Prince Buster— To the highly incognisant music lover, the term ‘Blue Beat’ is limited to being just a synonym for ‘ska’ – a type of popular music that is fast, with a strong off-beat that entered Jamaican music around the time of Independence. It was much more than that: The term ‘Blue Beat’ became very popular, especially in the United Kingdom (UK), following a mass migration of Jamaican recording artists to those shores in the early 1960s, triggered by the prospects of greater financial rewards. It resulted in a massive proliferation of Jamaican music in the United Kingdom. Included in the first Jamaican musical brain drain of the 1960s, were Wilfred ‘Jackie’ Edwards, Laurel Aitken, Owen Gray, trombonist Rico Rodriguez, Kentrist Fagan (better known as Girl Satchmo), and the lollipop girl, Millie Small. EARLY PIONEERS The move was indeed the first … Read entire article »