Roburt

Perhaps this is part of the reason why the Soul Children's "The Sweeter He Is" was so popular in Ja ............. ... I'm told that loads of people on the Island listened in to Miami radio stns on a regular basis .......... As the track was No.1 on the radio in Miami, it must have gotten constant plays at that time.

I suppose it could just as easily have been Milton 'Butterball' Smith, a radio DJ at WMBM in Miami back in the 60's. ... ALSO ... weren't some of the big NARA conventions held in Miami in the 60's .... loads of contacts must have been made at those. N.B. The above 'Butterball' not to be confused with the Philly radio DJ 'Butterball' (Joe 'Butterball' Tamburro) who just died.

Pete, although ska was played a lot at nighters when I 1st started attending such dances, I unloaded most of my ska / reggae 45's in the early 70's (when the mortgage payments got too big). Have maintained a 'passing interest' only ever since (though have bought numerous ska / reggae CD's over the last 20 years). So I know little about how the Ja music scene developed apart from the soul side of things there. Mind you, my big mate Nigel Flood is one of the UK's top reggae DJ's and has been out 'on tour' with some top UK acts (playing his 45's in the intermissions). We always have a long ska session in Charlie Rees' caravan at Cleggy each weekender (which I enjoy enormously). Don't think I'd ever try to get back into ska collecting though; way too expensive now + too many 'totally trashed' platters out there.

Steve, after he became 'big' in Philly & New York, his show was 'syndicated' to another 3/4 cities. One of those was Miami (though he only actually visited the radio stn there a few times) and it's said that his 'rapping' style influenced listeners in the northern Caribbean (who could easily hear the signal emanating from the Miami radio stn).

The parallels between the 'Ja sound system' scene & the UK NS scene are very close at times. The Sound System DJ's / toasters would hook up with one producer (record label or dealer here) & would want exclusives from that studio / label. So, some very limited press 45's would be handed out (with blank labels or labels with hand stamps on them) & these would be kept as 'exclusives' by a particular sound system. To hear that track you had to attend that sound systems show ..... some of these 'exclusives' ended up staying that way with just a few copies pressed up ... other became so popular, that they led to a regular 45 release & even (in some cases) to big sales (on the Islands themselves & overseas). Lots of Islands developed there own sound (Ja, Trinidad, Barbados, etc) but all were at least influenced by US R&B. QUESTION: Did the French 'Islands' also go along with the other island's R&B influenced music, don't know enough about the music made on them.

I'll probably get more criticism for expanding the 'theme' of this thread ... but here goes anyway ..... Everyone knows that Ja toasters inspired the early US rappers .... but who was it that got the toasters going in the 1st place. By all accounts it was Baltimore / Philly / New York / Miami radio DJ Jocko Henderson. Douglas "Jocko" Henderson ranks up there with the very best (& original) R&B radio disc jockeys. His smooth, swinging, rhymed talkovers were imitated by numerous other jocks in the 1950's / 60's and he was to become one of the major influences for later rappers. Though his influence on hip-hop was crucial, it took an indirect route as the model for the toasts of early Jamaican sound system DJ's. Some say that Jocko's syndicated radio shows, beamed into the Caribbean from Miami provided the standard for Jamaican DJ's. Another story claims that sound system promoter & record producer Coxsone Dodd encountered Jocko on one his record buying trips to the U.S., and encouraged his DJ's to imitate Jocko's style. However his influence reached Jamaica, titles like "The Great Wuga Wuga" by Sir Lord Comic and "Ace from Space" by U. Roy were catch phrases directly appropriated from Jocko's bag of verbal tricks. When Kool DJ Herc adapted the Jamaican sound system to New York City party crowds, the stylized public address patter that accompanied his bass heavy program was rooted in Jocko's rhyming jive patter. Jocko started in radio in the Baltimore of 1950, moving to Philadelphia, where he attained enough momentum to arrange a daily commute to New York for a 2nd shift. In New York, he also hosted "Jocko's Rocket Ship", a black oriented TV dance show. He also made many appearances as M.C. on R&B / soul shows (he MC'ed at the Apollo and hosted large scale record hops in ballrooms in various cities. Jocko also made a few records. In the wake of "Rapper's Delight", Philadelphia international released "Rhythm Talk", an instrumental track over which Jocko ran through his amazing repertoire of oral phrases. So it seems that Jocko was a major influence on the Ja music scene without him ever having set foot on the Island back in the day.

I meant to ask Frank (when I was chatting with him) who it was that steered all those Miami artists to him back in the day (loads having 45 releases on Phi-L.A. of Soul). I guess it was a radio DJ with a foot in both camps (Philly & Miami), so it was probably Douglas "Jocko" Henderson. Phil-L.A. of Soul artist & 45 listing -- https://www.globaldogproductions.info/p/phil_la_of_soul.html However chatting with Frank can be quite a task & I never got around to asking him the question. Anyone here know if it was Jocko's Rocketship radio show that led to all those Florida artists hooking up with Phi-L.A. of Soul (& other Philly labels) ??

