Alfonso IV de Aragon

Biography

Duke Reid will take an active part in the emancipation and the development of the music Yardie. First of all amateur of Calypso, Rythm and blues, and of Jump blues, it will turn then to the Ska and the Reggae. With beginning of the year 50, it becomes DJ for a local radio, and animates a program which it names “Treasure Island Time” of the name of an alcohol store bought with his wife: “Treasure Isle Liquor blind”. It launches also a mobile business of sound system, by moving its material and its discs using a record player " Trojan" , from where its nickname comes to him.

It is also and especially, one of the first operators of Sound system of the island, with Tom the great Sebastian and Coxsone Dodd. The sound systems, or “house of the joy” as one calls them in Jamaica, are species of mobile discotheques, made up of forty amplifiers approximately, and which represent for the people jamaïcain the principal means of access to the music. Although not very many, the competition between the sounds systems makes rage, they clash on the “long ones” (lawns) and it is then the originality of the sound and the talent of the DJ which make the difference. Duke is dissociated in particular by its often spectacular scenic performances, the quality of its riddims and its Dj: Cuttins and Cliffie. What does not prevent it at the time of using violence to break the oppositions.

Former police officer, it inspires the respect of all, more especially as it never leaves without a weapon and a belt ammunition, even a grenade or a machete as accessories. Moreover, it employs old knowledge and hooligans (" dancehall crashers") to sabotage the material of the competitor sounds systems and to cause brawls on their premises, with an aim of attracting dancers by the good atmosphere of sound sound. Duke Reid is to some extent the precursor of a behavior “gangsta” in the music jamaïcaine.

Its competition with increasing Coxsone, it multiplied its voyages to the United States to unearth obscure vinyls R&B or instrumental tracks of saxophone. Exclusiveness becoming an increasingly important criterion to guarantee the success of a sound system, Reid and Coxsone striped the names of the artists and the labels on their discs, and re-elected them to protect their true identities.

A famous anecdote is that Reid went so far as to pass a song carrying the signature of Coxsone, which started a " battle" between Duke Reid and shocked and dismayed Coxsone. Reid was often shown not very scrupulous tactics because, inter alia, of its recourse to the " dancehall crashers".

It gained the Jamaica' S signal sound-system battle three consecutive years, of 1956 to 1958.

End of the year 50, it produces Calypso on its label “Trojan”; in 1959, it builds its own studio of recording, Treasure Isle, and records Derrick Morgan, Jiving Juniors…

1962 to 1965, the labels of Reid - Treasure Isle in first - leave many hits ska of the Skatalites, Stranger Cole, The Techniques, Justin Hinds & the Dominoes… However, it is with the arrival into 1966 of Alton Ellis and of the rocksteady, slower than the ska, than Duke Reid precedes Studio One and Coxsone in the race with the fame. The apogee of the rocksteady (1966-1968) was very fertile for the productions of Reid, with Alton Ellis, Phyllis Dillon, the Melodians, The Paragons, The Ethiopians, the Jamaicans and well of others. The majority of them were surrounded of new the house band of Reid, Tommy McCook & the Supersonics, were carried out by the former saxophonist of Skatalites.

With the end of the rocksteady and the advent of the roots reggae to tendency Rasta, Reid was vis-a-vis a dilemma, this new music not being its taste, particularly the words reporting of the social claims. This position gradually made him a character of the " old woman garde" , passed of mode. Although having been one of the largest producers jamaïcains, he did not hesitate to refuse to record songs rastas, while retorting “I am myself Babylon, I was cop, it is of me that you speak, not of rasta-song here”.

Fortunately, there was another fashion at the time which flowered in the dancehalls: the DJ started to insert their own rates/rhythms, playing with the rhymes, and started truly with " chatter" and with " toaster" on popular melodies. The leader of Paragons, John Holt, introduced the pioneer of the kind, U Roy in Duke Reid in 1970, which very quickly decided to record it, and insists on the idea to simply add voices on the recordings existing Treasure Isle.

The results were époustouflants of popularity. Four individual of U Roy appeared in Top5 jamaicain of only one blow. Continuous Reid to record U Roy until the beginning of the year 1970, and also left the discs of other DJs young people, like Dennis Alcapone.

It falls seriously sick in 1974, and ended up dying out in 1975 at the 60 years age.

The estampillées collections, productions Trojan, Treasure Isle etc… form a quite simply amazing work.

External bonds

List of the productions of Duke Reid on Roots-Files

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