The Skatalites
Jamaica, 1964–now
Jamaican band of session players — Don Drummond, Tommy McCook, Roland Alphonso, Lloyd Knibb — who existed barely fourteen months in 1964-65 and invented ska in them. Knibb's shifted accent on the offbeat is the rhythm all Jamaican music since is built on.
MusicRoots documents 4 artists who influenced The Skatalites and 3 artists The Skatalites influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced The Skatalites?
- Duke Ellington — Jazz was what the Skatalites played before ska existed, and they kept playing it — 'Caravan' among the tunes they took over.
- Count Basie — The big-band swing under the horn arrangements. Ska in its original form is a Jamaican rhythm section playing Basie's charts.
- Charlie Parker — Bebop is where Tommy McCook's solo lines come from — he led a jazz group for eight years before he was talked into fronting a ska band.
- Lester Young — The other tenor McCook took from — the light tone, against Parker's velocity.
Which artists did The Skatalites influence?
- Sly and Robbie — Lloyd Knibb is the reason Sly Dunbar took up drums, and he says so — the Skatalites' shifted offbeat is the thing he spent a career rebuilding.
- Jackie Jackson — Jackson was a pianist until he heard Lloyd Brevett rehearsing, and switched to bass.
- Aston «Family Man» Barrett — The other one: Lloyd Brevett, whose upright is the bass the whole Jamaican line descends from.