Coxsone Dodd was among the first record producers to emerge just before the birth of ska and by the time of his death in 2004 few would argue that he had become the king of the Jamaican record industry via his recordings issued on a bevy of labels, from Studio One to Coxsone to Musik City to Tabernacle to Winro and more.
In May, Heartbeat issued new versions of the double-disc "Ska Bonanza" compilation, which remains one of the best introductions of reggae's uptempo predecessor, and Freddie McGregor's seminal 1980 "Bobby Babylon." The latter augments the original disc with eight more tunes for a 70-minute party featuring one of Jamaica's sweetest voices.
The newest batch includes "I Can't Get You Off My Mind," a collection of John Holt's greatest hits for the label. As the singer of The Paragons, Holt is best known as the voice on the original "The Tide is High." Delroy Wilson, who began his career at Studio One as a pre-teen, is also the subject of a best-of set, "Original Eighteen."
Most exciting for this fan is "Version Dread: 18 Dub Hits from Studio One," which lassos a dozen and a half instrumentals from rare 45s and most of them appear here for the first time ever on CD. Dodd's dubs were simple and direct, but showcase the fabulous musicians that created the soundtracks for Jamaica's top talent at Studio One, including The Wailers, The Maytals, Burning Spear, Horace Andy and others.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
