Feel Like Jumping: The Best of Studio One Women

Various Artists
Feel Like Jumping: The Best of Studio One Women
Heartbeat; 2000

Taking its name from Marcia Griffiths’ richly layered classic, this compilation of recordings made in Clement “Coxsone” Dodd’s legendary Kingston-based Studio One covers popular female reggae artists from the ‘60s to the ‘80s. If Bob Marley’s birthplace is the Jerusalem of the reggae pilgrimage, Studio One is surely its Bethlehem, and its name is still synonymous with excellence and innovation. More popularly regarded as the Motown of Jamaica, the influential Studio One label and studio was founded by Dodd back in 1954, and he is still credited with the discovery of the Wailers, Toots & the Maytals, the Skatalites, and scores of other quintessentially Jamaican bands. While male artists had few problems breaking into the overseas reggae and ska markets during their heyday, many female performers toiled away in relative obscurity (when they weren’t relegated to backup singing duties to bigger touring stars). But under Dodd’s tutelage, performers like Nina Soul, Little Audrey, Norma Frasier, and Hortense Ellis found their own remarkable voices in a decidedly crowded chauvinistic genre — which is odd when you consider reggae’s purported message of acceptance and inclusion. Songs like “No, No, No” (Dawn Penn) and “Feel So Good” (Denise Darlington) help revise the history Marley and his compatriots often wrote with iron-fisted bravado and shed welcome light on an overlooked chapter in music. You’re sure to find Jerry Jones’s soaring take on “Compared to What?” and Doreen Shaffer’s “Try a Little Smile” especially rewarding, but from beginning to end, Feel Like Jumping is nothing less than a revelation. — T. Bennison