For such a tiny, inauspicious island, Jamaica was able to create all too many distinct genres of music in just over fifteen years time. There are obvious commonalities, but the differences between ska and dub are pretty drastic.

There are a number of performers who can claim that their own work presaged a genre or stylistic shift, but none perhaps as convincingly as Sugar Minott.

Born in May of 1956, the Kingston native began his music career working with sound system engineers prior to founding his own as chief selector. His singing career, though, wasn’t all too far off down the line. Minott formed the African Brothers with Derrick Howard and perhaps more notably, Tony Tuff – who today is still working in music related to this career apotheosis.

After releasing a number of well received singles with the trio, Minott saw fit to go it alone. At this point in the development of Jamaican music history, dubs and versions hadn’t yet taken over the island. But Minott helped usher in the era of recycled rhythms. With the cache of Studio One hits at his disposal, Minott and Coxsonne Dodd began the process of selecting key singles for Minott to sing over. While this often is referenced as the birth of dancehall, the way in which that genre is (mis)understood makes this assumption a bit misleading.

Minott was not a toaster, a rapper or a sing jay. He was a crooner. The sweet, easy and light tone that his voice was blessed with has really no association with Tiger, Dillinger or any other well received dee jay from the era. The tie that Minott has to that genre, though, stems solely from his utilization of previous rhythms which would become the basis for what dancehall would become.

“Vanity” was the singers first immense hit as well as the lead off track to the Soul Jazz compilation At Studio One. The rock steady beat, not quite slow enough to be a reggae and certainly too laid back to be considered a ska, featured lyrics befitting Minott’s overt Rasta beliefs. The singer goes on to explain that vanity can ruin one’s humanity. This first hit from him served to not only re-imagine a music, but to assert cultural and humanistic ideologies. Following that track on the compilation, the inclusion of a rather faithful “I Need a Roof” from the Mighty Diamonds re-titled “Roof Over My Head,” here finds Minott even nodding in appreciation to his predecessors as he appropriates their craft.

With the realization that old rhythms could in fact become new again, Dodd sought to keep Minott under his wing for as long as possible, also utilizing the singer as a session guitarist and drummer. With such a range of talents, though, Minott quickly found that England, with its larger markets, was ideal for his career.

But regardless of his future stock, the collected tracks on At Studio One serve up so many memorable rhythms, that it stands head and shoulders above much of the reissue work from the Soul Jazz label.