The second disc moves, as Byron Lee did, with the times with a rocksteady focus.
The first disc is largely ska, highlighted by the title tune and a number of covers, including a rousing cover of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man." Lee was also producing ska recordings at this time, and songs he produced for Stranger Cole and the Maytals are included as well. Covering roughly 11 years, 1960 to 1971, Jamaica Ska follows Lee though the heydays of ska, rocksteady, and the nascent reggae boom. What he was known for, though, was ska, and that is where this collection sets its sights. Be it calypso, ska, soca, reggae - if it was popular in Jamaica or other parts of the Caribbean there is probably a tune or album by Lee and his group in that style. His assembly-line approach that continues to crank out disc after disc of music in whatever style is in favor is partly to blame.
Prior to the arrival of Jamaica Ska & Other Jamaican Party Anthems, poor Byron's catalog was littered with late-period soca and smooth reggae collections with the occasional poorly packaged live collection of older tunes rearing its head, but no definitive set of his major works available.
This double-CD set is a godsend for anyone curious about the incredibly prolific Byron Lee and his erstwhile Dragonaires.
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