AS a teenager, Clive Chin witnessed what became some of the most pivotal recording sessions in reggae at his father Vincent’s Studio 17 in downtown Kingston.
By the early 1970s, Chin began producing songs for the family’s Randy’s label and his own Impact imprint. He plans to release songs from the latter this summer.
The songs will be part of a compilation series called The Lost Archives Of Studio 17. It will contain tracks by Augustus Pablo, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs and John Holt, as well as an instrumental album from Trinidadian guitarist Lynn Taitt.
“What is important to me is that the Randy’s legacy lives on. My whole intention is to keep that legacy alive,” Chin, 61, told the Jamaica Observer.
Vincent Chin, known as Randy, started the Randy’s label in the late 1950’s. A number of top artists recorded for the label, including The Skatalites, Peter Tosh and Lord Creator.Studio 17 is where classic albums like The Wailers’ Soul Rebel, Pablo’s This Is Augustus Pablo,
Marcus Garvey by Burning Spear, and Tosh’s Legalize It were recorded.
It’s also where Chin did sessions for Brown’s cover of American soul singer Ronnie Dyson’s When You Get Right Down To It, one of the songs from the upcoming album.
This song was done in the early 1970s but never released. It has guitar overdubs from Dave Stewart, formerly of British pop group The Eurhythmics.
Another Brown cover, of Horace Andy’s My Baby Don’t Go, is on the set. So too an alternate version of Lonely Soldier by Isaacs, one of Impact’s early hits.
Most modern dancehall insiders associate Vincent Chin with VP Records, the label he started with his wife Pat in Queens, Nework in 1979. He died in 2003 at age 65.
Since his death, the Chin family has dug into the Randy’s vault and reissued a number of key albums through its 17 North Parade affiliate launched in 2007.
—By Howard Campbell
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