YouTube is our friend, real talk. On the heels of last weeks “Reggae” by Horace Ove post, someone has gone to the trouble of uploading an entire documentary dating from 1964 which happens to be all about ska. Points if you guessed the title: This Is Ska. Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals, Prince Buster, Stranger Cole, Roy and Yvonne (performing later this summer in LA) and the Blues Busters are all present, amongst others.
toots and the maytals
Leslie Kong
This is the man responsible for some of the sweetest hits in the history of rocksteady and reggae, Leslie Kong. The whole Beverley’s legacy started out as a restaurant, ice cream shop and record shop and it wasn’t until a guy named Jimmy Cliff showed up looking for someone to record him that Kong went into the recording business. Jimmy Cliff was simply the start of the legendary roster which would go on to record for Beverley’s, with names like Desmond Dekker, Toots and the Maytals, the Pioneers, Derrick Morgan and Stranger Cole being just a few. Oh, and he produced Bob Marley’s first single. The biggest reggae hits of the 60’s came out of his label including “Israelites” by Dekker which went on to sell over 2 million copies and the Pioneers “Long Shot Kick The Bucket”. His productions could easily be attributed for the chart success of early reggae. Unfortunately Kong died in ‘71, only 38. Apparently Bunny Wailer put a curse on him.
For The Suits 