Baba Brooks

musicology #0654 Special Event

Tribute to DON Pedro #4

Baba Brooks – Special Event

Don Pedro is a lover of the fine things in life…a purveyor of quality and style. Be it women, vehicles, garments, food, ‘kettles’, ‘Tom’ and anything else that catches his attention. Anyone who knows the Don will clarify that the Cats antenna is finely tuned. That’s not to say that he can’t or doesn’t know how to get down with all manner of people as the Don posseses that rare quality of being comfortable in his own skin and therefore non judgemental of others regardless of how they ‘hang’. A proper ‘man of the world’ the DON has seen and lived more on his travels through life than most. I wax lyrical about the man because those of us who have shared some of them travels can say that they have lived too. The Don asks for for little but gives plenty.

Anyway before i digress and get lost, (im on a TIGHT schedule on this fine sunny morning in London Town), …hold this rip roaring piece of Jamaican Ska from led by one its greatest protagonists the mighty Oswald ‘Baba’ Brooks featuring the cream of Jamaica’s musical fraternity. Recorded for Duke Reid and released on his Treasure Isle label in, (what sounds to me like 1965) ..

BiG Piece of urbanmusicology

musicology #523

Jamaica #3

(Prince Buster – Linger On)

Moving out of the Studio 1, (before it threatens to consume the WHOLE theme), and into a cut from one of the other notable players in the development of Jamaican musicology…Cecil Bustamente Campbell who along with Sir Coxsone, Duke Reid, Justin Yap and King Edwards had a major impact on the Ska.

Prince Buster, (so named because of his boxing prowess), was a security man for Downbeat in the early 60’s but turned his talented hands to recording and producing in 1962 after leaving Coxsone. Today’s 1964? cut is a piece from the ‘Golden Age’ paying tribute to the legend known then as Cassius Clay. Note the innovative Reverb technique employed by Buster which at the time must have been well and truly ‘modern’. The musicians backing the man were known as Buster’s All Stars and included legends Val Bennet, Raymond Harper, Baba Brooks, Junior Nelson, Rico Rodriguez, Earnest Ranglin, Jerry Haynes, Gladstone Anderson and Arkland Parks.

musicology #130

instrumentalsweek #3

(Roland Alphonso – Jazz Ska)

this prime slice of Jamaican musicology comes from the King Edwards stable and features many of the best proponents of the Ska style. Baba Brooks, Arkland ‘Drumbago’ Parks, Lester Sterling and tenor sax king, Roland Alphonso.

Recorded and released on the King Edwards label in 1965 at the height of the genres popularity, (it would only be a year before Rock Steady became the ‘in thing’), this is Ska at it’s finest.