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The Skatalites

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The house band that gave ska its shape — a working group of Jamaica's finest jazz-schooled players, most of them alumni of the Alpha Boys School, assembled around 1964 and cutting the instrumental and backing sessions that defined Studio One's era. Tommy McCook, Don Drummond, Roland Alphonso, Johnny "Dizzy" Moore, Lester Sterling, Jah Jerry, Jackie Mittoo, Lloyd Brevett and Lloyd Knibb between them played on an enormous share of the period's records. The original band lasted only about fourteen months before splintering, but its playing underpins the entire ska canon.

The Skatalites horn sectionYerpo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source ↗

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The Guns of Navarone

SPOTIFY · rights discovery only · performs

Official spotify upload (channel: The Skatalites); embedded as a discovery-only reference pending editorial review.

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Guns Of Navarone - The Skatalites

SPOTIFY · rights discovery only · documents

Official spotify upload; embedded as a discovery-only reference pending editorial review.

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Articles & sources

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MusicBrainz — The Skatalites search

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MusicBrainz discovery source for Skatalites artist/entity review.

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Discogs — The Skatalites

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Discogs source for Skatalites credits and releases.

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MusicBrainz — The Skatalites Guns of Navarone context

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Clickable source URL for recording verification; external reference only.

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In stories

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A reform school on South Camp Road quietly supplied the horn section for most of reggae's biggest records.

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Compiled and researched by The Jamaica Music Atlas music desk. The sources that informed it are credited above.

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