| |
|
| |
Let the world know of your
Love one passing or memorial
"For less than the cost of publishing in the Daily paper"
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Producer, writer, arranger and singer Keith Hudson is born into a musical family, his grandfather a noted musician with Cuban bands. Keith nonetheless pursues a career as a dental technician. Inspired however by Sir Coxsone's Downbeat sound system - "I used to hold Don Drummond's trombone for him so I can be in the studio" - he determines to make music.
Hudson produces a number one hit in Jamaica in 1968 with his first outing, Old Fashioned Way, a timeless rhythm and melody vocalised upon by veteran Ken Boothe. Hits follow with other Jamaican popular vocalists of the time - Delroy Wilson and John Holt - and Hudson has the vision to recognise the soon-to-be DJ phenomenon by cutting U Roy's first tune Dynamic Fashion Way long before Duke Reid got the DJ daddy into the studio for Treasure Isle. (Check U Roy's immortal intro on the Trojan compilation 'Studio Kinda Cloudy' - "Now how wonderful it is to be surrounded by these brothers of talent... studio real kinda cloudy as I would say").
1972 is Hudson's watershed year with Big Youth's Ace 90 Skank the biggest ever hit for the DJ, placing the producer at the pinnacle of Jamaican popular music yet it also ushers in a darker shade to Hudson. The self-confessed "flash little yout" now comes with powerful tunes laced with menace such as Satan Side, Don't Think About Me and A Place In Africa; where Lee Perry's music is wacky, Hudson's is genuinely unnerving. However, such doom-laden, introspective music does not find an enthusiastic audience in Jamaica and, like so much of the enduring music produced on the island, is destined to be pressed locally in minute quantities or released overseas. Thus begins Hudson's musical exile.
Encouraged by the critics and perhaps through his musical and physical dislocation from Jamaica, Hudson concentrates on his own music rather than producing others. His vocals, variously described as "eerie", "awkward" and "discordant" sit perfectly in a dub setting. Maybe in recognition of this and the popularity of his dubs on UK sound systems such as Fatman, Keith takes the unusual step of releasing a dub set, 'Brand', a year or so before the accompanying vocal LP 'Rasta Communication'. Hudson again returns to DJ production duties, this time for his friend, Militant Barry, who utilises many of the rhythms from 'Brand' for his set 'Green Valley'.
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
