Roots in Jamaica Jamaica looms large in the history of recorded sound, despite it being a small island in the Caribbean. After World War II, the sounds of R&B first traveled to the island from radio stations in Miami, New Orleans, and other southern markets, and fresh pressings arrived at port with American soldiers and sailors. R&B arriving from America soon flooded the streets of downtown Kingston , retaining a magnetic appeal for the Jamaican ear. As the 1940s drew to a close in Jamaica , economy was the greatest ally of sound artists in Jamaica. Dance bands in Jamaica required breaks between sets, and it was simply cheaper and more efficient to pay one performer. Norman C. Stolzoff, an author quite aware of the pulse of ‘Dancehall Culture’, describes the disappearance of live bands in Jamaica at the time: Because Britain was in need of massive rebuilding after World War II, the British government turned to the colonies as a source of cheap-labor. Given this open-door policy, Jamaicans and other West Indians left home ‘seeking greener pastures’, as [Hedley] Jones [long-time sound system builder and production engineer] put it. . . . There was ‘almost a dearth of music’, he continued, because those musicians who had not emigrated went seeking jobs in the North Coast tourist industry. With a near total lack of entertainment for the lower classes struggling in Kingston and throughout Jamaica , a musical void was opened, or better, an abyss had engulfed the soundscape of the average Jamaican—the upper classes, however, could still afford live bands and employed most of the few remaining bands that did not seek work in the tourist industry. ‘Sound systems’, or, ‘sounds’, were the guise of the Jamaican sound artist, referring to the operators and their equipment in the same respect. The sounds could play the latest hits, ripe from America, without skipping a beat or hitting an off note. The intricacies of the R&B aesthetic were yet to be fully grasped by the handful of lower class dance bands, who struggled to meet their audiences’ demands for newer, hotter rhythms. This exclusive opportunity allotted to the sounds allowed their domination of the dancehalls and outdoor venues of downtown Kingston, referred to as ‘lawns’, or, ‘yards’. The owner/operators of the sounds, capable of electrifying their venues, can best be described as regal. Nothing less than the kings of the dancehalls, an attribute they would certainly not shy from. The first to rule ‘Beat Street’, Barrow and Dalton ’s collection of venues in central Kingston, was Tom Wong (as Stolzoff reveals, many of the early sound operators were Chinese-Jamaicans). Although other sounds preceded Tom the Great Sebastian, as he was known on stage—including: Nick the Champ, Count Joe and Count Smith the Blues Blaster—his sound was the most notable, and the model adopted by the multitude of sounds to follow. It was Hedley Jones who built the ‘first’ sound system—the model widely adopted for use in dancehalls at the time—which he used to advertise his record store. Stolzoff relates Jone’s recounting of the building process: Taking advantage of his training in England with the RAF, which had exposed him to ‘the most advanced electronics of the day,’ Jones started specializing in building amplifiers in his radio service shop. He constructed a special ‘Williamson form’ amplifier to specifically advertise his records. According to Jones, this amplifier was the first of its kind in Jamaica ; not only was it more powerful than the commercially available amplifiers of the time, but it featured a technological breakthrough—the capacity to distinguish and enhance treble, mid-range, and bass frequencies. When Wong’s audience was pulled to Jone’s store by the superior quality of sound reproduction—especially in the intense bass tones—he immediately placed an order for Jone’s invention, and the rest, as they say, is history. What is important to note is, the form of Wong’s equipment was as important as the way he approached recorded music manipulation, and this played a large part in his initial success. Tom the Great Sebastian also had the first dedicated performer hired to call out jive rhymes over records, Winston ‘Count’ Machuki. Machuki and those who followed were called 'deejays' in reference to the jive talking radio DJs playing in the south of the US that could be picked up on the island. Machuki provided vocal accompaniment for the sound systems, adding to the pre-recorded music encoded on disc, not detracting from its sound. Deejays played an important role in keeping the audiences uplifted. The sounds garnered legions of fans through the volume of their systems and the strength and depth of their record collections. At first, the sounds were simple set-ups, one turntable with one or two amps and the biggest speakers the sounds’ operators could find. Sounds would grow in size and sophistication, and earn names such as ‘Trojan sound’ and ‘Giant’. Eventually, sound systems would grow so large they could be heard thundering bass from blocks away. Sounds were at the center of dances going late into the night. Successors of the hep-cats of the 1920s, the hipsters that attended these dances had patented moves and the sharpest clothes. Stolzoff relates the form the attire worn in the dancehalls took: How young men and women dressed when going to a dancehall session was as important as how well they could dance. Showing off new clothes was a sure way to attract attention. However, as long as participants were neat, with an emphasis on being clean, they were appropriately dressed for the occasion, even if they lacked new clothes. These hipsters of the 1950s needed the towels they often brought to soak up their sweat in tightly packed dancehalls filled with energy, while the freshest R&B made sure it stayed hot. Many sounds played at the outdoor venues, but the dancehalls were the preferred showcases for the sounds. Electrified by the music, the patrons would dance to a frenzy, as the temperature inside the dancehalls raised by 10 and 20 degrees; and, an evening’s entertainment often carried on into the next day—even the next night, lasting for twenty-four hours straight or longer! The sweaty densely packed atmosphere of the dancehall was the signature of the sounds, and a display of their power as musicians. Working as a steady record selector for Tom Wong’s sound system, Duke Vin, was a legend in his own right. In 1956, the Duke pioneered the first sound system in the UK , the ‘Tickler’. It was a breath of fresh air for the aforementioned Caribbean immigrants in Britain , who had left the West Indies when the economy hit a post-war depression. Not satisfied with the selection of music in the UK at the time, they were hungry for the R&B sounds of Jamaica . Duke Vin and others brought these Caribbean British the ‘sounds’ they wanted, literally. Dances hosted by sounds in the UK were labeled ‘blues’, and by the 60s they had proliferated in all areas of Jamaican settlement in Britain . The Jamaican immigrants were ‘Tickled’ pink, and their passion for the Jamaican R&B form, would spread to the younger white working class who soon began attending the blues dances, marking the first steps towards international acceptance of Dub, termed ‘Reggae’ outside of the Caribbean.