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THE HISTORY OF SKA Nineteen Ninety Three saw the historic Skavoovee tour, the first major national American tour package of ska music. This tour had the full spectrum of what ska is - the original Jamaican brand of ska by it's very inventors the Skatalites, British counterparts who revived it and reinvented in the late 70s with the Selecter and Special Beat, and American upstarts the Toasters who raised the ska flag for the third time starting in the early eighties. In January of 1994, American music-industry trade magazine Billboard had ska on the cover page as 'the next big thing.' "Ska hit big in England in the wake of punk, but it never really crossed the Atlantic. A few dedicated fans caught on in the U.S., though, and turned the Jamaican/British import into an American subculture." Only much deeper into the piece do we find that... "...ska, reggae's fast-paced predecessor, was born in jazz and R&B sessions of the early 60s" The first wave of Ska was the first style of music in Jamaica to incorporate European/American influences wholesale. Ska music was created in a poor community in a third world country soon after World War II, by embracing American musical influences in the 1950's and local folk forms. Combining mento and calypso with the R&B, swing, boogie woogie, early rock and jazz made ska. The second wave of Ska - 2Tone - combined the punk rock music energy of late 70s England with the rhythm of Jamaican ska. Just as the 1st wave ska music was created by combining disparate genres, so did the new ska. Bands such as the Specials and Madness created a dance craze on European and Japanese shores, but never quite made it to the United States. The subject here though, is Post-2Tone: the third wave of Ska. Since Americans were deprived of the joys of ska the first time around, it was inevitable that some convert of the music would infect the US. In 1982, British ex-patriate and fan of all ska Rob Hingley started a ska band called the Toasters in NYC in the face of overwhelming indifference in the media and music scene. By the late 80s, many bands started playing ska music in new and wondrous forms all over the planet. Only today is there starting to be an acknowledgment by the arts community of the |
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