Jamaican Sound System Classics 1945–1960
Hot on the heels of the release of 2LP vinyl collector’s editions of both Jumping The Shuffle Blues and Jamaica Selects Jump Blues Strictly For You, comes Fantastic Voyage’s third compilation of US jump/shuffle blues recordings, as played on the early Jamaican sound systems. Jump Blues Jamaica Way is available as both an 84-track 3CD selection and also a 28-track 2LP vinyl collector’s edition, and will be of equal interest to both Jamaican music fans and connoisseurs of classic US rhythm & blues.
Before the development of its own recording industry, Jamaican music fans predominantly found musical fulfilment in the raw shuffle blues music that emanated from mainland USA. This no nonsense style of R&B dominated the island’s sound system dances from the dawn of the Fifties, with operators aggressively competing with each other for exclusive discs, many of which were later covered by some of Jamaica’s biggest names.
In the tradition of the previous releases in this series, compiler and annotator Phil Etgart has selected only recordings that are known to have been played on the early Jamaican sound systems. This is the music that provided the inspiration for Ska and all that followed. So enjoy sound system favourites by Louis Jordan, Joe Liggins, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Fats Domino, Rosco Gordon, Chris Kenner and a host of other names, both famous and obscure.