Home » Jazz News » TV / Film

Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae Music

Source:

View read count
Ernest Ranglin
You're in for a pre-Thanksgiving treat. Yesterday, I posted on a 1964 Jamaican mini documentary on ska, the island's dominant dance music of the early 1960s. Today. I found a high-resolution print of Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae Music (2009). It followed ska by slowing ska down and adding a soulful groove in the mid-1960s, setting the stage for reggae's political-themed emergence in the early 1970s. I love rocksteady. It's soft, gentle and hypnotic. And I love rocksteady covers of American hits. Here's a sample example of rocksteady, with Alton Ellis singing You've Made Me So Very Happy...

See what I mean? Such a great groove. Now that you're hip and up to date, here's Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae Music, directed by Stascha Bader. I can't embed it into this post, but you can watch it in glorious wide-screen quality by clicking here.

Continue Reading...

This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
Copyright © 2025. All rights reserved.

Tags



Comments

News

Popular

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.