dj nyc

BBC Documentary - The Story of Jamaican Music

If you've ever seen The Harder They Come or Time Will Tell and enjoyed them or are a fan of roots reggae, rock steady and ska you'll love this documentary.

The birth of Ska and Roots Reggae in England

looks excellent!

Duke Vin, Count Suckle & the Birth of Ska in Britain - trailer from adam deeves on Vimeo.

Last night at Flute Bar Grammercy

Last night was excellent, we went very late until about 4 am. Alexandra was from Venezuela and Joel was from London so it was an amazing opportunity to play all kinds of music from Manu Chao to Wilfredo Vargas to Ray Barretto to Willie Colon, it helped that they had great taste in music.  Below our a few photos of Alex and Joel dancing on the bar at the after party while we were spinning.  Will post some more photos tomorrow. 

Island Records - Ska's The Limit Volume I (1959-1964)

This album has been in my rotation a long time, one of the Island Records compilations. I remember being in an old antique store in San Juan Puerto Rico and I saw some old records stashed next to various (useless) trinkets. I started talking to the owner and he said oh I have a few more records upstairs. So we went into the attic and there were about 25000 records all disorganized and jumbled together, the sun was going down and there were no lights in the attic. A record collector's nightmare, ahhh!   It turns out he was the owner of Downtown Records in Manhattan.  One of the gems I found was a dusty EP by Lord Creator called Independent Jamaica, a classic Calypso song about Jamaica which became an anthem for Jamaicans when they became independent from British rule in 1962. The other track is a classic ska/ rock steady song by Justin Hinds and The Dominoes called Carry, Go, Bring, Home. Tracks 5 and 16 on this compilation.