Imagine yourself, with a beautiful girl/man at your side, on a beautiful beach in Jamaica, drinking some coconut water under the shadows of a coconut tree on a hot sunny day. It’s easy to imagine that right? Now think about the music that would be the soundtrack of that perfect moment. You don’t have to use your head anymore, even if you never travel to Jamaica in your life, the album I’m going to recommend you is gonna take you there and give you this awesome feeling that everybody dreams about.

Maybe the most important Jamaican label ever, Studio One, had a huge influence in the career of many reggae/rocksteady/ska greats like The Skatalites, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Toots & the Maytals, Alton Ellis, and Delroy Wilson among others. Not only did the record label have a huge influence on these artists, the soul and funk movement in the United States did to. Inspired by the music of soul/funk greats like Curtis Mayfield, Barry White, Otis Redding, Temptations, etc., some of the Studio One artists recorded reggae versions of soul classics. It was this whole soul/funk mix with reggae that generated the nickname “The Motown Of Jamaica” for the record label. This compilation is basically made up of covers of famous soul songs or original music influenced by them, like the one we hear from the vocal group The Eternals’ in “Queen of The Minstrels” (A group that had Cornell Campbell as the leader).

If you already know the original recordings then it may sound strange for you to hear these reggae versions, but the great execution makes you forget these are borrowed songs. Maybe with some alteration to the lyrics, some songs really live up to the classics that inspired them. Jerry Jones’ “Still Water” is a great example of how different a song can be interpreted using the title-song of The Four Tops 1970 album “Still Waters Run Deep”. Another good thing to notice is how the Studio One artists give their own feeling, soul and twists to the songs, making them sound personal, like “I Don’t Wanna Be Right”, where Alton Ellis takes the record made famous by Luther Ingram into a different atmosphere, giving it a danceable and enjoyable rhythm. To put the cherry on the top of it all, we have the instrumental reggae versions made by Studio One’s in-house band Sound Dimension, the group that recorded several songs that have become the basis of reggae music throughout the years like In Cold Blood, Rockfort Rock and many others.

This is the perfect compilation not only for a good sunny day, but to get into reggae and to see how American music has had an important role on generating the whole Jamaican music scene. And of course, you can always imagine yourself in Kingston while listening to this album.

by Arthur