ENTITY · STUDIO

Treasure Isle

Well supported

Arthur "Duke" Reid's studio above his liquor store at 33 Bond Street, Kingston, and the label of the same name. If Studio One owned ska, Treasure Isle owned rocksteady: from 1966 Reid's productions with Alton Ellis, the Techniques, the Paragons, Phyllis Dillon and John Holt defined the slower, sweeter, bass-forward form, and those rhythms became a second foundation catalogue — the basis of countless later versions, not least through U-Roy toasting over them in 1970.

Share a memory Correct this record Add a source lead

At a glance

Type: studio →
Era: Rocksteady, reggae and dub →
Confidence: Well supported

Connections

Media & sources

Articles & sources

Open source ↗

Discogs — Treasure Isle label page

WEB · rights discovery only · source reference

Clickable Discogs source URL for label/catalogue verification; external reference only.

Source link ↗

Open source ↗

Interview: Jackie Jackson talks Treasure Isle

WEB · rights discovery only · press source

United Reggae interview archive.

Source link ↗

In stories

Story · Well supportedThe Riddim Economy: One Riddim, Many Voicings

How a preset rhythm on a consumer keyboard turned Jamaica's oldest studio economy into the digital age.

Story · Well supportedThe producer owned the riddim

In Jamaica's foundation years the man who paid for the session owned the sound - and often the shop, the studio and the label too.

Story · ProbableThe Downbeat and the Trojan: How Two Kingston Rivals Built the Sound System

In 1950s Kingston, Coxsone Dodd's Downbeat and Duke Reid's Trojan turned rival dances into the foundation of an entire music industry.

Story · ProbableQuiet names of the toasting era

Behind U-Roy, Big Youth and Dennis Alcapone stood toasters whose records shaped the style but whose names rarely make the standard histories.

Story · ProbableRocksteady slows it down

When the tempo dropped, harmony and bass moved to the front.

Story · Well supportedA label map from Studio One to VP

How Jamaica's one-producer labels, London's licensing houses and a family firm in Queens joined into a single map of the music business.

Story · Well supportedWake the Town: Duke Reid's rocksteady and the birth of the deejay record

How a toast over a Treasure Isle rhythm helped invent the modern deejay.