Jon Baker | |
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| Born | 1960 London |
| Nationality | British |
| Citizenship | British / Jamaica |
| Education | Chelsea College of Arts |
| Occupation(s) | Music producer, hotelier, businessperson. |
Jon Baker (born 1960) is a music industry executive. He has worked as a fashion designer, promoter, and is currently co-owner of Geejam, a luxury resort and recording studio located in San San, near Port Antonio, Jamaica.
Baker was born in 1960 in London. [1] His mother, Maureen Baker, was a fashion designer [2] and his father, Roy Baker, sold classic cars. [3] Baker attended the Chelsea College of Art. [4]
After leaving school in 1977, [5] [6] Baker opened a punk T-shirt store called Blooze in Kensington Market in 1978. [7] In 1979, operations grew and Blooze was relocated to the Great Gear Market, Kings Road, London and renamed Axiom. [7] [8] In 1980 Baker moved to New York [5] [9] and in 1981 staged a combined Axiom fashion show and concert in support of Spandau Ballet’s performance at The Underground, Broadway’s disco club. [2] [10] [8]
In 1982, Baker launched UK fashion label Demob in New York. [11] Baker then based himself in New York where he met club promoter and manager Ruza Blue who introduced him to the hip-hop scene in the Bronx. [2] Baker then began working at The Roxy club. [12] [13]
Baker produced fashion shows for various designers and events in New York, such as the Danceteria and the Peppermint Lounge. [2] In 1983, Baker designed and promoted a club on Union Square called Fresh 14, before it closed after a short while [4] [14] and in 1984 Baker returned to the UK. [5]
In 1985, having returned to the UK, Baker organized Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick's first UK tour. [15] That year, he met Rob Birch and Nick Hallam of the Stereo MCs and together they began to produce and distribute white label records to London dance shops. He also met his future wife Ziggi Golding, an agent who ran the progressive "Z" modeling agency. [16] [17] [18] Baker alongside Britain’s pirate radio Kiss FM hip-hop jock DJ Richie Rich in 1986 [4] [14] and the Stereo MCs , opened a recording studio called Gee Street Records. [5] Among the artists Gee Street signed and/or promoted were Jon King/King Butcher, Funtopia, Gail Ann Dorsey, Queen Latifah, Jungle Brothers, the Stereo MCs, and P.M. Dawn. Gee Street's first significant success was the release of Straight out the Jungle by Jungle Brothers; their single "I'll House You" reached the top 5 in the UK national charts. [19] Then, in 1988, he signed the Stereo MCs to a licensing deal with Island Records.
In 1990, Polygram Records’ Chris Blackwell signed P.M. Dawn, and proposed a joint venture with Island/PolyGram that secured Gee Street's roster for Island. [20] Baker agreed on a worldwide joint venture with the focus on North American markets in 1991. [4] [6] Baker was appointed President of Island Jamaica for North America (the Jamaican music division of Island Records). The first release under the joint venture, PM Dawn’s “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” released in 1991, providing the funding for Bakers investments in Jamaica and with this he brought property in San San, Port Antonio. [1] [21]
The joint venture agreement between Island Polygram Records and Baker faltered and came to an end in 1996. [22]
Later that year, Baker established a joint venture with Richard Branson and V2 Records, [1] [23] signing RZA to an exclusive solo recording deal in 1997. [6] [13]
V2 bought 80% of Gee Street and marketed it through BMG. [24] