Overview:
The ska originators will perform at the Colony on June 27.
Credited as the creators of ska, the Skatalites are perhaps the Jamaican equivalent to our own Mar-Keys. A flexible musical unit that performed instrumentally and backed Prince Buster and other star vocalists as the house band for producers Duke Reid and Coxsone Dodd, the band began in 1964 and developed the essential ska sound—a blend of native Caribbean calypso and mento and the R&B and contemporary soul sounds emanating from America—much like how the aforementioned Memphis outfit had hits on their own and worked with Otis Redding and others. On June 27, the legendary Skatalites will bring their timeless, jubilant music to the Colony.
Formed in 1964 by former students of the Alpha Cottage School for Boys in (the other) Kingston, the Skatalites’ initial 1964-65 lineup included guitarist Jerome “Jah Jerry” Hines, bassist Lloyd Brevett, pianist Donat Roy “Jackie” Mittoo, drummer Lloyd Knibbs, trumpeter Johnnie “Dizzie” Moore, tenor saxophonist Tommy McCook, alto saxophonists Lester Sterling and Roland Alphonso, and trombonist Don Drummond.
The group’s music laid the foundation for the reggae style that followed and was highly influential to UK punk and new wave acts like the Clash, the Police, the Specials, and Madness. The original Skatalites members have all passed on, but in 1986, after some sporadic reunions in the 1970s and early 1980s, the group was reactivated and since then has cut such acclaimed albums as 1994’s Hi-Bop Ska and 2007’s On the Right Track. Their seminal instrumental hits include ‘Guns of Navarone,” “Phoenix City,” “Addis Ababa,” “Silver Dollar,” “Corner Stone,” and “Blackberry Brandy.”
The Skatalites will perform at the Colony in Woodstock on June 27 at 7pm. Local punk quartet Mona Freaka will open. Tickets are $40.08.
