Get ready to Rocksteady
picoandsepulveda
1,026 Posts
GIVING ROCKSTEADY ITS DUE !from the Jamaican Gleaner:He may have played some of the baddest bass lines in Jamaican popular music but Jackie Jackson is far from a household name. In fact, most persons know him as the husband of singer Karen Smith."Get Ready To Rocksteady," a film based on the beat that preceded reggae, gives musicians like Jackson his due. The project is almost complete and it is expected to be released this year.The rocksteady period produced a flood of harmony groups including the Heptones, the Melodians and the Techniques. Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Marcia Griffiths are some of the genre's best-known solo acts.Jackson was a member of the Supersonics, the house band at producer Arthur 'Duke' Reid's Treasure Isle studio. According to the lanky bassman, they were involved in a 'Cold War' for two years with their rivals at Studio One, which was owned by producer Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd.Jackson appears along with rocksteady contemporaries like guitarist Lynford 'Hux' Brown, keyboardists Gladstone 'Gladdy' Anderson and Robbie Lyn. "Get Ready To Rocksteady" which is a joint venture between filmmakers Canadian Moss Raxlen and Stascha Bader of Switzerland.Raxlen says he has always loved rocksteady, a slower, heavier bass beat that emerged in the wake of ska.Jackson and his colleagues gathered at the Tuff Gong studio in St. Andrew to put a fresh spin on 16 popular songs from the rocksteady era. The singers included John Holt, Marcia Griffiths, Leroy Sibbles and Dawn Penn.Roxlen, who is from Montreal, said "Get Ready" has been in the works for five years. It was produced on a small budget and will initially be released on DVD and in small theatres throughout Canada.The film, which received financial backing from the Jamaican government, will be distributed by Peace Arch Entertainment.
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I believe it's Raxlen, not Roxlen.