Coxsone Dodd
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Clement Seymour "Sir Coxsone" Dodd (Kingston, Jamaica, January 26 1932 – May 5 2004) was a Jamaican record producer who was influential in the development of reggae and other forms of Jamaican music in the 1950s, 60s and later. He has been called "the most significant man in reggae music". His gained his nickname "Coxsone" at school from a member of the famous Yorkshire cricket team of the '40s, due to his teenage talent as a cricketer.
Sound system
Dodd used to play records to the customers in his parents' shop. During a spell in the South of the United States of America he became familiar with the Rhythm and Blues music so popular there at the time. In 1954, back in Jamaica, he set up the Downbeat Sound System, being the owner of a PA, a turntable, and some US records, which he would import from New Orleans and Miami. With the great success of his sound system, and in a highly competitive environment, Dodd would make trips through the States looking for new tunes to attract the Jamaican public. Dodd opened 5 different sound systems, each playing every night, and run by people such as Lee "Scratch" Perry (who was Dodd's right hand man during his early career), U-Roy and Prince Buster.
Recording career
When the American R&B craze ended in the United States Dodd and his rivals were forced to begin recording their own Jamaican music in order to meet the local demand for new music. Initially these recordings were exclusively for a particular sound system but the records quickly developed into an industry in their own right. In 1959 he founded a record company called World Disc. In 1963 he opened Studio One in Brentford Road, Kingston. It was the first black-owned recording studio in Jamaica (see 1963 in music). He held regular Sunday evening auditions in search of new talent, and it was here he discovered Bob Marley, singing as a part of The Wailers. He gave them a five year exclusive contract with 20 pounds for each song recorded. Their song Simmer down, a Dodd production of a Bob Marley song, was number one in Jamaica in February 1964. Marley was invited to sleep in a back room at the studio for a while until Marley left Studio One in 1968.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Studio One sound was virtually synonymous with the sound of rocksteady, and he attracted some of the best of Jamaican talent to his stable over this time. Without the rock steady and ska that he was so involved with there could have been no reggae music. He has worked with many reggae legends, including Winston "Burning Spear" Rodney, Delroy Wilson, Horace Andy and Sugar Minott. He is considered to be the first producer to really bring forward the Rastafarian faith in reggae music.
He continued to be active in the music business and on Friday 1st May 2004 Kingstonīs Brentford Road was renamed Studio One Boulevard in a ceremony which paid tribute to his accomplishments as a producer. He then suddenly died four days later of a heart attack while working at Studio One.
External links
- Biography (http://www.btinternet.com/~ranksreggaerevival/coxdoddpage.htm)
- Article on working with Bob Marley (http://www.bobmarley.com/life/musicbusiness/studio1.html)
- Guardian, UK Obituary (http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1210442,00.html)es:Coxsone Dodd