Joseph Hoo Kim
Encyclopedia
Career
Shortly after the Jamaican government banned gaming machines in the early 1970s, Joe Joe Hookim and his brother Ernest, abandoned their jobs as machine operators, and jumped into the music business. By 1973, the Hookims had opened their own studio, Channel OneChannel One Studios
Channel One is a recording studio in Maxfield Avenue, West Kingston, Jamaica. The studio was built by the Hoo Kim brothers in 1972, and has had a profound influence on the development of reggae music....
, with Joe Joe as its hands-on producer. For the next two years Channel One would change the course of music and leave a legacy that has had ramifications beyond the realms of reggae and is today still proving its affects. Working alongside the Hookims was I-Roy who did a lot of the work. Because of the collaboration of Sly Dunbar
Sly Dunbar
Lowell "Sly" Fillmore Dunbar is a drummer.-Biography:Dunbar, whose nickname was reportedly given for his passion for Sly & the Family Stone, launched his musical career while still in his adolescence, playing with a local group, The Yardbrooms, at the age of fifteen...
and Robbie Shakespeare at its studio, from 1974 to 1976 Channel One rocked...or reggaed!
Having played at many of the same sessions or clubs, Dunbar and Shakespeare knew one another. Dunbar, whose partner Ranchie McLean, were members of a live band "Skin, Flesh and Bones" (SFB). SFB performed at the popular Kingston's Tit for Tat Club, playing not only "well-behaved reggae", as opposed to the lyrical themes of roots reggae, but plenty of US soul and disco. Robbie, on the other hand, was with Bunny Lee
Bunny Lee
Edward O'Sullivan Lee, better known as Bunny "Striker" Lee is a prominent, prolific and successful record producer best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...
's The Aggrovators
The Aggrovators
The Aggrovators were a dub/reggae backing band in the 1970s & 1980s, and one of the main session bands of producer, Bunny Lee. The line-up varied, with Lee using the name for whichever set of musicians he was using at any time. The band's name derived from the record shop that Lee had run in the...
as their number one choice bass player. After successfully uniting Sly and Robbie; Hookim made SFB be the group to become the stamina of what would be the Revolutionaries. Just as with any other episode in the history of Jamaican music, the number of players involved, significantly small by comparison, never diminished the musical output.
Sly liked experimenting with the beat and at Channel One Joe Joe allowed him the freedom to do so. Sly wanted more than to simply play catchup to Lee "Scratch" Perry's flying cymbal. So leaving his partner McLean behind, Sly began incorporating the studio's sound by initiating a clapping snare drum beat under certain bass notes, then moving flying cymbals on by doubling rim shots. It was obvious the music resembled US disco, which Sly would have been entirely familiar with from his nightclub cover days, but balanced with the bass and keyboards it was without a doubt Jamaican roots sound. And the bass player that helped make it happen, was the one Sly was being gradually teamed up with Robbie Shakespeare. Ironically, too, the music that for so long took a backseat to the singers, now took the lead.
Channel One's brief tenure as the top Kingston roots setup, was the only unparalleled standard set by the opposition in the second half of the decade that led to the Hookim brothers getting bummed...an unassumming re-emerging producer by the name of Lee "Scratch" Perry, quieting working away at his own studio.
Personal
Born into a Chinese JamaicanChinese Jamaican
Chinese Jamaicans are the descendants of migrants from China to Jamaica. Early migrants came in the 19th century; there was another wave of migration in the 1980s and 1990s...
family, Joseph Hoo Kim was the oldest of four brothers (to Ernest, Paul and Kenneth), who during the 1960s were involved in the jukebox
Jukebox
A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media...
and slot machine
Slot machine
A slot machine , informally fruit machine , the slots , poker machine or "pokies" or simply slot is a casino gambling machine with three or more reels which spin when a button is pushed...
industry. In 1970, after the Jamaican government declared the gambling games illegal, Joseph and Ernest decided to turn to the music business and launched a sound-system
Jamaican sound system
In the context of Jamaican popular culture, a sound system is a group of disc jockeys, engineers and MCs playing ska, rocksteady or reggae music...
named Channel One. In 1972
1972 in music
-Events:*January 17 – Highway 51 South in Memphis, Tennessee is renamed "Elvis Presley Boulevard"*January 20 – The début of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at The Dome, Brighton, is halted by technical difficulties,...
