Jamaica has always had a symbiotic relationship with African-American music. Reggae was born from mid-'50s sound-system battles between Duke Reid and Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, who competed with each other to play the most obscure American R&B hits. Eventually, Dodd would record his own versions of American R&B — emphasizing the off-beat — for his own Studio One label, which would become the most famous Jamaican label.

Studio One Soul chronicles the influence that American soul music had on Jamaican music as it was mutating from rocksteady to reggae, effectively paralleling the shift from soul to funk. The rise in black consciousness in the U.S. was mirrored by the growth of Rastafarianism in Jamaica, a process reflected here by Senior Soul's raw take on Syl Johnson's "Is it Because I'm Black?" and The Heptones 'haunting cover of The Temptations '"Message From a Black Man." The Heptones 'lead singer, Leroy Sibbles, was also one of Jamaica's greatest bassists, and his superbly fluid lines can be heard on his absolutely swinging versions of Charles Wright's "Express Yourself" and King Floyd's "Groove Me."

This isn't to say that more straightforward, less politicized soul didn't connect with the Jamaican audience — check Norman… read more »