The news came out in the middle of the summer, but it is never too late to pass on good news: Soul Jazz Records is reissuing the Studio One Story box set, released in 2002 and out of print since.
Very good news for everyone who missed this documentary of nearly 4 hours (bonus material included) on the leading Jamaican label of the 1960s, released in 2002, two years before the death of its founder, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd.
Coxsone himself, Sylvan Morris (the in-house engineer), King Stitt, Sugar Minott, but also Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Horace Andy, Johnny "Dizzy" Moore, Lone Ranger: many of them help to retrace the story of the "Motown of reggae", in Chris Blackwell's words.
The DVD is only part of the box set: there is also a booklet of around a hundred pages (with pagination that is not always ideal) and, on CD, double LP and now digital, a top-notch selection of the label's productions. For this reissue, the DVD is also available for the first time separately from the box set.
One piece of good news can hide another: this reissue is only the prelude to the publication of what promises to be an essential book, "Original Covert Art of Studio One Records", which, as its name suggests, will bring together the most beautiful Studio One sleeves.
