Various

★★★★ Coxsone’s Dramatic And Music Centre STUDIO ONE/YEP ROC. CD/DL/LP

Clement Dodd’s first LP, here using original master tapes.

The 45rpm single has always been king in Jamaica, especially among the sound system proprietors who moved into record production from the late 1950s. Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd’s Studio One gave rise to the island’s most important performers, yet this debut compilation LP broke the mould in 1961, two years before Dodd’s studio opened. Songs like Clue J & His Blue Blasters’ Beeston Street Riff and Aubrey Adams’ Little Willie show how rhythm and blues was mutating in Kingston, and tracks like Rub Up, with Australian guitarist Dennis Sindrey, incorporate rhythms and melodies from elsewhere. Ballads like Simms & Robinson’s I Love You and The Blues Busters’ Donna have a delightful innocence, contrasted by the repatriation message of Clancy Eccles’ Freedom. The tape transfers by Dodd, shortly before his death, ensure good sonic standards.