The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2019 - Issue 26

bite music 17 Images courtesy of Wide Stream Films Sadly, political turmoil hit Jamaica in the late 1970s, prompting Vincent and Pat to leave the island for New York, abandoning the studio and record shop. However, they successfully opened VP Re- cords (the initials taken from their first names) on Jamaica Avenue, in Jamaica, Queens which became the world’s largest independent reggae label. Vincent passed away in 2003 but Pat still lives and works in New York, mentoring the latest risqué dancehall acts on the VP label. Leaving behind some 2,000 original session tapes at Studio 17 when the Chins fled to New York, it was believed they were lost in the flooding and looting that followed Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 that left the studio unusable. Thanks to a major exhibition on Ja- maican music at Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project in Seattle (now the Museum of Pop Culture), the tapes were rediscovered and shipped to New York where they languished for some time in a basement. Trained by his father Vincent, Clive Chin became one of the expert sound engineers at Studio 17 and produced some of the riveting sounds made there. Before his untimely death, Joel Chin, Clive’s son and A&R for VP Records, who was murdered in Kingston, Jamaica (his killer was never found) had encouraged his father to do something with the archive for many years. Clive finally took on the task of carefully restoring and digitising the tapes in New York, in memory of his son. The documentary, Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes , which was aired on BBC4 and can be found on BBC iPlayer, was premiered at the Nashville Film Festival on 8th October. Narrated by Levi Roots, the film includes interviews with many of the reggae greats, includ- ing Jimmy Cliff, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Ernest Ranglin, Sly Dunbar, Maxi Priest, Ali Campbell of UB40, King Jammy, Bunny Lee, Lord Creator, the late Rico Rodriguez, and the re-recording of a Dennis Brown classic with British rock musician Dave Stewart. Starting with an intro of soldiers in white uniform, the Jamaican flag, fireworks and Jamaican people celebrating Independence Day, Lord Creator’s ‘Kingston Town’ plays in the background. We are shown the dilapidated studio with the echoed sound of the en- gineers talking and Levi Roots speaking about the treasure trove of original studio tapes that were once considered lost, revealing unique and stunning recordings from the golden age of reggae, many of them unreleased and never heard before. This beautifully curated documentary gives you an insight into what life was like at Randy’s and Studio 17. What made me smiled was when Pat, who became known as Miss Pat, described how Vin- cent who once worked with her grandfather at the bakery deliver- ing bread, went on to work at the company that serviced jukeboxes. Her dream of going into nursing disappeared when she met Vin- cent at the age of 18 as the prospect of travelling around the island with him was more exciting. Reggae singer Carl Malcolm who sang the classic 1975 hit ‘Fattie Bum-Bum’ (in response to complaints from larger ladies that he only sang songs for slimmer women) explained that Studio 17 was seen as the dreamland and Zion. ‘If you get up there, you’ll get somewhere in life,” he said. “When you get the opportunity, make sure you do something good with it because it’s not gonna happen again. Only the best of the best is going to get through that door.” es Lord Creator 1960s Vincent Chin 'Randy' in studio