, impressed by the Dynamic Sound studio of producer Bunny Lee
Bunny Lee
Edward O'Sullivan Lee, better known as Bunny "Striker" Lee is a prominent, prolific and successful record producer best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...
, Joseph decided to set up the Channel One Studios
Channel One Studios
Channel One is a recording studio in Maxfield Avenue, West Kingston, Jamaica. The studio was built by the Hoo Kim brothers in 1972, and has had a profound influence on the development of reggae music....
on Maxfield Avenue (West Kingston
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...
). Working on a four-track machine, Syd Bucknor became Lee's first sound engineer. One year later he was replaced by Joseph's brother Ernest. By this time they also had their own pressing plant and label-printing workshop. To gain experience, Hoo Kim decided to give every volunteer producer a free try.
Though they produced some strong records (Don't Give Up the Fight by Stranger
Stranger Cole
Stranger Cole, also known as StrangeJah Cole is a Jamaican singer whose long recording career dates from the early days of ska in 1962 through to the 2000s.-Biography:...
& Gladdy
Gladstone Anderson
Gladstone Anderson , also known by his nickname "Gladdy", is a Jamaican pianist, keyboard player, and singer, who has played a major part in the island's musical history, playing a key role in defining the ska sound and the rocksteady beat, and playing on hundreds of recordings as a session...
--their first production, I Dig You, Baby by Alton Ellis
Alton Ellis
Alton Nehemiah Ellis, OD, was a Jamaican musician best known as one of the innovators of rocksteady music and was often referred to as the "Godfather of Rocksteady". In 2006, he was inducted into the International Reggae And World Music Awards Hall Of Fame.-Biography:Ellis was born in 1938 and...
, and Leroy Smart's Blackman), they did not meet with success until the mid-1970s. Beginning with his house band, The Revolutionaries
The Revolutionaries
The Revolutionaries is a Jamaican reggae band.-Career:Set up in 1975 as the house band of the Channel One Studios owned by Joseph Hoo Kim, The Revolutionaries with Sly Dunbar on drums and Robbie Shakespeare on bass, created the new "rockers" style that would change the whole Jamaican sound The...
, created in 1975 and featuring Sly and Robbie
Sly and Robbie
Sly and Robbie is the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production team of drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare who joined in the mid 1970s after having established themselves separately in Jamaica as professional musicians...
, rhythmic variations brought about by a harder beat led to the roots-heavy sound soon to be called "rockers".
Their biggest commercial success, "Right Time", by The Mighty Diamonds
The Mighty Diamonds
Mighty Diamonds are a Jamaican harmony trio, recording roots reggae with a strong Rastafarian influence. The group, which comprised Donald "Tabby" Shaw, Fitzroy "Bunny" Simpson, and Lloyd "Judge" Ferguson, was formed in 1969, and remains together as of 2010...
, was released in 1975, and included in 1976's Hoo Kim produced Right Time
Right Time
Right Time is the 1976 studio album debut of influential reggae band the Mighty Diamonds. The album, released by Virgin Records after they signed the Mighty Diamonds following a search for talent in Jamaica, is critically regarded as a reggae classic, a landmark in the roots reggae subgenre...
. However, many other big names came to record in the studio: Leroy Smart
Leroy Smart
-Biography:Smart was born in 1952 and orphaned aged 2. He was raised at Maxfield Park Children's Home and educated at Alpha Boys School, where he studied singing, drums and dancing....
, Delroy Wilson
Delroy Wilson
Delroy Wilson was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer.-Biography:Wilson released his first single "Emy Lou" in 1961 for record producer, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, at the age of thirteen...
, Black Uhuru
Black Uhuru
Black Uhuru are a Jamaican reggae group formed in 1972, initially as Uhuru . The group has undergone several line-up changes over the years, with Duckie Simpson always maintaining group control and ownership...
, Horace Andy
Horace Andy
Horace Andy is a roots reggae songwriter and singer, known for his distinctive vocals and hit songs such as "Government Land", "Angel", "Five Man Army" and a cover version of "Ain't No Sunshine"....
