Even though Jamaican pop stars recorded in English, most Americans know very little about the history of the country's music, its artists or their hits. Jamaican rhythms are hardly foreign to American ears. For example, many U.S. hits were powered by Jamaican rhythms: Millie Small's My Boy Lollipop, Johnny Nash's Hold Me Tight, the Beatles' Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Eric Clapton's cover of I Shot the Sheriff, Blondie's cover of The Tide Is High, the Clash's Guns of Brixton and the Police's Roxanne, to name just a handful. In other words, we're more familiar with Jamaican music than we realize. [Photo above of Justin Hinds]
I've always felt that the biggest barrier to American appreciation of Jamaican music has been a general lack of knowledge about the music's history. A big reason why jazz, R&B and rock are so beloved has to do with our intimate knowledge of their histories over the decades. Music is always a story first and foremost. It's how we place music and artists in time and understand how genres evolved. Without the drama, entire categories of music wither on the vine.
From the 1950s onward, Jamaican music was entwined with U.S. jazz, R&B and pop. Two factors contributed to the intermingling of the two countries' music trends. The first factor was Jamaican workers returning home from temporary U.S. jobs with records and Jamaican artists covering those songs with their rhythms. The second factor was the rise of the Jamaican record industry, driven largely by the country's vast number of record stores and the tradition of street parties with DJs manning elaborate outdoor stereo systems trying to outdo each other with obscure Jamaican recordings.
For the sake of simplicity, Jamaican pop can be divided into three broad categories—ska, which emerged in the late 1950s and early '60s, merging Jamaican beats with jazz and R&B horns; rocksteady, which surged in the mid-1960s and was influenced by the soft sounds of American soul; and reggae, which grew popular in the early '70s with original songs laced with social and political messages about Jamaican poverty and injustice.
Admittedly, I've broad-stroked here. Jamaica's pop music history is much more detailed and complex in terms of influences and its influences and movements. But this three-phase framework will simplify the music for those who don't know much about it and can't distinguish between Laurel Aitken's Life (ska), Alton Ellis's Willow Tree (rocksteady) and Jimmy Cliff's Stand Up and Fight Back (reggae).
Justin Hinds played a big role in the ska and rocksteady movements. In 1964, he had a huge ska hit with Carry Go Bring Come, with his vocal group, the Dominoes. The song topped the Jamaican charts for two months. Over the next two years, Hinds and the Dominoes recorded more than 70 singles. In 1966, he shifted to rocksteady's hypnotically rhythmic ballads. As reggae evolved in the early '70s, Hinds inched into the form but tended to stick with the earlier forms that brought him fame. But rather than record American pop hits with Jamaican flavor, which many rocksteady artists did in the '60s and beyond, he recorded original, inventive material.
Now Omnivore, one of the great revivalist labels co-founded by Grammy Award-winning producer Cheryl Pawelski, has reissued two superb rocksteady albums by Hinds—Travel With Love (1984) and Know Jah Better (1992). What makes these album special is the seductive and penetrating way Hinds developed his songs. The relaxing music feels as if you're being rocked in a hammock, and his vocals remain soothing and determined.
I love rocksteady—in particular artists such as Alton Ellis, Bitty McLean, John Holt and Ken Boothe. Hinds is a smart addition, with an original feel.
Justin Hinds died in 2005.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Justin Hinds and the Dominoes' Travel With Love on CD here. The new release features the album's original eight tracks plus 10 bonus tracks. You'll find Know Jah Better here. Both have been reissued by Omnivore.
JazzWax clips: Here Miss Windell from Travel With Love...
Here's Love in the Morning from Know Jah Better...
And here's Hinds and the Dominoes's Carry Go Bring Home, their 1964 ska hit...
