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Jazz Jamaica

From Jamaica

Jazz goes ska - give skanks and praise

The horn players in '60s Jamaica often led double lives. The rent got paid through working as player-for-hire in the ska outfits of the day, but the artistic urge was satiated by playing jazz in their spare time. The two converge in Jazz Jamaica, the longstanding, horn-heavy collective through whose ranks many of London Town's finer young blowers have passed. Their whole ethos is epitomised by what's become their signature tune, a Caribbean take on Duke Ellington's Caravan which, almost inevitably, got renamed Skaravan. There are, naturally, plenty of stone-cold ska classics in their repertoire (Guns Of Navarone, Confucious, etc), often imbued with some jazzy touches - the odd blue note here, the occasional improvised solo there. And they're also not averse to creeping into other Jamaican styles either; check out their lover's rock reading of Diana Ross's You Keep Me Hanging On. But whatever the song's source, Jazz Jamaica are always a pure joy.
Jazz Jamaica's 'Massive' now available as 180 gram vinyl in a limited
edition from Gearbox Records.

(Biography written by Nige Tassell 2011)

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