The treasures of Studio 17
“Studio 17, The Lost Reggae Tapes” by Mark James and Reshma B. © Qwest TV / Widestream Films / Studio 17
By: Joe Farmer Follow
6 mins
In the 60s and 70s, Kingston became the heart of Caribbean music.
Mento, Ska and finally Reggae punctuated the daily life of the Jamaican population.
At the heart of this artistic and cultural ferment, Studio 17 allowed dozens of musicians to reveal themselves.
British journalist and producer Reshma B returned to understand and relate this little-known story.
His film "Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes" evokes with thrill an era, a destiny, a sound revolution.
Publicity
It was by chance of a meeting with producer Clive Chin that Reshma B envisioned a documentary devoted to the premises of a universal musical genre, reggae. She is then looking for interviews for the various digital press organizations to which she regularly collaborates. She certainly does not imagine that her conversation with Clive Chin will hold a real surprise for her. At the turn of a question about the Jamaican singer Dennis Brown, his interlocutor, reveals to him that he has unpublished recordings of this artist who died in 1999. Reshma B's curiosity forces him to continue the discussion. She discovers that Clive Chin was, like her father Vincent Chin, a maker of the success of many Jamaican figures. In his studio at 17 North Parade in Kingston, he worked for several yearsimmortalized the words and notes of real personalities in the making. Forced to leave Kingston, while the social climate was straining in the heart of the 1970s, he unfortunately left dozens of untapped tapes lie fallow.
The archives of Studio 17. © Courtesy of Widestream Films
Clive Chin will then undertake to repatriate to New York all these invaluable archives and to restore them. After many legal setbacks, he finally granted the wish of his late son Joël, assassinated in Kingston, who had repeatedly encouraged him to save this historic heritage. Suddenly the names of Lord Creator, Alton Ellis, Peter Tosh, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Gregory Isaacs, will ring out again. It is at this precise moment that Reshma B perceives the interest to go further and to narrate this epic which marries that of Jamaica because, behind the sessions captured in studio 17 by Clive Chin and, before him, by his father Vincent Chin, there is the echo of a people who gained their independence in 1962 and gradually inscribed their cultural roots in the world musical landscape.
Lee "Scratch" Perry. © Courtesy of Widestream Films
Back then, in the streets of Kingston, the Lord Creator's song could be heard: "Independent Jamaica". It is a composition that was recorded by Clive Chin's father, Vincent Chin. It's not reggae yet. It is more of a ska tone, the ancestor of reggae. Ska was then the music of the countryside in Jamaica. No one had had the idea of recording this traditional music to hoist it into the flag bearer of Jamaican independence. Yet this Lord Creator's song has become an anthem and the islanders have greeted it with fervor. In a way, it celebrated Jamaicans' aspiration to be an independent people. In the film, by the way, veteran Ernest Ranglin explains how important ska has been in Jamaican culture.He describes the singular rhythm of this form of expression which gave birth to rocksteady and finally reggae. All of these developments have arisen from the country's social mood over the decades. The ska was happy music. Many people danced to this music whose tempo was irresistible. You just have to listen to "My Boy Lollipop" by Millie Small to feel this happy and light pop musicality. Then, the mood darkened with rocksteady embodied by an artist like Alton Ellis and finally reggae whose political dimension will not have escaped you.Many people danced to this music whose tempo was irresistible. You just have to listen to "My Boy Lollipop" by Millie Small to feel this happy and light pop musicality. Then, the mood darkened with rocksteady embodied by an artist like Alton Ellis and finally reggae whose political dimension will not have escaped you.Many people danced to this music whose tempo was irresistible. You just have to listen to "My Boy Lollipop" by Millie Small to feel this happy and light pop musicality. Then, the mood darkened with rocksteady embodied by an artist like Alton Ellis and finally reggae whose political dimension will not have escaped you.
(Reshma B at Joe Farmer's microphone)
Millie Small with producer Vincent Chin, Clive Chin's father in the heart of the 60s. © Courtesy of Widestream Films
"Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes" is not just a musical film devoted to Caribbean Métis sources, it bears witness to the daily political, social and economic life of a population in search of freedom and respectability.
This exciting documentary is available on the audiovisual platform Qwest TV created by Quincy Jones and Reza Ackbaraly.
→ Video - Studio 17 - The Lost Reggae tapes (Documentary Trailer) | Qwest TV
The archives of Studio 17. © Courtesy of Widestream Films
→ The Qwest TV website
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