The Jamaica Star :: Entertainment :: Peter Ashbourne identifies turning point in dancehall beat

Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Peter Asbourne (left) on keyboards and son Jeremy on drums at 'Alternative Jam', held at Red Bones The Blues Café, New Kingston, recently. - Colin Hamilton

Heads rocking to the 'Puny' rhythm, complete with Admiral Bailey's lyrics declaring "glimity glamity woah, it haffi kill me", may be expected more at a late-night campus party than an academic conference.

However, it was a mid-morning moment on Tuesday in the Assembly Hall, at the Global Reggae Conference 2008, as musician Peter Ashbourne demonstrated the evolution of the distinctive dancehall beat from roots reggae.

Earlier, he had shown the evolution of ska from mento, the first of 'Two Turning Points in Jamaican Popular Music', both developments illustrated by music.

Ashbourne said that the evolution of dancehall from roots reggae was quite different from the transition from mento ska. "In a sense, dancehall was always a part of reggae music," Ashbourne said, referring to the early toasting on sound systems and recordings by persons such as U-Roy and King Stitt.

He separated dancehall into two periods, the first when reggae tracks were used and the second when it had its own tracks. Ashbourne also raised the possibility of a third period, with the return of the 'one drop' rhythm and singers making a comeback.

He said that in the 1970s, Sly and Robbie's rhythms propelled Gregory Isaacs and Black Uhuru, among others, to stardom. He played General Echo's Arlene, with its rhythm stripped down to a basic rock drum pattern and a reggae bassline as a typical beat of the time.

He then moved on to Diseases, with vocals by Michigan and Smiley, demonstrating that the rhythm had more components, with a guitar and organ shuffle added.

Then came the Sleng Teng, which in 1985 "gave a foretaste of the mechanised music to come. Ashbourne outlined its origins in a Casio keyboard preset, played the Wayne Smith title cut and said that at last count he had heard of 117 versions.

Then came the Steelie and Cleavie created Punay of 1987, which Ashbourne said was important because of the many successful versions made and the fact that it has outlasted so many other rhythms. "There is a new drum pattern, reinforced by a cowbell," Ashbourne said, after he had played Admiral Bailey's title cut. "This is another one-chord song," he said.

In the mix

He also noted that "the rhythm made a series of cuts to emphasise the lyrics. It is called the mix".

Telephone Love, with JC Lodge, was named one of the few singing successes of the time.

The 1987 Duck, with Red Dragon on vocals, another Steelie and Cleavie rhythm, drummer Cleavie beginning to make his rhythms busier, Ashbourne saying the motivation was simply boredom with what was happening at the time.

Then, when Steelie and Cleavie made the rhythm for Tiger's When, Ashbourne said, it marked the second period of dancehall music and the evolution was complete. He pointed out that there is no bassline at all, the drum providing the low frequency.

Buju Banton's Bogle of 1992 "establishes once and for all the trademark rhythm, of dancehall - dup dup", Ashbourne said.

He pointed out that studio engineers Dave and Tony Kelly were the earliest of the non-musician producers, indicating other notable producers such as the Firehouse Crew, Lenky Marsden and the Penthouse Crew.

"Dancehall marked the ascendancy of the deejay over the singer," Ashbourne said. However, singers were not totally silenced, as the Bloodfire Posse, JC Lodge, Sanchez and Beres Hammond still had a presence.

Ashbourne also pointed to the speeding up of dancehall beats, as Diseases was 80 beats per minute, just about roots reggae tempo, while in 2005 the average tempo for a dancehall song was 130 beats per minute. "Those are tempos that rival the frenetic Trinidadian soca," he said.

Ashbourne said that the 'dup dup' of dancehall is rhythmic structure that is found all over the Americas and, in Jamaica, it is found in mento. "In this respect, dancehall is more closely related to traditional Jamaican music than ska," he said.

In concluding, he said that volume is an important factor in dancehall music, as there are songs that sound mediocre when played at a low volume, but are transformed when played at an ear-shattering level. "Some dancehall songs need to be played loud, much to my distress," Ashbourne said, smiling.