THE EDITOR, Sir:
YOUR COLUMNIST Martin Henry wrote an excellent review of the GraceKennedy Foundation Lecture given by Marjorie Whylie in the Thursday, March 23, 2005 edition of your newspaper.
Mr. Henry is right in suggesting that in an otherwise comprehensive and useful lecture, the almost complete lack of representation of the contribution of the Church to our musical heritage was a major omission.
I will comment here on the contribution of church music to the development of popular Jamaican music. This aspect is generally neglected by those documenting the history of our music.
It was the powerful revival beat, not mento, that secular musicians incorporated into a rhythm and blues (also gospel music derived) framework which gave birth to ska music in West Kingston.
Who can fail to recognise the revival beat in ska? Listen carefully to early ska tunes and revival music and the similarity of the beat will hit you!
I will advise all historians of Jamaican music to listen to and compare the music, not only to rely on the claims of various individuals or groups.
This revival is the foundation on which Jamaican pop music was built. It is from this gospel base that Jamaica's pop beat diverges from the (calypso/mento/rhumba/soca) style of the Caribbean region. And this probably accounts for its wider universal appeal.
The origin of revival music in Jamaica can be traced to the imported gospel music of Ira D. Sankey (British), with its syncopated rhythms and the influence of retentions of rhythmic patterns of west African music. Sankey's tunes were very popular in Jamaican evangelical churches, and were popularised by the Salvation Army in West Kingston.
INDIGENOUS FORMS
The Jamaican religious groups in that area adapted these tunes, adding further syncopation to melody and bass rhythms.
Hand-clapping, movement and the use of tambourines also accompanied the rhythmic singing of these gospel tunes. This gave birth to indigenous forms of revival music.
The first exposure many musicians of West Kingston had to live music instrumentation was through the Salvation Army, whose musical aggregations were a prominent feature of their crusades in downtown Kingston. Sankeys were a popular part of the repertoire of the army.
The creativity, talent, and vitality of Jamaican gospel musicians of the 50s, 60s, and 70s was unmatched in that era. Many secular musicians of that era drew inspiration from gospel music.
There is much, much more that could be said about the contribution of the Church to the development of pop and to the wonderful classical and gospel music heritage of Jamaica.
I join Mr. Henry in hoping that somebody will fill the gap for a more "complete picture of our musical heritage by doing work on the importation, adaptation, indigenous creation, and socio-cultural position of this neglected (gospel) genre".
I am, etc.,
JOHN SMITH
c/o P O Box 1994
Constant Spring P O, Kingston 8
