Ska

Ska is in 4/4 at around 120-150 BPM, with a rhythm guitar (and often piano) chopping a clipped chord on every offbeat — the upstroke skank that became reggae's slower offspring. The walking bassline is busy and melodic, often outlining the harmony rather than just doubling the root. A horn section of trumpet, trombone, and tenor sax carries the melodic lead and trades short improvised solos. Drums emphasize beats 2 and 4 with the snare, and the kick walks. Vocals can be sung or absent; many original ska records are instrumentals. The 2 Tone revival of the late 1970s UK added punk-rock electric guitar and faster tempos.

Ska emerged in Kingston around 1959-60 as Jamaica's response to US R&B records that had stopped reflecting what young Jamaican listeners wanted at sound system dances. The Skatalites, formed in 1964 from session musicians at Studio One and Federal Records, codified the genre's horn-led instrumental sound. Ska coincided with Jamaican independence (1962) and was effectively the country's first national pop music. By 1966 the tempo had slowed and the genre had evolved into rocksteady, then reggae. The 2 Tone label in Coventry, UK (founded 1979 by Jerry Dammers of The Specials) launched a British revival that fused ska's offbeat skank with punk-rock energy — The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, The Beat. A US third-wave revival followed in the 1990s.

The offbeat skank on guitar and piano — "chick-chick-chick-chick" on the offbeats while the snare hits on 2 and 4 — is the defining sound. Listen to how the horn section trades phrases: trumpet leads, trombone answers, sax solos. The bass plays a walking line that's almost as melodic as the lead horns. In 2 Tone records, electric guitar takes a more prominent role and the tempos accelerate to near-punk speed.

The Skatalites' "Guns of Navarone" (1965) is the original-ska benchmark. For 2 Tone, The Specials' "A Message to You, Rudy" (1979). The album to put on is The Best of the Skatalites (compilation) or The Specials' self-titled debut (1979).

Several Skatalites — including trombonist Don Drummond, saxophonist Tommy McCook, and trumpeter Johnny "Dizzy" Moore — had studied at Kingston's Alpha Boys School, a Catholic music program for at-risk boys that quietly trained an outsized share of mid-century Jamaican session musicians.