Son of Randys Records founder Vincent Chin, Clilve Chin hauled all the master tapes of the reggae greats from Jamaica to Seattle, from Seattle to Queens NY.
Masters like, Dennis Brown, Carl Malcolm, The Wailers, Black Uhuru, and countless others crossed their threshold. Since moving from Kingston, Jamaica to New York City, Clive had been keeping tabs on an archive of recordings in the old, flagship Randy’s Records storefront, 17 North Parade.
SiriusXM radio DJ Patricia McKay, he gave a heartfelt lecture to a packed room of roots reggae fanatics at the Frost Theatre of the Living Arts, in Williamsburg. From that is a three part video series that you cannot miss. It’s not exactly glossy but it does offer a nice story of how the evolution of reggae, ska and dub actually went down.
I consider myself a fan but not a historian. I cant tell you dates and events but I can tell you Desmond Decker kicked ass and that I cannot believe that there is not a more fierce movement in the States.
The story is interesting with familial anticdotes and lot’s of holy cow moments. Example?
“I made a list of everything in biographical order and in the way they were recorded. There were four different formats. We had the quarter-inch mix-down tapes, [and] we had a four-track machine when the studio was first opened in ‘68. We got a one-inch eight-track just around the early ‘70s , and we started doing separate tracks. We updated the equipment as time went on. In the mid ‘70s– this was around ‘76– we acquired a 24-track, which is the one-inch. It was only a 16-track head, meaning that we could only record 16 tracks. So, we had four different formats of tapes. Now, a good bulk of those recordings never see the light of day; they were never released. What one must remember is that Randy’s Records wasn’t just a label but also a distributor, and [Patricia] had her eyes on everybody’s label out there. She had her eyes on Bonny Lee, Jackpot, Scratch Perry, Observer, Derek Harriet, Musical Chariot, Winston Riley, African Museum… And then there was Federal with their label, Dynamic, with some other subsidiary. Total Sounds was in effect at the time. Micron– I mean, the ‘70s was the mecca of the Jamaican music.”
‘Nuff readin-get watchin’
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