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THE GODFATHERS OF SKA ­THE SKATALITES MARCH 22 AT HARLOWS
Harlows in Sacramento has the Ska Kings, the Skatalites at 9pm on Thursday, March 22.Opening act is the popular local reggae band, Mystafya. Tickets are $20  and the club is 21 and over.

The Skatalites brought together the top musicians and styles of the time: fusing boogie-woogie blues, R&B, jazz, mento, calypso, and  African rhythms to create the first truly Jamaican music in form ska. Throughout the mid-20th century, experience in big bands solidified the prowess of  most Jamaican musicians; yet, the genesis for many of the great Skatalites goes back to a boy's school established for the wayward.  

The Alpha Boys School, run by the Sisters of Mercy and led (for most of the last century) by Sister Ignatius, educated many of the future Skatalites.  

Founded in 1880 and with its own house band since the 1890s, Alpha was essentially a military-style school that also developed top-notch musicians. Tommy  McCook became a pupil there in 1938, playing his sax in the school's best orchestra by 1942. Fellow Skatalites, including master penman and trombonist Don Drummond, Johnny "Dizzy" Moore, and Lester Sterling also attended Alpha, same way for Cedric Brooks, Vin Gordon, Rico Rodriquez, Ernest Ranglin, Eddie "Tan Tan" Thornton, Bobby Ellis, "Horsemouth" Wallace and JoJo Bennett, all of whom have played with, or were members of The Skatalites.  



Jazz and ska enthusiasts alike will be drawn in by the hard-bop and improv sounds of the full of horns and rhythm. The Skatalites have provided dedicated ska fans with a standard to go by for more than fifty years it's all about the rhythm. These musicians are a rarity; the best the land has to offer have played together for years, helping usher in generations of styles. Ska,  rocksteady, rudeboy, reggae, rockers, dancehall, reggaeton are all children and grandchildren of The Skatalites' sound.  We invite ska fans to bop, rock and skank as the Skafathers tear it up at Harlows on March 22nd. 

Tickets are available at Harlows 2708 "J" St. in Sacramento, The Beat, Dimples Records, Armadillos Records in Davis, Cherry Records in Auburn, and the Briar Patch in Grass Valley. Also online at www.renegadeshows.com, tickets.com, jambasetickets.com and harlows.com. For more information call  530-583-2801 or 916/441-4693.
 
www.skatalites.com

Editor's note: This article originally ran in the March 2, 2007 issue of the International Herald Tribune

by Marc Lacey

KINGSTON, Jamaica: At Bob Marley's old home in
Trench Town, a rough part of this capital city that is far off the
tourist route, Benjamin Cole sits in the shade and waits.

When the occasional visitor shows up, Cole, a Rastafarian who goes
by the name of Benjie, hops up from his stool and, after a bit of
negotiation over the cost of his services, conducts a tour of the
"government yard," or the public housing project that Marley made
famous in his hit song "No Woman, No Cry."

Cole, 55, who claims to have met Marley when the singer was 12, said
on a recent day that he expected that his visitors' book would fill up
fast in March. In fact, all of Kingston is planning for a flood of
arrivals as the Caribbean prepares to be the host for the Cricket World
Cup, one of the world's largest sporting events.

Ranking behind the Olympics and World Cup soccer but not much else,
the cricket competition is expected to bring tens of thousands of
people to the Caribbean in March and April. Jamaica is one of the nine
nations that have banded together to serve as the hosts for the matches.

Whether the sites will be as ready as Cole for the onslaught of
outsiders is still unknown. Across the West Indies, a region that plays
up its go-slow attitude to tourists, work crews are hustling to revamp
stadiums and beautify urban centers in time for the tournament, which
begins Monday with warm-up matches. An opening ceremony is set for
March 11, and the tournament runs until the end of April.

In a recent assessment, organizers found that only St. Kitts and Nevis
had met the Dec. 31 deadline for completing sites. Other countries have
the bulk of the work done but are finishing sewers, electricity
supplies and — quite important in this part of the world —
air-conditioning systems.

The
two biggest concerns are a roof going up over a stadium in
Barbados and work on the spectators' areas at the stadium in Trinidad
and Tobago. "We need Trinidad to step up to the plate with every
resource in spite of Carnival season," Donald Lockerbie, who is in
charge of
stadium construction for the tournament, said in mid- February.

In Jamaica, which will be the host for the opening ceremony as well
as four warm-ups, six group matches and a semifinal, a major face-lift
is under way. However, few expect the street paving
and other renovation work to conceal the fact that the capital, one of the Caribbean's largest
cities, has been crumbling for years.

Organizers say, as Marley sang, that every little thing is going to be all right.

"It has been quite a task to build 12 stadiums, but they are going
to be ready in time," assured Chris Dehring, managing director of the
Cricket World Cup organizing committee. Still, he acknowledged, "there
is a lot of work to be done."

One of the benefits of the tournament that has materialized, Dehring
said, is the unity it has helped create among the scattered islands.
Many Caribbean states have been planning for years to merge their
small economies and create a common currency. But the tournament has
forced the countries to come together to pass common legislation
dealing with foreign visitors and security. For the tournament, one
visa will be good for all the islands.

In Trench Town, where street gangs battle over turf and where people
live in shacks about the size of the garages at the glorious homes in
the hills, expectations for the cricket tournament are high.

Community leaders will have tour guides at the ready to take
visitors around a neighborhood they say has a proud past. Bob Marley is
just one of many popular Jamaican musicians to emerge from Trench Town.
Another local, Hugh Sherlock, wrote Jamaica's national anthem. The West
Indies cricket team owes some of its success over the years to Trench
Town players, like the noted Collie Smith.
The neighborhood, in western Kingston, is as cricket crazy a place
as it is a violent one. Whether foreign visitors will come to Trench
Town is unclear, just as it is anyone's guess whether the tournament
will be the economic shot in the arm that organizers predict.

"Economists will argue for many years to come about the economic
benefits," Dehring said. "We have to make sure the expectations are
realistic. Clearly, this cannot eradicate poverty."

Still, Cole said he hoped it would help lessen his hard times. He
has been in a dispute of late over who ought to control the revenues
that come into the old neighborhood of Marley, who died in 1981. The
house he lived in has been renovated with donations from many sources,
and admission fees go to a community group. But Cole contends that
people who actually knew Marley, like himself, ought to be the ones
greeting visitors and sharing in the fees.

"Bob told me in the '70s, 'People are going to come, and you tell them about me,'" Cole said.

And he does. Marley used to sit here and practice his lyrics, Cole
said, pointing to a stool. Georgie, a neighbor who was mentioned in "No
Woman, No Cry," lived over there. Look at his guitar, at his cooking
pots, at his single bed.

In the background, Cole has reggae songs playing at full volume, among them Marley's "Trench Town Rock."