Orange Street: Jamaica’s Beat Street
There are several streets around the world that have had a significant impact on global music for example, Beale Street located in Memphis, Tennessee was essential for the growth of jazz and blues from the 1920s to the 1940s while Berwick Street in London’s West End was the hub of several independent record shops in the heights of music’s physical format consumerism. However, there isn’t a street on Earth that possibly has had not only the effect on two separate musical genres and an entire country’s soundscape than Orange Street in Jamaica’s capital city of Kingston. Being within the unofficial Kingston borders of Shoemaker Gully and Barnes Gully – west and east respectively – Torrington bridge to the north and the world’s seventh largest natural harbour to the south, Orange Street is smack dab in the middle of the hustle and bustle of what was Jamaica’s original financial center.
As a part of the original grid system of the town’s streets and lanes, Orange Street slowly became a place where the earliest purveyors of ska, rocksteady and reggae converged in the halcyon days of pre-independence Jamaica. Master Heritage Tour Guide Christopher Creary describes Orange Street as the heartbeat of Jamaican music. “Recording studios and record shops were first built on Orange Street. Chinese immigrants played an integral part in the development of the music as most of their shops downtown doubled as radio shops and recording studios even in some cases record labels and distributors.” He added. One of the key people who would have filled that criteria would be Vincent Chin who owned Randy’s Records – which would later become VP Records, currently one of the world’s foremost record labels and distributor of Jamaican music. Randy’s Records was not directly on Orange Street, however, it literally could not be any closer as Chin set up his shop at 17 North Parade, mere steps from one of Orange Street’s busiest interpasses.
Noted electronics store owner Stanley Motta was said to be one of the first people to import the machinery to press records. His label was then known as MRS – which stood for Motta Recording Studio – was instrumental in getting Sir Lord Comic, one of Jamaica’s first deejays or toasters as they are more popularly classified as outside of the island. One of Jamaica’s most important contributions to the world of music, the soundsystem can trace its origins to Orange Street as well. “Jamaica gave to the world, soundsystems and the modern soundsystem that you see them putting up bluetooth boxes now, really started out on Orange Street with the sound system known as The Great Sebastian.” Creary explains. “The owner’s real name was Thomas Wong, who was of Chinese descent.”
The Great Sebastian, sometimes billed as Tom the Great Sebastian, held significant popularity until the late 1950s and it remained in operation until Wong’s suicide in 1971 after which it was sold a few times before it was eventually renamed Metromedia and became of the most popular sounds in the 1980s and the 1990s. Orange Street, and the tributaries leading from it, had so many record shops and recording studios between Heywood Street and North Street owned by likes of Joe Gibbs, Winston Riley and even Bob Marley that ska and rocksteady legend Prince Buster coined the moniker “Beat Street” about the place of his birth – a name which it retains to this day. Coincidentally, Orange Street was famously the birthplace of another of Jamaica’s most respected crooners, the Crown Prince of Reggae Dennis Emmanuel Brown. The actual environs that Dennis Brown spent his early years, ‘Big Yard’ has been immortalized within the Jamaican industry as its name became a world renowned record label who were responsible for a significant portion of diamond selling act Shaggy’s career. But that is certainly not all as ‘Big Yard’ is now right next door to possibly one of the few vinyl selling record shops on the island – Rockers International. This record shop was quite similar to Beverly’s. An equivalently important vinyl store of a time period long past. It was originally known as ‘Beverly’s’, an ice cream shop before investing full time into the production and retail of high quality vinyls and was coincidentally located at the bus stop over the stoplight on the same side of Orange Street as Rockers. Beverly’s was owned by another important Chinese Jamaican musical figure – Leslie Kong. He was the man who discovered Jimmy Cliff and recorded Bob Marley’s first single ‘A Cup of Coffee’ among other important tracks such as: ‘007 (Shanty Town)’ and ‘Israelites’ with Desmond Dekker, ‘Rivers of Babylon’ done by The Melodians and ‘54-46 That’s My Number’ and ‘Monkey Man’ with the Toots and the Maytals. A truly amazing catalogue! So Rockers International and the patrons who support it, have helped to keep the legend of Orange Street alive right up to the present day. Which is fortunate as apart from the remnants of Prince Buster’s record shop there are not many reminders of Orange Street’s heyday but there are a few residents that still keep the lure and mystique going strong.”Leggo was one of the man dem who used to walk and sell records. But out of di old old studios his studio is the only one that is still on Orange Street today. That and the record shop that was started by Augustus Pablo, which was called Augustus Record Shop Limited until the 70s when Augustus Pablo’s brother changed the name to Rockers International.” Creary explains.
