
As Motown had the Funk Brothers —the incredibly talented Detroit session band that played on the label's every hit, from "My Girl" to "Tears of a Clown"—Jamaica and ska music had The Skatalites . A group of extraordinary jazz musicians that included players like saxophonist Tommy McCook and trombonist Don Drummond, the Skatalites were one of Jamaica's first and finest ska bands, recording with vocalists like Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, and Toots & The Maytals. Plus , also released as Skatalite! , is the fifth release by producer Duke Reid 's Treasure [...]

Recently, Steve Roden, artist and proprietor of the excellent Airform Archives , bestowed upon me a stack of dog-eared and battered 8 x 10 publicity photos. He decribed them as having "a nice kind of patina." I like them better this way with tape, holes and a smoky veneer from the juke joint they probably hung in. Here's Rosco Gordon in all that weathered glory. I've been wanting to post some of these sides for a while. These records, made in Memphis in the early fifties, under the supervision of Sam Phillips and Ike Turner, are truly amazing and [...]

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 [...]