Ska music originated in
Jamaica in the late 1950s, combining elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with
American jazz and rhythm and blues, and dominated
Jamaica’s music scene in the early 1960s. British
bands during the punk rock period in the late 1970s adapted and revitalized the
sound for a new audience. The Selecter
formed in 1979 in Coventry, England, taking the band's name from the term
"selector", which is Jamaican slang for disc jockey. The Selecter was
one of the most successful ska bands of that era, with two hit albums and
several hit songs in Great Britain before splitting in 1982. Pauline Black and Arthur “Gaps” Hendrickson were the original Selecter vocalists, and
while members have come and gone and the group itself has split and reformed
several times, the two are back fronting the Selecter again, nearly 35 years
after it all began for them. The Selecter recorded 11 albums, including 2013’s String Theory.
At the Gramercy Theatre
tonight, the Selecter were as genuine as could be. The eight band members
dressed in shiny, narrow-lapelled, early-1960s-styled suits, with the men also wearing
white shirts and skinny ties. From the beginning of the performance, every band
member worked up a sweat in those suits as they jumped and moved to the strongly-emphasized
rhythms. The band mixed and matched new songs with ska classics and the songs (written
by former member Neol Davies) that popularized
the Selecter. Black’s terrific British rude-girl singing style alongside
Hendrickson’s raw Jamaican-style toasting made for outstanding chemistry and
combined superbly with the musicians’ hopping keyboards, brass and percussion
to great success. The effect was evident; in a very rare scene at the Gramercy,
nearly everyone on the floor level danced, bounced or “skanked” intensely to
the entire set.
Visit the Selecter at http://www.theselecter.net.