, John Holt
John Holt (singer)
John Holt is a reggae singer and songwriter.-Biography:Holt was born in Kingston in 1947. By the age of 12, he was a regular entrant in talent contests run at Jamaican theatres by Vere Johns...
, Junior Byles
Junior Byles
Kerrie Byles is a reggae singer, born July 17, 1948 in Kingston, Jamaica.-The Versatiles:...
, The Wailing Souls
The Wailing Souls
The Wailing Souls are a Jamaican reggae vocal group still recording and performing live, whose origins date back to the 1960s.-Career:They have recorded with many top Jamaican record producers including Coxsone Dodd of Studio One, Lloyd "King Jammy" James, Henry "Junjo" Lawes, Delroy Wilson and...
, and Dillinger
Dillinger (musician)
Dillinger is a reggae artist.-Biography:As a young man growing up in Kingston, Dillinger would hang around Dennis Alcapone's El Paso sound system...
, were a few of them. Among the many labels they created were Well Charge, Channel One, and Hitbound. Greensleeves
Greensleeves Records
Greensleeves Records & Publishing is a record label specialising in dancehall and reggae music. The company was founded by Chris Cracknell and Chris Sedgwick and started as a small record store in West Ealing, London, in November 1975 and is based in Britain....
, Island
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
and Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
have all published their productions at one time or another.
Hoo Kim was the first producer to introduce the re-use of old Studio One rhythms for new productions. Though a very controversial practice in the beginning, it eventually became widespread. In 1976, he brought out the first mix combining versions sung and DJed on the same single with Truly by The Jays and Ranking Trevor, a standard for the dancehall culture in the 80s. This record was also the first Jamaican 12-inch single.
Entering a depression after his brother Paul was shot to death during a robbery in 1977, Joseph Hoo Kim's productions became less numerous. At this time, he left Jamaica to escape the violence on the island and established himself professionally in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Then in 1979, he renovated his Jamaican studio and began returning there every month to supervise new productions. With Ernest, he opened a subsidiary studio in New York in the early 1980s where many DJs recorded. Among them were Barrington Levy
Barrington Levy
Barrington Levy is a reggae and dancehall artist from Jamaica.-Career:In 1976, Levy formed a band with his cousin, Everton Dacres, called the Mighty Multitude; the pair released "My Black Girl" in 1977...
and Barry Brown
Barry Brown (singer)
Barry Brown was a Jamaican reggae singer, initially coming to prominence in the 1970s with his work with Bunny Lee, but remaining popular throughout his career.-Biography:...
. In the early 1980s, he launched the "Showdown series" with "clash" albums where each face of an LP was dedicated to one of two dueling DJs. When the dancehall
Dancehall
Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably,...
entered the digital era, he withdrew from the Jamaican music business, shut down both studios and settled in New York permanently.
He currently operates a pressing plant in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
.
Discography
- Various Artists - 1983 - General For All General: Dance Hall Style - Hitbound
- Various Artists - 1984 - Hypocrite Inna Dance Hall Style - Hitbound
- Various Artists - 1984 - Sly & Robbie Presents The Unmetered Taxi - Channel One
- Various Artists - Special Request To All Bad Boys - Hitbound
- Various Artists - Special Request To All Lovers Boys & Girls - Hitbound
- Various Artists - 1976-1979 - Hit Bound: The Revolutionary Sound Of Channel One - Heartbeat RecordsHeartbeat RecordsHeartbeat Records is an independent record label based in Burlington , Massachusetts. The label specializes in Jamaican music. Founded by reggae music enthusiasts Bill Nowlin and Duncan Brown, the label's first release was a vinyl LP reissue of Linton Kwesi Johnson's Dread Beat an' Blood...
(1989) - Various Artists - 1974-1978 - Channel One Well Charged - Pressure SoundsPressure SoundsPressure Sounds is a British record label, specializing in releasing reggae music. It is run by Pete Holdsworth although Adrian Sherwood was involved at the inception of the imprint...
(1997) - Various Artists - When The Dances Were Changing (Hitbound Selection) - Pressure Sounds (1998)
- Various Artists - Channel One Story (Reggae Anthology)I Shot The Deputy - VP RecordsVP RecordsVP Records is an independent reggae record label, located in Queens, New York. It is best known for producing Caribbean singers.-The foundation:...
(2004)