A1 Last Night

Written-By – Mar-Keys

A2 Come Back

Featuring – Stranger & Patsy

A3 Suzie

Featuring – Stranger & Ken

A4 Sammy Dead

Featuring – Eric Morris*

A5 Oh Marie

Featuring – The Charmers

A6 All Of My Life

Featuring – The Charmers

B1 It Will Be Ages

Featuring – Eric Morris*

B2 Jamaica Ska

Featuring – Keith Lyn & Ken Lazarus*

B3 Hold Me

Featuring – Stranger & Patsy

B4 She Will Never Let Me Down

Featuring – The Maytals

B5 Step Aside

Featuring – Roy & Yvonne*

B6 Danger

Featuring – Roy & Yvonne*

Stereo pressing with orange & white Kentone labels. Stereo noted on the labels. Some copies have a "stereo" sticker attached to the front of the jacket.

The track credits on the back of the jacket do not match the track credits on the record labels.

Byron Lee and the Dragonaires (known as Byron Lee's Dragonaires after Lee's death and now The Dragonaires) are a Jamaican ska, calypso and soca band. The band played a crucial pioneering role in bringing Caribbean music to the world. Byron Lee died on 4 November 2008, after suffering from cancer for a sustained period.

History

The band was originally formed around 1950 by Byron Lee and his friend Carl Brady, taking its name from the St. George's College football team for which they played.[1][2] The band originally played mento, and performed their first shows in the college common room to celebrate the team's victories.[1]

After a few years of playing at parties, birthdays and weddings, Lee decided to turn professional. By 1956, the Dragonaires had become a fixture on Jamaica's hotel circuit, playing under their own name and also providing backing to visiting American stars including Harry Belafonte, Chuck Berry, The Drifters, Sam Cooke, and Fats Domino.[1] The Dragonaires prided themselves on being able to play any style of music, their repertoire including covers of American pop and R&B hits, and they soon adapted to include ska when that became popular.[1]

The band recorded their debut single, "Dumplin's", in 1959 at the WIRL (West Indies Records Limited) studios owned by future Prime Minister Edward Seaga, who became the band's manager. The single was released on the Dragonaire's own Dragon's Breath label in Jamaica, and was the second release on the Blue Beat label in the United Kingdom, and was unusual for a Jamaican single as it featured an electric organ and a Fender bass which Lee had purchased during a visit to the United States - the first such instruments ever seen on the island.[1] Lee and Seaga both realised that ska was the music to provide Jamaica with a musical identity that could break the domination of American R&B, and the Dragonaires became one of the major ska bands of the early 1960s, releasing singles such as "Fireflies", "Mash! Mr Lee", "Joy Ride", and a ska version of "Over the Rainbow", both under their own name, and as the Ska Kings.[1] In 1961, the band received a huge break when they were cast as the hotel band in the first James Bond film, Dr. No. The band performed several songs in the film, although the recordings were actually made by guitarist Ernest Ranglin.The song's Jump Up and Kingston Calypso appeared on the Dr. No (soundtrack).[1] In 1964, the band was featured in a program called "This is Ska!" alongside Jimmy Cliff, Prince Buster, and Toots and the Maytals.

The band received another major boost when they were selected by Seaga, then the island's head of Social Welfare and Economic Development, in 1964 to travel to the New York World's Fair and perform as a backing band for a showcase of Jamaican talent, including Jimmy Cliff, Prince Buster, and Millie Small.[1] The trip was not a great success, with the Dragonaires' "uptown" musicians not fitting in with the other "downtown" artists.[1] Realising that their appeal to ska crowds was diminishing, Lee took the band in a new direction, incorporating calypso and touring Trinidad and Tobago in 1963 and 1964. Also the band contributed the instrumental part of Mighty Sparrow's recording of Only a Fool in 1966. Lee's relationship with Atlantic Records (he acted as head of distribution for the US company in Jamaica) led to the label releasing Dragonaires records in the US, including two albums timed to capitalise on interest generated from the World's Fair performances, Jump Up and Jamaican Ska (on which the Dragonaires backed the likes of The Blues Busters, The Charmers, The Maytals, Stranger Cole, Ken Boothe, and Patsy Todd).[1] The band also targeted the international rocksteady market with albums of mainly cover versions such as Rock Steady Beat and Rock Steady '67. Further, Atlantic Records tried to push the album Jamaican Ska by using house producer and sound engineer Tom Dowd, who produced all of Aretha Franklin's greatest singles, to produce the album.[citation needed] In addition, the Dragonaires were renamed as "The Ska Kings" on the album. Unfortunately, despite Atlantic's best efforts, Jamaican Ska failed to take off in the United States, although the record "Jamaica Ska" became a top 30 single in Canada.[3]

Lee bought the WIRL studios from Seaga and turned into Dynamic Sounds Recording Co., where the Dragonaires naturally recorded, using the superior facilities to record a string of well-produced albums during the late 1960s and early 1970s, often containing cover versions aimed at tourists, and they went on to record a series of "Reggay"-titled albums in the early 1970s.

