Skatalites

Skatalites - Ska Boo Da Ba - Top Deck

Without the Skatalites - would Reggae music exist? It wasn't just records they made, it was the multitude of ideas. The Far East sound of Don Drummond on Trombone, the wild 'Drum On Metal' style of Lloyd Knibbs, the keyboard playing of Jackie Mittoo. The keyboard can be overlooked in Ska, but that jangly style 'made' so many records. And it didn't come from New Orleans! A lot of what the Skatalites did, did come out of the ideas that had been first heard in American black music over the previous 20 years or so. Yet it was new. Add a pulsating horn line with a wild drum lick, add some jangly piano - all new!!

Lloyd Brevett kept everything at walking pace - on bass. Although he even got involved in creating something new somewhere along the way. Whoever played on Prince Buster's 'Al Capone' had come up with one of Reggae's music greatest basslines! This album though belongs to the Horn Men. Don, Tommy, Roland - plus the rest!! They were able to blend rhythm and melody into something the world had never heard before - Ska! The Skatalites band only stayed together for a couple of years, but they laid a mighty foundation. This album produced by Justin Yap is the blueprint. Truly magnificent!"!!