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The Documentary; 19/08/2012

The Documentary: Wheel And Come Again: 50 Years Of Jamaican Music

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Music: Soul & Reggae: Reggae

Wheel And Come Again: 50 Years Of Jamaican Music

19/08/2012

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Wheel And Come Again: 50 Years Of Jamaican Music

Colin Grant looks at the cycles of Jamaican music in Wheel and Come Again.

Jamaica, the loudest island on the planet, has also produced some of the most daring and innovative music. 

It's now 50 years on from Jamaica's independence from Britain and the Afro-Saxons have become Afrocentric.

In Wheel and Come Again, Colin Grant looks at the cycles of Jamaican music that have emerged from the dirt poverty of its ghettoes and the mystical beauty of its hinterland. 

Colin charts the evolution of music from the gentle caricature of the Calypsonian-inflected island in the sun to the sexually-charged Dancehall; dropping in on its redemptive golden period along the way.

Finally, Colin shows the power and polarity of Jamaican music: the tension between Bob Marley's One Love and Peter Tosh's rejection of peace because "peace is the diploma you get in the cemetery".

(Image: Colin Grant and Bunny Wailer. Photo by Jasmine Grant)

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