En Espaniol

Laurel Aitken / Skarlatines

CD - LP - 1999

Laurel Aitken, the legendary Godfather of Ska, released this spanish album in 1999. He sadly passed away on July 17th. 2005 and this one is his only spanish long play in his long career.

Laurel was born in Cuba in 1925, but emigrated to Jamaica at the age of eight years old, he could speak perfect spanish and this was a really long awaited recording, a project he was planing for decades. The title just mean ‘In Spanish’, you can find on this album classic spanish, in bluebeat style, like Perfidia, Quizás Quizas or La Paloma, but also a few Laurel Aitken hits sung in spanish for the very first time. At the age of 72 years old Laurel teached some good lessosns to the long stablished spanish bands of how can reggae and ska been interpretated in spanish that naturally.

The album was recorded with one of the best ever spanish ska bands: Skarlatines, with whom Laurel toured extensively trhough Europe, speacialy in Spain, of course.

Making history: known worldwide around as “The Godfather of Ska” and also as “Maximmum Reggae Priest”, Laurel Aitken was a legend since Jamaican music was borned. His career started around 1958 with the Rhythm & Blues era and the first Ska ever cut. During the sixties worked with most of the jamaican record labels, turning from the Ska era to the Rocksteady and then to Reggae. He was one of the best jamaican artists with a strong activity playing live and touring all around the world, selling out tickets everywhere and thousends of records, but also one of the most acclaimed reggae producers in the UK.

This is Latin Ska!