True heads know that one cannot understand reggae music by listening to reggae alone. How can the classic rhythm Rockfort Rock be appreciated without knowing it was inspired by the Latin standard El Cumbanchero? Or Satta Amassagana without hearing its origins on Neil Hefti‘s score for Batman? Hence the importance of this two part series, overseen by Record Collector scribe and Trojan reissue supervisor Laurence Cane Honeysett (with assistance from record seller Phil Etgart) which looks at the seismic shifts in Jamaican music tastes in the late 50s and early 60s commencing with the pre ska charts of ’58 and ’59. For while received wisdom might paint this period as a pre-enlightened time it is every bit as important as the acknowledged ska-rocksteady-reggae-dancehall progression that followed.
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