"So part of the roots of Ska music is from America"
"In the '50s we used to listen to American rhythm & blues from New Orleans. Everybody used to dance to that music in Jamaica, but in the '50s our music there was Calypso, which come from Trinidad, and we took Calypso and mixed it with the rhythm & blues and we turned that into Ska. So part of the roots of Ska music is from America. & Ska music is American rhythm & blues and Jamaican calypso and it went from there - that's where Ska come from. We used to listen to men like Smiley Lewis, Joe Turner, Rosco Gordon, and all these guys in the '50s and we were influenced, I was influenced, by Rosco Gordon because he played a downbeat boogie. Rosco Gordon is an American black singer and I was influenced by him. Not only me, but other guys during that time was influenced by him because it was very popular - the boogie-woogie stuff. And as I said, we mixed the boogie-woogie stuff with calypso and that's where Ska came from, as simple as that." - Laurel Aiken http://www.working-class.com/laurelaitken/mtska.htm
posted by KS at 7/05/2005 10:32:00 PM
2 Comments:
Well, it's my weblog too, but I'll comment. I've noticed a similarity btwn jamaican and new orleans records, and that's that the last, or highest, horn note in a section you hear, is sharp. It's on purpose, I'm pretty sure; it sounds great to my ears.
Of course you can comment, I'd like to hear from you more often! I have never noticed that part about the sharp notes, maybe someday I'll learn what those notes are called!
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