VA- Studio One Roots

Label: Soul Jazz

Reissued 6/26/2026, Originally released 2001

Soul Jazz Records celebrate 25 years of working in partnership with Studio One with brand new editions of FIVE of their best-selling CLASSIC Studio One collections all released on limited-edition one-off pressing coloured double vinyl. // The new edition featured albums are Studio One Funk, Studio One Dub, Studio One Ska, Studio One Roots and Studio One Classics. // Studio One Roots set the standard for Soul Jazz Records’ long-standing series and features many of the classic artists from Clement 'Sir Coxsone’ Dodd’s mighty roster of reggae. // This album includes Freddie McGregor, Willie Williams, Cornell Campbell, Alton Ellis, Devon Russell alongside some of the defining in-house groups of Jamaican reggae history - The Sound Dimension, Brentford All-Stars, The Skatalites, New Establishment and more. The album is filled with a mixture of seminal cuts and super-rarities from the vast vaults of 13 Brentford Road. // Stand-out tracks include Alton Ellis’s ‘Blackish White’, a surreal and powerful Afro-centric dream, Count Ossie’s Rastafarian drummers’ genre-defying interpretation of Booker T and The MGs ‘Meditation’, Willie Williams awe-inspiring versioning of the Skatalites' seminal Rastafari anthem ‘Addis Ababa’ and many, many more. // Original sleevenotes by Lloyd Bradley (author of When Reggae Was King), compiled by Mark Ainley (Honest Jons), high-quality Soul Jazz mastering, wicked images of Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari on the cover, and a rare image of Clement Dodd and musicians inside the studio at Studio One on the full colour inner sleeves. // “The music of this compilation is of a rare, rare beauty and is essential to anyone's reggae collection.” All Music

Track listing:

1. The Cyclones With Count Ossie - Meditation
   
2. Cornell Campbell & The Brentford Rockers - Natty Don't Go
   
3. Freddy Mcgregor With The Sound Dimension - Africa Here I Come
   
4. Bunny & Skitter - Lumumbo
   
5. Willie Williams & The All Stars - Addis A Baba
   
6. L.Crosdale With Drummond Bago & the Rebel Group - Set Me Free
   
7. Leroy Wallace & The New Establishment - Far Beyond
   
8. Lennie Hibbert - More Creation
   
9. Alton Ellis & The Sound Dimension - Blackish White
   
10. Winston Jarrett & The Sound Dimension - Fear Not
    
11. Devon Russell - Drum Song
    
12. The Gaylads - Africa
    
13. Black Brothers & The New Establishment - School Children
    
14. Linton Cooper & The Brentford Disco Set - You'll Get Your Pay
    
15. Sound Dimension - Congo Rock
    
16. Zoot Simms - African Challenge