The WIRL name had remained with its division in Barbados and had remained the ever-popular brand of Bajan music until 1995, when it changed its name to E.A. Best Music Ltd, and eventually to its current name, Caribbean Records - still the major record company and distributor of Barbados. Back in Jamaica, Dynamic had become a bigger force than ever before, investing in presenting more of Jamaica's talent to vinyl, including Toots & the Maytals, Eric Donaldson, John Holt, Barry Biggs, Freddie McKay, Tommy McCook, and Max Romeo, issued on imprints such as Jaguar, Panther, Afrik, and Dragon.

In 1974, the band played at Trinidad and Tobago's carnival for the first of many times, and the same year they released the Carnival in Trinidad album. They would release both reggae and carnival-oriented albums throughout the 1970s, and in 1975 took in another genre with the Disco Reggae album, released on Mercury Records in the US.[1]

The band played at the Reggae Sunsplash festival in both 1978 and 1979, and were one of the main backing bands in 1982. They would also appear in 1984 and 1990.[1]

From 1979, the Dragonaires output was heavily concentrated on calypso, soca, and mas, regularly performing at Trinidad and Tobago's carnival, and also touring the Caribbean and North America.[1] It was during this time that many of their most famous calypso songs were recorded, including the smash hit "Tiny Winey" (1984).[4]

Throughout the 1990s they were also regulars at Jamaica's carnival, and their "Dance Hall Soca" hit (recorded with Admiral Bailey) was credited with starting the ragga-soca craze of the late 1990s.[1]

The band continue to tour, recently performing with Kevin Lyttle at the Cricket World Cup 2007 opening ceremony.[5]

Byron Lee died on 4 November 2008, aged 73, from cancer.[6]

The band has continued since Lee's death, with the name initially slightly altered to Byron Lee's Dragonaires.[7] They later changed the band name to The Dragonaires as they were no longer able to use Lee's name.[8]

In August 2014 it was announced that Carl Brady would receive the Order of Distinction in October that year.

Ska (/skɑː/; Jamaican: [skjæ]) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae.[1] It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the off beat. It was developed in Jamaica in the 1960s when Stranger Cole, Prince Buster, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, and Duke Reid formed sound systems to play American rhythm and blues and then began recording their own songs.[2] In the early 1960s, ska was the dominant music genre of Jamaica and was popular with British mods and with many skinheads.[3][4][5][6]

Music historians typically divide the history of ska into three periods: the original Jamaican scene of the 1960s; the 2 Tone ska revival of the late 1970s in Britain, which fused Jamaican ska rhythms and melodies with the faster tempos and harder edge of punk rock forming ska-punk; and third wave ska, which involved bands from a wide range of countries around the world, in the late 1980s and 1990s.[7]

Etymology

There are multiple theories about the origins of the word ska. Ernest Ranglin claimed that the term was coined by musicians to refer to the "skat! skat! skat!" scratching guitar strum.[8] Another explanation is that at a recording session in 1959 produced by Coxsone Dodd, double bassist Cluett Johnson instructed guitarist Ranglin to "play like ska, ska, ska", although Ranglin has denied this, stating "Clue couldn't tell me what to play!"[9] A further theory is that it derives from Johnson's word skavoovie, with which he was known to greet his friends.[10] Jackie Mittoo insisted that the musicians called the rhythm Staya Staya, and that it was Byron Lee who introduced the term "ska".[11] Derrick Morgan said: "Guitar and piano making a ska sound, like 'ska, ska".[12]

History

Jamaican ska

Music of Jamaica

General topics

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Genres

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Quarter note "skank" guitar rhythm,[13] named onomatopoetically for its sound. Playⓘ

Eighth note skank rhythm[14] Playⓘ

After World War II, Jamaicans purchased radios in increasing numbers and were able to hear rhythm and blues music from the Southern United States in cities such as New Orleans by artists such as Fats Domino, Barbie Gaye, Rosco Gordon and Louis Jordan[15] whose early recordings all contain the seeds of the "behind-the-beat" feel of ska and reggae.[16] The stationing of American military forces during and after the war meant that Jamaicans could listen to military broadcasts of American music, and there was a constant influx of records from the United States. To meet the demand for that music, entrepreneurs such as Prince Buster, Coxsone Dodd, and Duke Reid formed sound systems.

