VA - Soul Jazz Records Presents DANCEHALL: The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture (2017)

'Danehall', this heavyweight deluxe flexi-bound 200-plus book, is a definitive study and essential guide to the 1980s Jamaican dancehall scene, featuring hundreds of amazing, unique, never-before-seen photographs with accompanying text, interviews and biographies. Gregory Isaacs, Sugar Minott, Sister Nancy, Tenor Saw, Sly & Robbie, King Jammy, Eek A Mouse, Yellowman, Frankie Paul - This book is literally a who's who in stunning photos and text of dancehall's phenomenal rise. The book captures a vibrant, globally influential and yet rarely documented culture that has been mixing music, fashion and lifestyle with attitude since its inception. With unprecedented access to the incredibly rich music scene during this period, Beth Lesser's photographs and informed text are a unique way in to a previously hidden culture. Dancehall is at the centre of Jamaican musical and cultural life. From its roots in Kingston in the 1950s to its heyday in the 1980s, it has gone on to conquer the globe, spreading to the USA, UK, Canada, Japan, Europe and beyond. Dancehall is a culture that encompasses music, fashion, drugs, guns, art, community, technology and more. 'Dancehall' is an essential reference book for anyone interested in reggae, as well as a unique photographic and textual source book of all things musical, cultural and political in Jamaica. This jam-packed visual history of dancehall from its roots to its heights is told from that rare vantage point of the true, respected insider. In the early 1980s as Jamaica was in the throes of political and gang violence Beth Lesser ventured where few others dared and this book is a never before seen record of the exciting, vibrant and sometimes dangerous world of dancehall.

Tracklist:
01. Yellowman - Bam Bam
02. Tenor Saw - Pumpkin Belly
03. Reggie Stepper - Cu- Oonuh
04. Chaka Demus and Pliers - Murder She Wrote
05. Pinchers - Agony
06. Michigan & Smiley - Diseases
07. Ini Kamoze - World a Music
08. Junior Murvin - Cool Out Son
09. General Echo - Arleen
10. Cornel Campbell - Boxing
11. Cutty Ranks - Chop Chop
12. Lone Ranger - M16
13. Super Cat - Trash and Ready
14. Gregory Isaacs - Soon Forward
15. Jacob Miller &Trinity - I’m Just A Dread / One Shut
16. Eek A Mouse - Wa-Do-Dem
17. Sister Nancy - Only Woman DJ With Degree
18. Trinity - Uptown Girl
19. General Echo - Track Shoes
20. Cornel Campbell - Mash You Down
21. Horace Ferguson - Sensi Addict
22. Clint Eastwood - Jump and Pawn