28 | May | 2012 | Midnight Raver

Tickets on sale now for THE LOST ARCHIVES OF 17 NORTH PARADE!

Next month, Randy’s Reggae Producer CLIVE CHIN will share gems and stories from his freshly mined ARCHIVE OF RARE REGGAE RECORDINGS!

In an unprecedented event in Reggae recording history, internationally known reggae producer Clive Chin will unveil his rare archive of previously unknown and unreleased recordings by many of Reggae’s greatest stars during the heyday of Ska and Early Reggae, virtually unheard by anyone for nearly 40 years!

On Saturday, June 16, attendees will have a first listen to these historic recordings and a reggae history lecture by Clive Chin (w/ moderation by Pat McKay of SiriusXM Radio) at The Frost Theatre of the Arts, at 17 Frost Street in Willamsburg, Brooklyn; and at a Reggae Dance Party immediately afterwards at Loreley, 65 Frost Street, with the cream of New York City’s top DJ’s and Artists performing alongside Chin.

Tickets to the event on sale now at The Lost Archive of 17 North Parade web site, located at reggaegems.tumblr.com

ABOUT THE ARCHIVE
The lost archive consists of hundreds of hours of Reggae music recorded from 1968-1978 by Clive Chin and his father, Vincent “Randy” Chin, at the legendary Studio 17, located at 17 North Parade in Kingston, Jamaica. Included are performances by such major artists as Bob Marley, the Wailers, Peter Tosh, Alton Ellis, Gregory Isaacs, Lord Creator, John Holt, U-Roy, Tommy McCook, I-Roy, Augustus Pablo and many more.

The original master tapes, which lay undisturbed in Jamaica for nearly 30 years, were brought to the States through the assistance of E.M.P. (Experience Music Project) and Microsoft founder Paul Allen. The tapes have all been digitized and catalogued for the first time by Chin and producer/engineer Billy “Prince Polo” Szeflinski, working at The Kennel Recording Studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Prince Polo, an up-and-coming dub reggae producer, not only remixed the recordings, but has also added new instrumentation and vocals to the tracks, many of which were unfinished instrumentals.

ABOUT RANDY’S RECORDS
This story began over 40 years ago with reggae pioneers Vincent Chin and his wife Patricia (Miss Pat) in their native Kingston, Jamaica. Mr. Chin received his first taste of the music business maintaining the jukeboxes at bars around the island. This led his creative and enterprising mind to recognize the opportunity to sell the old records that would otherwise be discarded for new ones. The entrepreneurial couple quickly learned hands-on the business of music merchandising.

In 1958, the success of the Chin’s jukebox record venture led to the opening of a small retail store on East Street, Randy’s Records in downtown Kingston. Within a few years, the Chins moved the store to 17 North Parade and later opened Studio 17, a production facility frequented by legendary artists Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaacs and other Reggae greats. In the mid-70s, the Chins moved to America and brought their business along with them to service the growing Caribbean market in the U.S.

In 1979, Jamaica Queens, NY became the home of Vincent and Pat Chin’s U.S. retail store, VP Records on Jamaica Avenue. From the start, the couple quickly became major producers and wholesale distributors of reggae as they established supply lines to record stores all across North America. During these years they earned the right to their slogan “Miles Ahead in Reggae Music,” as they became the world’s leading distributor of music from Jamaica and other islands of the Caribbean.

ABOUT CLIVE CHIN
Clive Chin first rose to prominence by producing a record for his classmate Horace Swaby, a.k.a. Augustus Pablo, in 1971 at Randy’s Studio in downtown Kingston, Jamaica. This record, “Java,” became a slow burning international sensation with its Eastern motif played on the melodica. LPs followed, namely This Is Augustus Pablo and Java Java Dub, which elaborated on the rhythmic achievements of the single. Another of his biggest hits on the British National Chart was “Fatty Bum, Bum” by Carl Malcolm.
During this heyday of early reggae classics, Clive established his own record label, Impact! along with recording cuts for his family label, Randy’s. He helped with recordings at all the major studios in Kingston with artists such as; Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, Hortense and Alton Ellis, Horace Andy, Big Youth, I-Roy, U-Roy, Dennis Alcapone and Senya. Some international Clive Chin productions include: Serge Gainsbourg (France), Joe Cocker (England), Martha Velez (Puerto Rico), and Johnny Nash (US).

His producing came to an abrupt end in 1978, as the Chin family closed shop and relocated to New York, where the record operation was renamed VP Records, which today is the largest reggae distributor in North America.

Taking a new direction in business, Clive spent much of the ’80s running a Jamaican restaurant in Queens, New York. Clive began to produce records again in the mid ‘90’s, and started pressing and releasing re-issues of Randy’s and Impact! Classics with his new company, Above Rock Records, and more recently, 17 North Parade.

Due to the rise of vintage reggae in recent times, Chin’s productions are proudly coming into the light of day once again. His current production work features new artists voiced-over his now famous riddims; Luciano, Sizzla, Jr. Kelly (Jamaica), collaborations with his producer/son Joel Chin, Cha Cha (Shanghai), K-Vibes (NY), and Oli (France), to name a few.

With this renewed appreciation of Classic Reggae, Clive is now accepting demands for his Reggae Music History and Lecture/Demonstration Workshops all over the world including The Red Bull Academy in Capetown South Africa (2003). He more recently toured with The Uprooted Sunshine Tour in China (2009-10) that entertained several Chinese dignitaries, and The Randy’s 50th Anniversary Tour in Japan.

Event:
Clive Chin presents: An Evening of Untold Stories and Unheard Reggae Gems of…
THE LOST ARCHIVES OF 17 NORTH PARADE
Randy’s Records and Studio 17 Recording Studio of Kingston, JA

Reps:
VP RECORDS, 17 North Parade, Dubspot, The Kennel Recording Studio

Date:
Saturday, June 16, 2012

Times:
8pm: Clive’s Lecture/Demonstration – $25 per person (includes Party)
9pm: Dance Party with Clive and DJ Friends – $10 per person

Venues:
Clive’s Lecture/Demonstration will be at:
The Frost Theatre of the Arts, 17 Frost St. Brooklyn, NY…with an After Party to be held at Loreley, 65 Frost St. NY

Tickets:
On sale at: reggaegems.tumblr.com

Contact: VP RECORDS 718-425-1138

By Richard Buskin

Bob Marley and the Wailers were the first Jamaican musicians to achieve world stardom. Tracked in Kingston and finished in London by Island engineers Phill Brown and Tony Platt, their breakthrough album was a truly international recording.

Starting as a tape-op at Olympic Studios, London, in November 1967, Phill Brown was initially trained by such industry notables as Keith Grant, Glyn Johns and Eddie Kramer while working with artists like the Rolling Stones, the Small Faces, Traffic and Jimi Hendrix. Not a bad start. In 1970, after having built Toronto Sound, Canada’s first 16-track studio, with his brother Terry, Brown then became a house engineer at the newly opened Island Records facility on Basing Street in Central London, where he initially worked with outside clients and stayed until going freelance in 1976. By then his credits included Harry Nilsson, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin, Robert Palmer and one Robert Nesta Marley, who as a member of the Wailers had first worked alongside Brown on the band’s second Island release, the 1973 album Burnin’.

Please click on the link to continue reading on Issuu.

Sound On Sound Magazine, March 2006