Various: Coxsone’s Music - Album Review

Any study of Jamaica’s rich musical tapestry will always pay due respects to the work of Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd.

Lauded for his Studio One label and legacy, Dodd turned out a huge volume of music from his Brentford Road studio in Kingston before that label came into being and this early work is the stuff of this compilation.

Like Motown’s Berry Gordy, Dodd was a man who knew how to play the game when it came to market share and operated a slew of labels including Worldisc, Coxsone, Port O Jam and Sensational.

What you’ll find here are the early stirrings for those imprints by such players as Rastafari don Count Ossie, Roland Alphonso, Rico Rodriguez, Monty Alexander and Derrick Harriott.

Throughout, the sparks are flying as that generation of musicians take the influence of US R&B and jazz and add their own bassy, dubby lick to the groove.