Classic Jazz Excursion: The Roots of Ska
The link between jazz and what we now call reggae goes back 70+ years to the time of Count Basie and Duke Ellington’s big bands in the 1940s and ’50s, which were very popular in Jamaica. These records arrived through sailors, migrants, and sound-system operators like Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid, who travelled to the U.S. specifically to buy jazz and R&B 78s. The island absorbed these sounds and fused them with mento (Jamaica’s folk music), African rhythmic traditions, New Orleans R&B (Fats Domino, Rosco Gordon), and bits of Country and Gospel. Out of this blend came the foundation of what would eventually become ska.
Early ska bands felt like compact jazz big bands- horn sections front and centre, trading solos, swinging lines, and arrangements shaped by jazz harmony. The Skatalites were made up of jazz-trained musicians from the Alpha School of Music, including Don Drummond, Tommy McCook, Roland Alphonso, Lester Sterling, and Jackie Mittoo. Players like Ernest Ranglin and Monty Alexander brought traditional jazz phrasing into their playing. If you listen to early ska, you hear bebop-style solos, ii–V–I chord movements, blue notes, horn riffs modelled after Ellington and Basie, and rhythm sections that mix jazz walking lines with a distinct upbeat “skank.”
The shift from jazz to ska was a natural evolution. Sound systems were growing in popularity, and access to new releases from the USA was limited to those who could travel there and purchase them, as mentioned with Dodd & Reid. Jazz and Jump Blues were beginning to disappear, and Sound System operators needed fresh music to keep people coming back, so they started looking to existing talent on the island.
The early days of Ska were recorded by musicians who took those elements and reshaped them into something uniquely Jamaican, emphasising the offbeat, simplifying the walking bass into a pulsing groove, and blending African-derived rhythms with American jazz techniques. This mixture created the dance-driven sound of ska, which later slowed into rocksteady and evolved into what we now call reggae.
For today’s mix, I explore a collection of jazz tracks I’ve always gravitated toward—those with a groove, that swing, and that carry some of the same energy that fed early Jamaican music. I focused on artists like Miles, Blakey, and Dizzy for this 90-minute session, and I hope you enjoy it.
PLAYLIST
Lee Morgan – The Sidewinder (Remastered 1999 / Rudy Van Gelder Edition)
Herbie Hancock – Cantaloupe Island (Remastered 1999 / Rudy Van Gelder Edition)
The Dave Brubeck Quartet – Take Five
John Coltrane – A Love Supreme, Pt. I – Acknowledgement
Miles Davis– So What (feat. John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley & Bill Evans)
Miles Davis – Milestones (feat. John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Red Garland, Paul Chambers & Philly Joe Jones)
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Moanin’
Dizzy Gillespie – Salt Peanuts
Charlie Parker – Ko Ko
Stan Getz – Wee (Allen’s Alley)
Art Blakey; Thelonious Monk – Rhythm-A-Ning
Max Roach – Tune-Up
Clifford Brown; Max Roach Quintet – Cherokee
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