alfred Austin "Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either." - Golda Meir "It is such a secret place, the land of tears." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery "If a [...]
I got this IM from a friend the other day: "every winter I think to myself "Summer songs...what a dumb concept...why should music be seasonal???" and then during the springtime I think, "I can't wait to listen to music this summer." I could only chuckle since he's exactly right. As much as I - along with others - invest in the idea of a "summer song," it can certainly feel like a forced concept yet, as his ambivalence reveals, it's still such a seductive idea that we find ourselves buying into it despite ourselves. Such [...]
Trojan Records was founded in 1967 by Jamaican-English producer Lee Gopthal as something of a sister label to Chris Blackwell's Island Records. It became one of the best-known and successful reggae labels, but it also bought out several independent Jamaican labels and ended up with a pretty good ska and rock-steady back catalog. In 1972, it went through these archives and put out a fantastic (if somewhat inaccurately-named) compilation, The Trojan Story . Although the liner notes were somewhat sparse and the sound rough, you couldn't want a better overview [...]
Two bits of personal trivia. 1) I have never, in the 15 years I've been a DJ, DJed a wedding. The reasons are partly logistical (I don't own speakers, lights or an amp), mostly personal (I've heard enough groom/bride-zilla stories to want to steer clear). In fact, at my own wedding, we didn't even have music, something that surprised many of my friends but seriously, it never occurred to me (note: our wedding was a potluck in a friend's backyard so "low-key" would be an understatement). This all changed last Saturday night when I agreed to DJ [...]
Here's hoping the warm weather stays with us: one of my all time favorite albums, and the best thing ever done with a melodica. Clearly, I had a hard time choosing only one, two or even three cuts, but there's still two-thirds of a dub classic out there that belongs in your collection. Augustus Pablo & King Tubby - 555 Dub Street Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps Augustus Pablo & King Tubby - Brace's Tower Dub, No. 2 [...]
Audiversity’s weekly column, slightly modified, on random music in a predetermined number of words between 1 & 150. This week's randomly generated number: 88, naturally. MA: It’s rare that a single song will instantaneously blow my mind. Last Wednesday however, while sitting sleepily in my office, Alton Ellis ’s cover of "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)" from his 1970 classic, Sunday Coming , sexily skanked out of my crappy boom-box. My word! That perfect mid-tempo riddim… the [...]
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Top 10 MP3s of the Week (5/24)
Disclosure – When A Fire Starts to Burn
Daft Punk: When anonymity goes wrong
Quadron – Better Off (Feat. Kendrick Lamar)
Listen: Dan Black feat Kelis - Hearts [New Single]
