News & Updates — dancehall

Our friends over at the always-tasteful Paris DJs have put up a downloadable mixtape of some of the grooviest nuggets of recent vintage for your listening pleasure. Yes, the Friends & Family Vol 1 set is your audio update on the dopest sounds of today. Their website has given coverage to so many great contemporary bands of the funk, reggae, soul, hip-hop, jazz and boogaloo scenes that it's like they want to do the work for you, keeping you up to date with the freshest arrivals. All of the tunes selected here are from late 2016 or 2017. They cover...

Peace & Rhythm's Studebaker Hawk is back to make you move at Northampton's newest spot to get down, Sevenstrong! This Saturday, Feb 18, 10pm-2am. Disco, funk, boogie, and killer jams from around the world! FREE admission, records start spinning at 10PM! Sevenstrong 7 Strong Ave Northampton MA 01060

One of my favorite voices in reggae, Dennis Emmanuel Brown was hugely popular on the island of Jamaica and beyond. Starting as a "Boy Wonder", he was nationally known by the time he was 12. "Money In My Pocket" and "Westbound Train" were big hits in '72 and '73, before Brown finished college. In '75 he started his DEB label and in '76 recorded "Wolf & Leopard" with Lee Perry at the Black Ark. By the late '70s Brown was a big name in the UK. He sang lovers rock in his later years. One of my favorites, with Sly...

Osbourne Ruddock aka "King Tubby" is the all-time Heavyweight Dub Champion. Where would contemporary music be without this man from the Kingston, Jamaica ghetto of Waterhouse? A radio repair man and electronics expert, Tubby built amplifiers and operated a sound-system starting in the late 50's. He invented the dub remix by dropping out vocals and instruments with his mixing board and adding effects (including his infamous spring reverb). These "versions" soon became their own artform in the hands of Tubby and his methods became known worldwide. His work is featured on hundreds of records and he was mentor to Scientist...

Perhaps the single most important name in Jamaican music and one of the most important record producers the world over, Clement "Coxone" Dodd helped bring ska (and eventually reggae) to the world. Youthful visits to the US allowed him to hear and import new records to Jamaica for play on his sound-system. He started several labels, including the iconic Studio 1, which created the national music of ska. Bob Marley and Lee Perry were early employees and Studio 1 produced songs for virtually every Jamaican artist. Studio 1 stands as somewhat like a Jamaican equivalent to Motown, a black-owned success...