Byron Lee— IN 1964, at the height of the ska craze, Edward Seaga, Jamaica’s minister of social welfare and economic development, invited Byron Lee and the Dragonaires (BL&D) to his West Kingston constituency to revel in a sound that was rocking Kingston’s clubs. “Byron, myself and Ken Lazarus went down there and he (Seaga) said ‘listen to this’. We heard these guys making amazing music,” recalled BL&D lead singer Keith Lyn. That “amazing music” was ska. The West Kingston trip inspired Lazarus and Lyn to write Jamaican Ska, which remains one of the band’s biggest hits. It is one of 20 songs on Uptown Top Ranking, an album to be released June 9 by VP Records. The set revisits some of BL&D’s ska, rocksteady and reggae recordings. Because of its longstanding ties to Carnival in … Read entire article »