It is simply impossible to imagine modern Jamaican music without
Clement "Coxsone" Dodd
's
Studio One
. Opened in 1963,
Dodd
's recording facility specialized in loose but durably solid rhythms that are among the most versioned in history, and virtually every singer of note on the island seems to have cut their teeth at
. This wonderful collection only scratches the surface of the studio's riches, but it contains some delightful sides, including
"Love Me Forever"
by
Carlton & His Shoes
,
the Heptones
' gorgeous
"Pretty Looks Isn't All,"
Slim Smith
"Rougher Yet,"
Horace Andy
's striking and delicate rearrangement of
"Fever,"
and a young
Burning Spear
doing a hard
soul
turn on
"Rocking Time."
Timeless stuff. ~ Steve Leggett