About to escape into the CD / record buying world (well in October) ..... .... Cooler Than Ice - The Arctic Records Story (6 CDs & 6 7" singles) http://www.dustygroo...oos=1&incl_cs=1 I was told about this package a while ago... Tap to view this Soul Source News/Article in full

I respect your opinion Pete, but Mr. Rounce rubbished 2 posts I made here .... & I have now illustrated fully that his views were totally incorrect .... I have not hurled any abuse at him whilst he has referred to my posts as ' wildly inaccurate theories that are all of my own invention' and then called me a smartarse for proving him wrong. All I want to do is talk about soul music, but I will not just stand by while someone tries to destroy my reputation & make me out to be an idiot who indulges in wild fantasies. He may know a lot about Ja records BUT EVEN he don't know it all. Back to soul; a Ja 45 on RCA that had input from some heavyweights (Don Davis; Belita Woods; etc). Mind you, it would have been better if someone at Federal Records had looked where the RCA & Victor names were on the label before setting out the track info (& I'm sure Don Davis didn't run Groouesville Music).

Not a live club show, but a concert staged by ABC TV for broadcast purposes ... .... just a pity that no one at ABC TV knew how to spell Rufus's name !!

A few good acts on this August 1973 bill .....

Two ladies getting it on back in Jan 1974 ...... .. I didn't realise that Leata Galloway was performing (other than in musical plays) that early ... after all, she didn't land a record deal until the 1980's

Motown came to town in 1965 ..........

A Ja Tamla Motown 45 ...... manufactured by Dynamic Sounds ... ..... and they even managed to print up a decent quality label

The group the Jaguars were on the bill for a show at the Embassy Room in Baltimore on Nov 28th 1968 .... ... along with the likes of the Hesitations, Frankie Karl, the Esquires and Masked Man & the Agents. Which 'version' of the group would this have been ??

Another 'Atlantic family' label ...... On this one, the 'MFG by Dynamic Sounds' line seems to have been printed at the same time as the label name & logo (same colour ink used). But then what do I know about record manufacturing in the Islands. Think I'll have t ask that nice Mr. Rounce how they did it (after all, I'm sure he will have been there when this 45 was pressed up) !!!

Tony, I see you still have a high opinion for the data I'm posting (calling me a smartarse now). Just admit you were wrong in your original rubbishing of my post & your subsequent character assassination snipes ... and this whole matter can be laid to rest ... ... otherwise I'm sure folk will just think you are a sore loser who doesn't like his supposed depth of knowledge to be challenged.

And a second one that dates from 1975 .... ... if you can ignore the fact that this label has been fixed off-centre & the text printed at a skewed angle to the label layout ... .... to me this looks to have been made only a few months after the one in the above post .....

A Ja Atlantic 45 that supposedly dates from 1962 ....

Another Ja 45 label that has been printed OK (this time) but that exercise has been let-down as the label has then been cut & fixed to the 45 off-centre ........ You can see where the bottom edge of the label was meant to be (the darker shadow area) & where the top of the label printed below on the print shop sheet was meant to begin. Because the label is so off-centre (cut in a higher position than was meant), the 'MFG by DYNAMIC SOUNDS' line also ends up way too high on the actual 45.

It's easy to see the sequence in which the print has been added on this label .... The data that has come off the original US label went on first (& this was done to a decent standard) ... thus it's easy to read the 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York text. Next the 'MFG by DYNAMIC SOUND, 15 BELL RD' has been added on top in black ink (not to the same standard). Finally, the text that relates to the specific 45 has been added in silver ink (this going over the top of the black 'DYNAMIC SOUNDS' line which itself is on top of the New York address info). So once again it seems plain to me that a photo copy of the original US label has been made & then the local licensee has added their info over the top of the US label data.

A 1980's Ja Polydor 45 ...... It looks like the Caribbean licensee took some blank US Polydor labels & had them printed up properly (by photo copying the original blank & running off copies in a Kingston print shop). HOWEVER on this one they seem to have gotten the scaling wrong as the label when produced appears to be way too big to fit properly on a 45. The Ja Polydor blanks must then have been sent to the record label where initially the 'MFG UNDER LICENSE BY DYNAMIC SOUNDS' seems to have been added to them all -- the quality of this printing seems way inferior to the 'MANUFACTURED BY POLYDOR, NEW YORK' line. Then finally, the print that relates to this specific 45 seems to have been added. BUT as this label has been made too big for the single it was to be attached to, lots of the stuff printed towards the edge of the label has been lost .... so there is no Polydor logo (black half record) above the label name & much of the US manufacturing data line has also gone off the edge of the label .... The label has also been fixed off-centre, again not helping. Ja quality control strikes agin !!

A typical US Polydor 45 from the late 70's (for comparison purposes -- see next post ).... Well the 45 is typical, the producer (Frank Wilson; Spec-o-lite) & the group (Alton McLain & Destiny) weren't typical Polydor fodder ....

I think there are two distinct lots of Ja Atlantic 45's ....... 1960's ones that actually came out around the time the cuts were 1st released in the US ..... .. & then some 1960's Atlantic label 45's that seemed to turn up (looking if not sounding new) around 15 years or so later. It seems someone in Jamaica cottoned on to the fact that it was easy to sell some 1960's Atlantic 45's at the end of the 70's (?) & into the 80's. When I was scanning record shop racks (mainly in Cave Shepherd Dept Store & No.1 Record Shop Ltd -- both in Bridgetown, Barbados) you could find stuff by Don Covay & the Goodtimers (from 1962) & Ben E King (1965) alongside 1974 singles by the Persuaders,1975 offerings from R B Hudman, 1976 Mass Production cuts (actually on Cotillion), 1981 Kleer 45's and 1987 offerings from Levert & Miki Howard .... and neither of those record stores stocked 2nd hand items, all as new from the warehouse.

How come young uns can't sing (as a group) like this ???? It really is in danger of becoming a 'lost art'.