Randy’s anthologies celebrate golden era of Jamaican music – Caribbean Life

Randy’s 50th Anniversary, originally released in 2008 only on CD, documents the early years of Randy’s, the record store and studio at 17 North Parade in Kingston, Jamaica, which laid the foundation for the Jamaica, Queens-headquartered VP Records, considered the world’s largest reggae/dancehall label.

VP Records’ Project Manager Adam Prescott told Caribbean Life on Tuesday, Feb. 3, that Chapter One covers recordings from 1960 to 1971, with selections from Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Toots and the Maytals –  all produced by Vincent “Randy” Chin.

Prescott said Chapter Two follows Randy’s son, Clive Chin’s, productions from 1971 to 1976, opening with Augustus Pablo’s “Java” and featuring Black Uhuru, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, and more.

“From the joyful ska of Lord Creator’s independence anthem ‘Independent Jamaica’, Chapter One runs the true course of Jamaican music in the 1960s with a virtual who’s who of reggae music, including Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Toots & The Maytals, The Skatalites, John Holt, Alton Ellis, and many more”, Prescott said.

Originally released only on CD in 2008 to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of Randy’s Records, he said this collection of rare recordings is now finally available on vinyl for the very first time, complete with extensive sleeve notes by Blood & Fire’s Steve Barrow, plus inner sleeves featuring rare photos.

“It’s common knowledge that the early sound systems – Tom The Great Sebastian, Sir Coxson Down Beat, Duke Reid The Trojan, V-Rocket, Prince Buster’s Voice Of The People and King Edwards the Giant – were the motive power behind the development of Jamaican popular music in the 1950s,” said Steve Barrrow, a British reggae historian.

“He said they played mostly U.S. R&B, and, when the source of records began to dry up in the USA, many of the soundmen began to record local talent,” he added. “But if sound systems were the engine in this vehicle of expression, then it was the local community of middle-class entrepreneurs – many among them of Chinese or Middle Eastern origin – who put themselves in the driver’s seat.”

Barrow said they included the late Ken Khouri, owner of the first big record factory on the island and one of the first to record local music; bandleader and businessman Byron Lee; accountant Leslie Kong, ice-cream parlor owner Charlie Moo; and Justin Yap, whose family-owned stores.

Barrow said that Vincent “Randy” Chin was equally prominent among this group.

“Together, this group provided a commercial platform from which the music could make the transition from local style to international taste,” he said.

Barrow said Chin was born on Oct. 3, 1937, in Kingston, the son of a carpenter who had arrived from China in the 1920s.

He said Chin got the nickname “Randy” because he was a fan of a U.S. radio show broadcasting rhythm and blues, sponsored by Randy’s Record Shop of Gallatin, Tennessee, on WLAC in Nashville.

After finishing his schooling in the mid-1950s, Barrow said Chin worked for Isaac Issa, then controller of the large jukebox market in Jamaica.

Barrow said Chin’s job was to maintain and restock Issa’s jukeboxes all over the island.

In 1958, Barrow said Chin opened his first record shop with old stock – he had scrupulously saved all the discarded ex-jukebox discs – and thus began the family business.

In 1961, Barrow said Chin opened new premises at 17 North Parade, on the north side of the square in downtown Kingston.

In time, Barrow said the Jamaican Randy’s Record Shop would become integral to the development of the music, “even more so when Vincent opened a studio above the shop in 1968.”

Half a century later, Barrow said that a fairly humble beginning has evolved into the internationally known VP Records, now based in Jamaica, Queens.

Prescott said that from Augustus Pablo’s groundbreaking “Java” to Carl Malcolm’s UK pop crossover hit “Fatty Bum”, Chapter Two showcases “classic after classic from an all-star lineup of the 70s reggae music greats,” including Black Uhuru, Horace Andy, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, The Heptones & Big Youth.

Originally released only on CD in 2008 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Randy’s Records, Barrow said this collection of rare recordings has now finally been made available on vinyl for the very first time, complete with extensive sleeve notes by the esteemed reggae historian and Lee “Scratch” Perry biographer David Katz, plus inner sleeves featuring rare photos.

Katz, also an American author, said Chin was one of the first Jamaican entrepreneurs to release music during the ska era, finding particular success with the Trinidadian-born Lord Creator.

During the second half of the 60’s, Katz said Chin focused on building a recording studio upstairs from his popular retail record mart at 17 North Parade.

“The foundation of the studio started during the rock steady era, that’s one of the reasons you never come across any rock steady tunes on the Randy’s label,” said Chin’s eldest son, Clive.

Katz said the studio was completed by late ’68, with the first clientele being the US record label JADran, featuring Johnny Nash, Arthur Jenkins, and Danny Simms.

“From its very inception, Randy’s had a sparse, readily identifiable sound that soon made it the studio of choice for the up-and-coming reggae producers that were based near its downtown Kingston location,” Katz said.

In addition to Lee Perry’s ground-breaking work with the Wailers, Katz said Bunny Lee, Phil Pratt, Niney and Rupie Edwards were “all regulars”, as were artists like the Heptones and Dennis Brown.

Katz said Soul Syndicate was the in-house band for a time, but added that more regularly in attendance were Skin Flesh and Bones, featuring drummer Sly Dunbar, bassist Lloyd Parks, guitarist Bertram “Ranchie” McLean, and keyboardist Ansel Collins.

“And as an endless pool of singers and players literally camped out on the doorstep each day at the area known as Idler’s Rest,” Katz said. “It was certainly no surprise that Randy’s was conjuring wonderful sounds from some of the island’s finest talent.”

Katz said another important element came from the mixing talents of engineer Errol Thompson, an old-school friend of Clive’s, who came to Randy’s after a brief apprenticeship at Studio One.

“I had a good relationship with Errol, a very innovative relationship,” Clive Chin recalled, “who had already followed in his father’s footsteps by cutting his own productions at the facility from the end of the 1960s.

“We wouldn’t just idle talk about things on the street or girlfriend business,” he added. “We would talk more like how we could further the music, how we can do a different kind of affixture to it, spice it, rather than have the same old pattern of just Tommy [McCook] blowing a horn, Bobby [Aitken] playing a guitar, Winston [Wright] playing an organ.

“It is entirely evident that Randy’s had an endless supply of musical verve that continued to flourish after the opening of Studio 17,” Clive Chin continued. “It’s individual creative elements coming together in a unique sound that resulted in some of the most stylistic recordings of the 1970s.