Johnny Clarke, King Tubby & The Aggrovators

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Johnny Clarke, King Tubby & The Aggrovators · This trio stands for Jamaican reggae of the mid-1970s. Johnny Clarke is a Jamaican singer, The Aggrovators were producer Bunny Lee's studio band, and King Tubby was the sound engineer who reworked the recordings. Little is recorded about Clarke and the band in the source available, so the text focuses mainly on King Tubby.

Music and breakthrough

King Tubby, born Osbourne Ruddock in 1941, was a radio repairman in Kingston, with a workshop on Drumalie Avenue. He built large amplifiers for the sound systems, Jamaica's mobile discos, and constantly modified their equipment. He used separate amplification for bass and treble and built special equipment for echo and reverb. In 1968 he started his own sound system, Tubby's Hometown Hi-Fi, which became popular for the quality of its equipment, exclusive records and his own echo and reverb. The career of the toaster U-Roy also began there. In 1968 he also became a disc cutter for producer Duke Reid.

Influence

Tubby reworked existing recordings into instrumental mixes. He brought vocals and instruments forward or made them disappear, and added echo and reverb. This is how dub came into being. He is often named as the inventor of the concept of the remix, which later became commonplace in dance and electronic music. The singer Mikey Dread said that Tubby understood sound in a scientific sense. Tubby died in 1989. A Ruffer Dub from 1975 is an example of his work: a track in which the mixer is almost an instrument.

Listening

• 
  A Ruffer Dub · Johnny Clarke, King Tubby & The Aggrovators, 1975
  Apple Music ↗

See also

• Dub