Soul Jazz keeps putting out Studio One collections, and they have yet to fail to live up to the high expectations they have set. Studio One, known as the Motown of Jamaica, was the soundsystem/label set up by Coxsone Dodd that virtually created and led the way for the development of Jamaican pop from ska to rocksteady to reggae. Generally, every important Jamaican act recorded for Studio One at some point (and yes, that includes Bob Marley). As the Jamaican scene has always been prolific to an ADHD extent and is unhindered by pesky obstacles such as copyright law, there is still a wealth of amazing material to comb through. England’s Soul Jazz, meanwhile, have built a reputation for being among the best compilers and historians of pop music out there. Not only is every collection expertly selected for maximum impact, but they are also beautifully packaged with extensive photography and thorough liner notes to edutain. Stated plainly, a Soul Jazz collection is more than a CD. It is like purchasing a crucial building block for your music collection, a detailed, engaging book, and a display object to be snotty about all in one purchase. The latest Studio One installment is Studio One Kings, showcases the finest of male vocalists, including legends such as Alton Ellis (probably the Studio One King if you had to pick one), Horace Andy (whose sweet, high voice may be recognizable from classic Massive Attack albums on tracks like “Angel”), Burning Spear (seen offering elliptical Rasta spiritual guidance when the Boot screened “Rockers”), and Delroy Wilson (featured on Episode No. 5 of the Relative Love Podcast). RTR has a full section of Soul Jazz releases, including more Studio One collections and excellent releases such as “Tropicalia” (classic Brazilian psychedelic rock and roll) and “New York Noise” (late 70s/early 80s NYC post-punk). All of this demands to be checked out.

Relative Love Podcast - Episode No. 5 - The Natural Life (featuring Delroy Wilson) | m4a

External Links
Soul Jazz Records
Soul Jazz Myspace

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at 9:49 pm and is filed under Hype, Dug Up, new releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.