As the supply of previously unheard tunes in the jump blues and more traditional R&B genres began to dry up in the late 1950s, Jamaican producers began recording their own version of the genres with local artists.[2] These recordings were initially made to be played on "soft wax" (a lacquer on metal disc acetate later to become known as a "dub plate"), but as demand for them grew eventually sometime in the second half of 1959 (believed by most to be in the last quarter) producers such as Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid began to issue these recording on 45rpm 7-inch discs. At this point, the style was a direct copy of the American "shuffle blues" style, but within two or three years it had morphed into the more familiar ska style with the off-beat guitar chop that could be heard in some of the more uptempo late-1950s American rhythm and blues recordings such as Domino's "Be My Guest" and Barbie Gaye's "My Boy Lollypop", both of which were popular on Jamaican sound systems of the late 1950s.[17] Domino's rhythm, accentuating the offbeat, was a particular influence.[18]

This "classic" ska style was of bars made up of four triplets but was characterized by a guitar chop on the off beat—known as an upstroke or 'skank'—with horns taking the lead and often following the off-beat skank and piano emphasizing the bass line and, again, playing the skank.[1] Drums kept 4

4 time and the bass drum was accented on the third beat of each four-triplet phrase. The snare would play side stick and accent the third beat of each 4-triplet phrase.[1] The upstroke sound can also be found in other Caribbean forms of music, such as mento and calypso.[19] Ernest Ranglin asserted that the difference between R&B and ska beats is that the former goes "chink-ka" and the latter goes "ka-chink".[12]

Famous ska band the Skatalites recorded "Dynamite", "Ringo" and "Guns of Navarone".[20] One theory about the origin of ska is that Prince Buster created it during the inaugural recording session for his new record label Wild Bells.[19] The session was financed by Duke Reid, who was supposed to get half of the songs to release. The guitar began emphasizing the second and fourth beats in the bar, giving rise to the new sound. The drums were taken from traditional Jamaican drumming and marching styles. To create the ska beat, Prince Buster essentially flipped the R&B shuffle beat, stressing the offbeats with the help of the guitar. Prince Buster has explicitly cited American rhythm and blues as the origin of ska: specifically, Willis Jackson's song "Later for the Gator" (which was Coxsone Dodd's number one selection).

The first ska recordings were created at facilities such as Federal Records, Studio One, and WIRL Records in Kingston, Jamaica with producers such as Dodd, Reid, Prince Buster, and Edward Seaga.[19] The ska sound coincided with the celebratory feelings surrounding Jamaica's independence from the UK in 1962; an event commemorated by songs such as Derrick Morgan's "Forward March" and the Skatalites' "Freedom Sound".

Until Jamaica ratified the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the country did not honor international music copyright protection. This created many cover songs and reinterpretations. One such cover was Millie Small's version of the R&B/shuffle tune, "My Boy Lollypop", first recorded in New York in 1956 by 14-year-old Barbie Gaye.[21][22] Small's rhythmically similar version, released in 1964, was Jamaica's first commercially successful international hit. With over seven million copies sold, it remains one of the best selling reggae/ska songs of all time. Many other Jamaican artists would have success recording instrumental ska versions of popular American and British music, such as Beatles songs, Motown and Atlantic soul hits, movie theme songs and instrumentals (007, Guns of Navarone). The Wailers covered the Beatles' "And I Love Her", and radically reinterpreted Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone". They also created their own versions of Latin-influenced music from artists such as Mongo Santamaría.[23] The Skatalites, Lord Creator, Laurel Aitken, Roland Alphonso, Tommy McCook, Jackie Mittoo, Desmond Dekker, and Don Drummond[24] also recorded ska.

Byron Lee & the Dragonaires performed ska with Prince Buster, Eric "Monty" Morris, and Jimmy Cliff at the 1964 New York World's Fair. As music changed in the United States, so did ska. In 1965 and 1966, when American soul music became slower and smoother, ska changed its sound accordingly and evolved into rocksteady.[19][25] However, rocksteady's heyday was brief, peaking in 1967. By 1968, ska evolved again into reggae.