Festival Jump-Up

By the mid-1960s, ska was in full swing, but while the driving, energetic sound dominated Jamaica’s musical landscape, other genres, such as rhythm and blues, calypso and the home-grown style of mento were also widely popularised by local acts. And of these performers, few proved more popular and versatile than Joseph Gordon, a singer-songwriter who, as Lord Tanamo, had been at the forefront of the island’s music scene since the Fifties. Yet despite his popularity, it was not until mid-Sixties that a long-player dedicated to his output finally saw issue. Released by leading Kingston-based producer Lindon Pottinger, the musically varied Festival Jump-Up provides the focus for disc one of this collection, with its original 12 tracks augmented by Tanamo’s best-loved ska recordings from the period, including his oft-imitated rendering of the standard, I’m In The Mood For Love Disc 2 collects 28 of the most popular ska and r&b sides issued between 1963 and 1964 on Pottinger’s revered Gaydisc and SEP labels, their number including numerous significant Jamaican hits by the likes of Jimmy James, Roy Panton and Millie Small, Winston Samuels and Dobby Dobson. The result is a musical cornucopia of rare, high quality authentic early-Sixties Jamaican sounds, many of which have remained widely unavailable on any format until now.