I was drawn in to the documentary for the chance to see some reggae master tapes in action, but I was floored by the content of the film itself! I was not expecting a beautiful story about family and perseverance. I have become more familiar with reggae as a whole recently enough, and it was a real treat to learn even more from first hand tales of people directly involved in the creation process.
The documentary takes it from the beginning of the 1960's, where Jamaica was just gaining it's independence from the United Kingdom. From the country's progression from Ska, to Reggae, and to the present day. All of which had involvement from the Chin family, beginning with the son of a Chinese immigrant to Jamaica, Vincent "Randy" Chin. Vincent would service the jukeboxes around the country with his wife Patricia, and came up with the idea to sell the used records at a second hand price. Thus they opened the store "Randy's Records" on 17 North Parade in Kingston. Randy's quickly became a hotspot and generated enough revenue for them to open up a studio on the second floor of the building, Studio 17. Up and coming talent would come to record in the studio, as well as burgeoning legendary producers. A collection of notable names from this period include Bob Marley & The Wailers, Dennis Brown, Peter Tosh, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Big Youth, Augustus Pablo and so many more.
How it was described in the documentary is that the artists got a package deal with Randy's. They could not only record at a reasonable price, but also sell their records in the very same building! The fun lasted until 1976, when there were political tensions clashing in the country. It got so bad that there were even shootouts in the street because of it! The violence deterred the family to such a degree that they left Jamaica and everything they owned behind, relocating to New York with only $50 in their pocket. They basically had to start over again. The way they described was that the only reggae anyone had heard of in the place they moved to (Jamaica, Queens) was restricted to just Bob Marley. The family continued on in the record business as VP Records, named after the first initials of Vincent and Patricia. Soon the business would become a powerhouse of distribution for reggae both in the United States and in their native Jamaica. After nearly 20 years passed, the producer of many of the recordings done at Studio 17 (Vincent's son, Clive) decided to journey back to the residence of their former store. Most of the store was looted during the 1988 hurricane that swept through Jamaica. Even though the temperature was hot as a furnace in the studio, it was left untouched. By a stroke of luck all the master tapes were still there, preserved on the top floor of the building. Clive was able to take them all back to New York by 2001, where his son would occasionally ask about what his father would do with the tapes (but nothing came to fruition).
Clive's son would move to Jamaica to be near the artists the the label distributed, but was murdered on the way home to his wife and newborn child in 2008. It was because of this tragedy that Clive finally made the decision to revisit the master tapes of recordings he made all those years ago. It was to honor his son, and what a touching way to do so! You will also see and hear many of the recordings in this documentary, which includes behind the scenes studio chatter and vivid stories that Clive has to pair with them. The whole experience wraps up with Clive finding a suitable female singer to complete an unfinished and unreleased Dennis Brown record, and the relationship of the family.
I was awestruck that I had not heard of the documentary before, and was rewarded tenfold by my investigation. There was a massive attention to detail in both sound and audio quality during the whole film. Not to mention all the incredible archive footage, interviews and songs chosen. I highly recommend it, especially if you want to know more about the history of reggae and the people involved beyond the scope of just Bob Marley & The Wailers! I watched it on Qwest TV with a free subscription, and it is defintely worth signing up just for this film.
