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Profiled by Michael Heumann
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Reggae enthusiasts Duncan Browne and Bill Nowlin founded Heartbeat Records in 1981. The idea for the label was simple: to make both classic and contemporary Jamaican music available to a wider audience. To most, "Jamaica" means "reggae." That's far from the reality. Jamaican music has developed and morphed and transformed itself countless times through the decades, and Hearbeat has done an excellent job documenting this development. Browse through Heartbeat's catalogue and you'll find ska, dub, rocksteady, dancehall, digital, roots, lovers, rude boy, and every other Jamaican genre. More importantly, you'll find all the big names: Bob Marley, Lee Perry, Big Youth, the Heptones, the Maytals, Burning Spear, Sugar Minott, Augustus Pablo, Dennis Brown, the Abyssinians, Peter Tosh, the Skatalites, and many others.

While Heartbeat does put out a great deal of contemporary Jamaican music (by the likes of Everton Blender, Michael Rose, Alpheus, and others), the label is best know for their outstanding reissues of classic Jamaican music. Particularly impressive is their collection of classic Studio One cuts. As reggae historian Lloyd Bradley notes in Bass Culture, "To call Studio One of the late 1960s 'the Jamaican Motown' would probably be flattering Berry Gordy's company. Relatively, it was of much greater significance in its field— Motown operated as a hugely successful aspect of soul's overall development, whilst for the first few years of reggae Studio One was the music's overall development." Studio One was the place where ska and reggae took shape, where the music's stars first gained exposure, and where Jamaican music's undeniable popularity truly began. Songs like The Abyssinians' "Declaration of Rights," The Heptones' "Baby," The Ethiopians' "Bad to Worse," The Wailers' "Duppy Conqueror," and Lee Perry's "People Funny Boy" all epitomize the Jamaican sound. They were all first recorded at Studio One, and they have all been released on Heartbeat.

All told, Heartbeat has released more than 55 albums of Studio One material. Some of these are reissues of classic albums; some are compilations featuring familiar classics alongside rare or unreleased gems. Most importantly, the quality of these releases is very high, as the original master tapes are used in almost every case. How has Heartbeat been able to get their hands on so much of Studio One's output? Simple: Coxsone Dodd, Studio One's founder and one of the most important figures in Jamaican music history, works closely with the label, and helps procure the best source materials for each release.

There are plenty of labels dedicated to reissuing classic Jamaican music. Blood & Fire, Motion, Pressure Sounds, and (obviously) Trojan are a few of the better-known names, and, to be frank, I own many more Trojan or Blood & Fire albums than I do Heartbeat albums. But Heartbeat is a label to keep an eye on, not only because the quality of their releases is so remarkably high but also because the label's dedication to giving Jamaican music its historical due is unparalleled.

Five Essential Releases:
The Abyssinians- Satta Massagana
Bob Marley & The Wailers- Greatest Hits at Studio One
Various Artists- Duke Reid's Treasure Chest
The Skatalites- Foundation Ska
Lee "Scratch" Perry- Some of the Best