Song Of The Day – Derrick Morgan “Gypsy Woman”

If someone asked me to pick out an album that exemplified why I like Jamaican music, I’d most likely pick Derrick Morgan’s I Am The Ruler. It’s not that it’s the most original, or the most important of the Island’s rich musical tradition. It’s just cause it’s an amazing collection that shows a brief period of Morgan’s career at it’s peaks in what is for my favorite period of Jamaican music, the 1960′s.

At the center is “Gypsy Woman,” a track that never made it to the Jamaican top 10, but somehow really is essential Morgan. The bouncy early Ska Riddim back up a doo-wop duet between Morgan and Millicent “Patsy” Todd. The sax intro and harmonica solo seem to pick up the song at any point it gets down. But essentially what tracks like “Gypsy Woman” did was add that little bit of Caribbean rhythm to the R&B that was coming in from the States, and began to set the stage for decades of great original Jamaican music to come.

Derrick Morgan “Gypsy Woman”

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