Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd - Biography
There’s no way around it. Clement “Coxsone” Dodd (1932-2004), a.k.a., “Sir Coxsone,” was responsible for the divine spark of inspiration that ignited the Big Bang of Jamaican popular music. Thanks to Coxsone Dodd’s efforts, within his lifetime Jamaican sounds enveloped the world. He was an indefatigable producer who mentored the greatest names in ska, rocksteady and reggae — and the aggressive thump and gansta posture of dancehall was built brick-by-brick on samples of his work. Dodd was born in Kingston in 1932, and was anointed “Coxsone” in his youth, in appreciation of his skills at cricket, and that sport’s legendary UK cricketer, Alec Coxson. In addition to sports, Coxsone Dodd was enthralled by music. Barely out of his teens, he traveled to the US, seeking work in the fields of the profoundly segregated Deep South. He found the work, grueling work, but he discovered something else, the burgeoning genre of rhythm and blues. It was a wild and heady ferment, and when Coxsone Dodd returned to Jamaica in 1958, he carried a stack of albums that would light a pop-cultural fuse. In the slums of Kingston, dance halls couldn’t support live acts, but a savvy Dodd, gathered together an amp and turntable and leaped headlong into the competitive realm of late-night disk jockeys. He titled his enterprise Downbeat Sound Systems, and fueled it with a jealously guarded selection of R&B LPs, imported from the US South. Soon, there were Downbeat “franchises” operating in clubs and halls throughout Kingston. While Dodd scoured the US bins for tunes that would enthrall his crowds and flummox his rivals, he appointed like-minded aficionados to DJ for Downbeat. In doing so, he gave an array of future greats their entry into the music business, including Lee “Scratch” Perry and Prince Buster. Soon, the R&B craze was giving way to a more indigenous flavor as artists folded that genre into the traditional beats of Jamaican street life.
The competition between rival sound systems was fierce, and Coxsone Dodd recognized an opportunity to climb above the fray. He started his first record label in 1959, which allowed him to utilize his keen ear and impeccable taste to steer tracks to both the dance floor and the radio waves. In 1962, Dodd’s Port-O-Jam label released “I Cover the Waterfront” which featured Roland Alphonso and Don Drummond, two future members of the Skatalites, which would be a preeminent backing band for much of the subsequent decade. However, 1963 was the banner year. Coxsone Dodd launched Studio One, which operated as a recording studio and a record label, ensuring that its owner had complete control over every aspect of production, promotion, and distribution. It was the first black-owned recording facility in Jamaica, and its presence galvanized the music community. Dodd hosted weekly, open auditions, and the talent poured into Studio One. As the 1960s progressed, ska gave way to rocksteady, which segued into reggae, and legends-to-be got their big break at Studio One. Coxsone Dodd gave Bob Marley and the nascent Wailers their first session, but the list of luminaries who scored hits through Studio One also includes Toots & the Maytals, Delroy Wilson, Burning Spear, Jackie Mittoo, the Heptones, the Ethiopians, Lee Perry, and Marcia Griffiths. Coxsone Dodd cranked out smash records well into the early 1980s, when dancehall began to dominate, and even then, his productions were indirectly ubiquitous, as they were incessantly sampled.
Clement Coxsone Dodd only released one album under his own name, the outstanding Musical Fever, ’67-’68 (Studio One, 1968; reissued Trojan, 1997), which offers key insight into the man’s own skills as a performer. Otherwise, his production discography is somewhat enigmatic. The recordings that gushed from Studio One were so popular and pervasive that Dodd published under a welter of label names, just so the Kingston radio DJs would continue to spin his tracks. Fortunately the essential, UK-based Soul Jazz label has gathered a breathtakingly comprehensive series of boxed compilations that present hours and hours of digitally re-mastered classics from the Studio One vaults; most are also available on high-quality vinyl. The list should be enough to satiate even the most committed fanatic. It includes: Studio One: Roots I (Soul Jazz, 2001); Studio One: Soul (Soul Jazz, 2001); Studio One: Scorcher 1 (Instrumentals) (Soul Jazz, 2002); Studio One: Rockers (Soul Jazz, 2003); Studio One: Funk (Soul Jazz, 2004); Studio One: Dub 1 (Soul Jazz, 2004); Studio One: Roots 2 (Soul Jazz, 2005); Studio One: Women (Soul Jazz, 2005); Studio One: Lovers (Soul Jazz, 2005); Studio One: Kings (Soul Jazz, 2006); Studio One: Scorcher 2 (Instrumentals) (Soul Jazz, 2006); Studio One: Rub-a-Dub (Soul Jazz, 2007); Studio One: Roots 3 (Soul Jazz, 2007); Studio One: Dub 2 (Soul Jazz, 2010); and Studio One: Soul 2 (Soul Jazz, 2010). In 2004, the major Kingston thoroughfare that hosted the original Studio One was renamed Studio One Boulevard, with Clement “Sir Coxsone” Dodd in regal attendance. It was a fitting tribute to the man who single-handedly changed the course of Jamaican music. Coxsone Dodd died four days later of a heart attack. He went out in the only way imaginable: behind the mixing desk, crafting sound.
