Last Friday, the worldwide ska community said goodbye to one of its legends.  Alton Ellis, age 70, died of cancer in London.  Long heralded as the “Godfather of Rocksteady,” Ellis jumped onto the Jamaican music scene with his 1967 album Mr. Soul of Jamaica, long considered the definitive album of the rocksteady genre.  He also crafted the song “Get Ready – Rock Steady” which was responsible for the genre’s namesake.  In the early 70’s, Ellis moved to the UK and brought with him his landmark sound.  Even later in life, Ellis continued to put out music and was very active in reggae music.  MNSka will miss him and our wishes go out to his loved ones.

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Tags: Alton Ellis, rocksteady

This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 8:30 pm and is filed under In Memoriam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.