late night jam sessions would echo into the night from Rasta camps

epub or mobi, with thanks to the original sharer & wilfofhove for the tip

Although live jazz music tended to be more popular with the wealthier sectors of the population, it was the sound system that really captured the majority of the island's music lovers. Sound systems became a fixture of Jamaica's post-World War II economic boom, the first having appeared after Jamaicans returned from periods of work abroad, cutting sugarcane in Florida or picking crops elsewhere in the American south. Custom built in Jamaica or brought back from the USA, the huge portable systems used hefty amplifiers and public address systems to blast music through rows of massive speaker boxes; a lasting impression was inevitably made on the listener through the sheer power and volume of the sound. Set up at dances, many of which were held in the open air, the sound system's selector would spin the hottest American rhythm and blues records to catapult Jamaican dance fans into enthusiastic action, egged on by the over the top microphone commentary from deejays that revelled in comic exhortations of verbal wit, outrageously exaggerated hepcat imitations of black American radio disc jockeys. With an entry price of around two shillings and the ability to penetrate the country towns that did not have proper music venues, sound system dances had a wider appeal to the general Jamaican public and did not carry the same restrictions or elite connotations as much of the live jazz scene.