After incorporating that name, Rockers International started to be known as not only the record shop to get the hot records of the day but one that gave people in Kingston access to some of the more eclectic forms of musical expression available. As one Ainsworth ‘Mitchie’ Williams can attest “When mi deh a Techniques and Randys. Mi used to feel seh: Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, Ken Boothe, John Holt yuh know dem popular set a singer deh. They were the only set of rocksteady singers. Mi used to think that ‘Hottest Hits Volume 1, 2 and 3 was the only compilation albums. So wi did limited.” He continues. “Cause dem only buy weh sell. Instant sales you know what I mean. Wah happen now when me come a Rockers, mi come and hear bout some artistes that mi never know bout: Winston Francis – Mr. Fix-It. I thought that Ben E King, Sam Cooke and dem man deh were the only farrin singers because the other shops only buy fi sell back. Mi come yahso and learn Englebert Humperdink, Adam Wade, Jackie Jackson and a hol’ heap others. Is like a wider ting.”
This type of musical education would not be possible without the constant inputs from the trained musical ear of the shop owners Augustus Pablo and his brother. Many people know of Augustus Pablo’s work as a dub music producer and his prowess with several instruments especially the melodica, the instrument which he is most associated with however they were less familiar with his musical tastes. Rockers International became a reflection and a projection of Augustus Pablo and his brother Garth’s ability to know which sounds would have the best staying power over the years. “Garth dem buy records now weh a lot of classics involve inna it and a lot of big people used to come here come buy some one a way tune.” Mitchie explains. “So Garth would have tune weh nah guh sell today nor tomorrow but dem a guh sell inna di long term.”
For someone who is not a native to Orange Street, Mitchie has spent a lot of time on the world famous stretch. As he became more and more integral to the day by day operations, Mitchie was given more and more control of what happened at Rockers International. There are quite a few hypotheses how this came to be, however the one that would be the most probable was that the decline in vinyl sales led to Garth spending less time on Orange Street than what was established as his norm. And with Garth not being there, on site, Mitchie took up the mantle as the person who manages the venerable record shop. “Knowledge start come to we that di place we deh a gold. Right deh suh a Beverly’s weh first record Bob Marley. Rupie Edwards did deh up the road, mi did actually meet Prince Buster. Even some other record shop weh deh further down Orange Street including Wagons, Techniques and some likkle mobile shop. Then you see this big bunch of tourist coming in from all over the world, sometime three nation buck up one time inna di shop.” He exclaimed. “People look up to you like a saviour, it mek yuh know how important the role yuh a play is. Even when things slow yuh deh yah same way because you never know who might pop up.” So in that capacity, Rockers International has a seminal role in bridging the gap between Orange Street yesteryear’s popularity and the realities of that stretch today. Many Jamaican artistes whose songs have long since been removed from local and international radio playlists found themselves regularly on Beat Street in recent times: Stranger Cole, Big Youth, Prince Allah, King Sttit and many more would check in at 135 Orange Street from time to time.
Even using the facilities available to fulfill dubplate requests from overseas soundsystems and establishments. Mitchie has also benefited from all of what Rockers facilities has to offer. “I come from a family of musicians. My mother was a singer in church and Glen Washington told me that my father was a wicked guitarist. Mi used to select pon sound but mi did always want to be a deejay. So when mi did inna high school, my friend carry mi to King Tubby for an audition which I failed. Mikey Bennett failed my audition at King Jammys as well but years later I ended up recording a deejay part at Grafton for him and a group called Front Page. Winston Riley allowed me to be around the mixing board and after a while I was passing and failing people like Super Beagle. After some time I began to record myself and eventually got some artistes fi join mi which allow more people fi know me and my works.” Mitchie ended up getting bass guitarist Flabba Holt to contribute to what became the ‘Easy Swing’ riddim recorded right there on Orange Street in 2018, some fifty years after that achievement was almost an hourly occurrence on a daily basis. From that Mitchie released ‘Going To The Dancehall” an interpretation of Dennis Brown’s ‘Going To A Ball’ riddim with Jah Fagan, Prince Alla and Addis Pablo – Augustus’ son on the fittingly called Oranje Streetz Musick label and few others on his 25 and a Half Music label.
With the recent focus on the redevelopment of downtown Kingston as a walkable pseudo art district with new murals and shops popping up seemingly every month, Orange Street has not been left out as there have been new plaques and murals recently put up, by Kingston Creative and other NGOs, celebrating the musical contributions made over the years. Big Youth, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, Sean Paul, Yami Bolo are only some of the musicians immortalized on the walls that line Orange Street’s section between North Street and Charles Street. These murals help to bring even more tourists to the area to learn about what made Beat Street great – the music. There is now talk of bids being sent to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) clamouring for them to designate the entirety of Orange Street (at least most of it specifically from the National Gallery of Jamaica, which straddles the picturesque Ocean Boulevard, straight up to the corner where Rockers International/Big Yard ends at the North Street crossing) as a World Cultural Heritage site joining the Blue and John Crow Mountain ranges as sites recognized by that organization. However, no matter happens in terms of musical legacy within Kingston, identified already as a creative city of music, will always owe an unpayable debt to Orange Street: Jamaica’s Beat Street.
All photos shot by Gladstone Taylor
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