Ska legend Laurel Aitken was born Lorenzo Aitken in Cuba on 22 April 1927 and moved to Jamaica with his family in 1938.
He became a popular nightclub entertainer, singing mento songs and his 1958 single Boogie in My Bones was one of the first records produced by Chris Blackwell and the first Jamaican popular music record to be released in the United Kingdom.
Relocating from Jamaica to Brixton (London) at the start of the 1960s, it was pretty much right-time-right-place for Aitken, as ska began filtering into London clubs and dancehalls.
His album After Midnight brought together earlier singles that owed as much to Louis Jordan’s jump jive (such as Bad Minded Woman) as it did the sounds of the West Indies.
The likes of What A Weeping found Aitken backed by The Skatalites and inspiring others such as The Wailers and Jimmy Cliff.
Laurel Aitken cut the first version of the legendary Skinhead Moonstomp (originally titled Skinhead Train) and recorded an astonishing number of singles throughout the Sixties, earning him the nickname ‘The Godfather of Ska’.
He received some criticism that he was making “white man’s reggae”, but countered that “I don’t make records only for two West Indian friends around the corner” and argued, “You’ve got to make records for selling, not just because you want to make the record”.
Laurel Aitken died in July 2005, and a blue plaque was unveiled at his home in Leicester in 2007.
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His album After Midnight brought together earlier singles that owed as much to Louis Jordan’s jump jive (such as Bad Minded Woman) as it did the sounds of the West Indies.
