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Thursday, August 10, 2006

Tribute to my Aunt Sonia Pottinger-Miss P


Growing up in the era of Treasure Isle Recording studio was indeed and interesting time of my life. I am talking about some awesome music.

I love the following excerpt from Wikipedia..


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Sonia Pottinger (born c. 1940) is a Jamaican reggae record producer.

The most important Jamaican woman involved in music business, Mrs Pottinger's produced artists from the mid 1960s until the mid 1980s.

Married to music producer Lyndon Pottinger, she opened her Tip Top Records Shop in the mid 1960s and started to record musicians in 1966. The first single she issued (recorded at Federal Recording Studios) was a Baba Brooks tune which became a Jamaican hit. Other artists recorded during this period include Roland Alphonso. Throughout the rocksteady and early reggae eras, she became very prolific with hits by The Ethiopians ("The Whip"), Delano Stewart, The Melodians ("Swing And Dine"), Ken Boothe, Alton Ellis and Toots & The Maytals. In the 1970s, she produced albums by Bob Andy, Marcia Griffiths, Culture, U Roy and Big Youth. Her most well known production is Culture's Harder Than The Rest album, released in 1978.


This tribute just touches the surface of this wonderful legend. Miss P was like my second mother in my teen years. Wait what am I saying, she was my guardian so she was pretty much my Mom. Being surrounded by all those wonderful artist back in the 70's and early 80's was indeed a thrill. The strange thing was I never thought of them as artist because they were just regular folks. When I worked at the record store I got to experience things that most teens didn't, seeing the record (vinyl) being made. Orange Street in Kingston was so alive then. Many tourist would walk up from the Harbor and make their way up the street.

We would see the Kisko Pop vendors pushing their carts on a hot Kingston day, screaming out, "KISKO, KISKO POP!"..man those were good. I learned to throw those 45's on the turntable real fast. Oh and don't forget the MIDDLE piece for the turntable because you SALT..(out of luck) you can't play the 45's without the middle piece mon.

Below are some examples of Miss P's work.


http://www.reggae-vibes.com/concert/jackiebrown/pics/knowyou.jpg





3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is so cool. I just love your blog. It's so full of Jamaica you can feel it and your love for it oozing from the pages. When I come back I want to listen to some of those songs. I'm assuming I can hear clips, right?

Keep sharing. I love it!!

iriegal said...

Thank you Terri, yes my passion for Jamaica and sharing its culture is the reason for creating this blog. YOu are correct, just click on the links and you can get a preview of the songs.

Anonymous said...

Hi Iriegal-

My mother had a similar experiece with Sonia Pottinger. She lived with her as a child and has always told great stories about her. It would be great if you could provide me with a link that my mother could contact Ms. Pottinger or Ronnette or Sharon. My email is kamorgan716@hotmail.com