Hi Bovine Ska and Rocksteady Friends,
Wow, it’s been a hot few weeks! We began this week’s show with two sets of cool ska and Prince Buster’s insanely fun 1965 cut, “Johnny Dollar.” Our mento set featured a Lloyd Charmers produced cut from The Island Champions, “Why Oh Papa Gone” and we ended the first hour with an epic set of mid-1970s reggae that saw version to version from The Crown Prince of Reggae, Dennis Brown and his tune with Niney, “Live After You.” The second half began with a label spotlight on Hubert Cunningham’s ACE TONE imprint which includes top tracks from 1974-76 from The Kingstonians, TheTidals, and The Three Brothers! Find a breeze and stay strong in this heavy heat, friends! XO Generoso and Lily

Hi Bovine Ska and Rocksteady Friends,
We started off this week’s Bovine Ska with two sets of very meta ska, as we selected eight ska tracks from 1964 and 65 about the ska, like The Melodies Treasure Isle effort, “The Whole World Doing The Ska!” We followed those ska gems up with our mento set that begins with “Mister Give Me The Rent” from the wonderful, Lord Flea and then a long batch of reggaes chosen by Lily from 1971-72 that include one from deejay Scotty, “Rosemarie.” Our label spotlight is on Keith Hudson’s right hand man, Keith Hobson’s BIG STYLE label that contains top numbers from 1974 from The Heptones, Johnny Clarke, and Roman Stewart! Stay healthy and strong in this heavy heat, friends! XO Generoso and Lily

Hello Bovine Ska and Rocksteady Friends,
We started off this week’s Bovine Ska with two sets of Jamaican rhythm and blues and early ska and before playing Basil Gabbidon’s rare 1962 cut, “Ben Johnson,” we talked about the folklore behind Ben Johnson Day. After all that ska was our mento set that began with a great one from Arthur Knibbs, called “I Reveal.” The first hour ended with a long set of mid-70s reggae selections picked by Lily that included some beautifully arranged Earl Zero cuts. Our label spotlight this week was on Errol Thompson’s young Naa-Na label that is packed with awesome productions from the legendary engineer. Stay healthy and strong in this heavy heat, friends! XO Generoso and Lily

Hello Bovine Ska and Rocksteady Friends,

As we told you the sad news during last week’s radio show, Conroy Cooper. the brilliant keyboardist, organist,arranger and band leader of The Broncos and The Fab Five, passed away on June 14th at the age of 74. Conroy began his professional career in music performing with the Tommy McCook, Bobby Aitken and The Carib Beats, and Lynn Taitt and The Jets, and it is his work with the Jets and Ernie Smith that begins our memorial. We followed with Conroy’s work with his groups The Broncos and The Fab Five, both their finest instrumental cuts and with the two bands performing behind everyone from Miss Lou, Louise Bennett, Johnny Nash, Joe White, Eric Donaldson, and many more before Conroy left the Fab Five in 1978. We hope that you like our tribute and we send our deepest respects to Conroy’s brother and band mate, Grub and their family, friends, and many colleagues in music. XO Generoso and Lily

Hello Bovine Ska and Rocksteady Friends,

Just before we started recording this week’s show, we heard the sad news that Conroy Cooper, the talented organist/keyboardist and original member of The Fab 5 was found dead at the age of 74. We send our condolences and played a cut from the Fab 5, but we did not have time to put together an adequate memorial this week, but we shall on our next show. This week’s show started with two sets of ska beginning with a rare cut from The Zodiacs: Their cover of the Coasters 1960 hit, “Wake Me Shake Me.” Our mento set followed and a long set of reggae before getting into our spotlight of Pluto Shervington’s rare Playback Label which features top cuts from 75-76 from Pluto, Roman Stewart, and Laxton Ford. Stay healthy and strong and cool, friends! XO Generoso and Lily

Howdy Bovine Ska and Rocksteady Friends,

We started off this week’s edition of the Bovine Ska with two sets of ska, including what might be a first for the show, a Perry Como cover, this time performed by Alton Ellis and The Flames! Our mento set that followed begins with a super rare Count Lasher track and all three songs we played are heavy on the piano, A fantastic reggae set selected by Lily followed with some wonderful Winston Riley-produced cuts and then our label spotlight on Doug Bryan and Sydney Crooks’ Hot Rod imprint, which is not to be confused with UK label of the same name that was run by Lambert Briscoe. Stay healthy and strong and cool, friends! XO Generoso and Lily

Hello Bovine Ska and Rocksteady Listeners,

On May 28th, Prime Minister Edward Seaga, passed away on his 89th birthday. We send our deepest respects to the Prime Minister’s family, colleagues and many many friends during this very sad time. As we are sure that many of you know, prior to Seaga’s long career in politics he was Harvard-educated anthropologist and groundbreaking musical producer who supervised the recordings of early Jamaican musics, wrote extensive liner notes for musical artists like the Frats Quintet and founded the West Indian Record Limited Label where he recorded Higgs and Wilson, Laurel Aitken, and Byron Lee. For our memorial we concentrated on the Prime Minister’s massive efforts in bringing Jamaican music and culture to the world. Rest in power Prime Minister and thank you. Generoso and Lily

Hello Bovine Ska and Rocksteady Friends,
We dedicate this week’s Bovine Ska to the great hitter for the Dodgers, Cubs, and Red Sox, Bill Buckner, who passed away today at the age of 69. We started this week’s show with the ska, “Aqua Fumar” a super rarity by Prince Buster and The Charmers that was cut for Buster’s Islam label in 1965. An insect-centric mento set was next and then a long set of rare mid-70s reggae selected by Lily followed before we went into our label spotlight of Alvin Ranglin’s fantastic, BOSS DISC label, which features clever productions of songs performed by Freddy McKay, Bunny Ruggs, and of course, The GG All Stars! Stay healthy and strong, friends! XOXO Generoso and Lily

Hello Bovine Ska and Rocksteady Listeners,

Shortly before recording our program last week we received the sad news that Castro Brown, who helped bring reggae to the UK, passed away at the age of 68 from a heart attack, Castro immigrated to England in the early 1960s and started his career working with Lloyd “Lloydie Coxsone” Blackford on the Coxsone soundsystem there. Castro then founded Morpheus Records which produced songs by a number of artistes including his brother Jackie Brown, deejay I-Roy, Dennis Brown and Gregory Isaacs. Eventually Castro would assist Dennis Brown in running the singer’s DEB label. For our entire second hour of this week’s show, we played many of the finest earl productions by Castro on both the Morpheus and DEB labels. We send our deepest respects to Castro’s family. XO Generoso and Lily

Hello Bovine Ska and Rocksteady Friends!
This week we dedicate the show to our friend Melody, because she is just awesome! We started off the show with two sets of ska beginning with a great 1964 cut from Ken Boothe and Stranger Cole entitled, “Weep My Love.” Our weekly mento set followed with a recently acquired song from Arthur Knibbs, “My Brother Calamity,” and a long set of rock steady ended the first hour with a short tribute to Doris Day, who passed today at the age of 97. Our label spotlight is on Dickie Wong’s TIT FOR TAT label, which is filled with awesome reggae productions from 1974-76 of songs by Freddie McKay, Michael Rose, and Skin, Flesh, and Bones! Stay healthy and strong, friends! XOXO Generoso and Lily