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Tracklisting & More Information
This is the new 20th anniversary edition of one of Soul Jazz Records’ classic Studio One releases now available as a one-off pressing special blue vinyl very limited-edition pressing of 2000 copies worldwide.
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Studio One Roots set the standard for Soul Jazz Records’ long-standing series of Studio One collections and features many of the classic artists from Clement 'Sir Coxsone’ Dodd’s mighty roster of reggae.
This album includes Freddie McGregor, Willie Williams, Cornell Campbell, Alton Ellis, Devon Russell alongside some of the defining crack-session men groups of Jamaican reggae history - The Sound Dimension, Brentford All-Stars, The Skatalites, New Establishment and more. As ever the album is filled with a mixture of seminal cuts and super-rarities from the vast vaults of 13 Brentford Road.
Stand-out tracks include Alton Ellis’s Blackish White, a surreal and powerful Afro-centric dream, Count Ossie Nyabinghi and Rastafarian drummers genre-defying interpretation of Booker T and The MGs ‘Meditation’, Willie Williams awe-inspiring versioning of the Skatalites' seminal Rastafari anthem Addis Ababa and many, many more.
This album has been fully digitally remastered, analog cut and packaged complete with the following: Original sleevenotes by Lloyd Bradley (author of When Reggae Was King), compiled by Mark Ainley (Honest Jons), high-quality Soul Jazz mastering, wicked images of Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari on the cover, and a rare image of Clement Dodd and musicians inside the studio at Studio One on the full colour inner sleeves.
REVIEWS:
"Having established himself as one of Jamaica's top producers the day Studio One opened its doors in the early '60s, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd was unable to maintain his status during the roots era of the subsequent decade. This can be attributed to a couple of factors. One was Dodd's apparent reluctance to record the new, overtly Rasta-inspired music. The other was an infusion of new blood into the Jamaican music business. Eager to make a name for themselves, producers like Joe Gibbs, Bunny Lee, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and Winston "Niney" Holness managed to supplant the island's "big three" (Dodd, Duke Reid, and Prince Buster) in the process, driving the music's evolution in the '70s.
There isn't a weak number across these 16 tracks, from the Gaylads' ode to "Africa" and Devon Russell's version of the heavyweight "Drum Song" rhythm, to a trio of stunning instrumentals: Jackie Mittoo and the Cyclones with nyahbinghi drummer Count Ossie on "Meditation," Lenny Hibbert's sparkling vibe work over Mittoo's "Ghetto Organ" ("More Creation"), and Sound Dimension's "Congo Rock."
The music of this compilation is of a rare, rare beauty and is essential to anyone's reggae collection." All Music
1. The Cyclones With Count Ossie – Meditation
2. Cornell Campbell & The Brentford Rockers – Natty Don't Go
3. Freddy Mcgregor With The Sound Dimension – Africa Here I Come
4. Bunny & Skitter – Lumumbo
5. Willie Williams & The All Stars – Addis A Baba
6. L.Crosdale With Drummond Bago & the Rebel Group – Set Me Free
7. Leroy Wallace & The New Establishment – Far Beyond
8. Lennie Hibbert – More Creation
9. Alton Ellis & The Sound Dimension – Blackish White
10. Winston Jarrett & The Sound Dimension – Fear Not
11. Devon Russell – Drum Song
12. The Gaylads – Africa
13. Black Brothers & The New Establishment – School Children
14. Linton Cooper & The Brentford Disco Set – You'll Get Your Pay
15. Sound Dimension – Congo Rock
16. Zoot Simms – African Challenge
DOUBLE LP
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