Blurb:

Mento has banjo and rumba box, ska has trombone, rock steady has piano and


reggae has electric bass. Dub, too, has its signature instruments. First is the mixing


board that made the music possible. Second is the melodica, due to the music


of one man, Augustus Pablo. If you are not familiar with a melodica, it’s a handheld


keyboard that is blown into, making it something of a cross between a harmonica


and an accordion. Before Augustus, it was less known and less respected


than either of these instruments, disparaged as a teaching keyboard and certainly


not thought suitable for recording. But the instrument was common enough in


Jamaica and reggae musicians were resourceful and open-minded enough to see


no reason not to utilize the melodica. To be fair to Peter Tosh, he had begun to use


the instrument on a few tracks by The Wailers beginning in 1971, the same year


that Pablo first recorded with it. And Bobby Kalphat also recorded with the instrument


around the same time. But whereas these other keyboardists could have


used organ just the same, it was Pablo who gave the melodica a new voice.