KING TUBBY
Genres: Dub, Ska, Reggae • Jamaica

Born, Osbourne Ruddock, 28 January 1941, Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies. Died, 6 February 1989, Jamaica, West Indies. King Tubby grew up around High Holborn Street in Central Kingston before moving to the capital's Waterhouse district in 1955. He started repairing radios and by the late 50s had begun to experiment with sound system amplifiers. By 1964 he was operating his own Tubby's Home Town Hi-Fi, where he later incorporated a custom reverb and echo facility into his system. At the same time he was working as disc-cutter for Duke Reid and it was here that he discovered that he could make special versions of well-known rocksteady tunes. By cutting out most of the vocal track, fading it in at suitable points, reducing the mix down to the bass only, and dropping other instrumental tracks in or out, Tubby invented dub. Initially the technique was used for "specials" or dub plates - custom read more...