Prince
Buster
Prince Buster (real name Cecil Bustamente Campbell) was drawn
into the Jamaican music business as a teenager in the 1950s, when
he intervened in a fight between Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd (a
Kingston sound-system supremo and owner of the legendary Studio
One label) and employees of his rival, Duke Reid.rn
A locally successful boxer, Buster saw off Dodd's attackers and
was taken on as his minder. From there he used his innate
understanding of music and crowd-pleasing to branch out on his own
and record some of Jamaican music's best songs, including Al
Capone, Madness, Ghost Dance and Orange
Street, inventing Ska in the process.
During the run-up to Jamaican independence in 1962, Buster
wanted records for his sound-system that were more intrinsically
Jamaican than the popular American-style R&B.
He set up a
recording session that combined his regular musicians with the
Rastafarian Count Ossie and his master drummers, borrowed the 4/4
time of army marching bands and grafted it on to an R&B
framework to create Oh Carolina, widely acknowledged as
the first Ska record.
An astute businessman, Buster wasn't slow to recognise Ska's
international possibilities. He frequently recorded and toured in
Britain where he became something of a Mod hero and was often
escorted on tour by a phalanx of scooters.
As a result, his Blue Beat releases and effervescent stage
shows came to define Ska in the UK, influencing artists from
Georgie Fame to the Ska Revival 2 Tone acts over a decade later
(Madness took their name from his song title and their first
single, The Prince, was a tribute to him).
Prince Buster has remained active into the 21st Century,
touring Europe, America and the Far East, and recording in the
state-of-the-art studio in the grounds of his Miami (Florida)
home.
|
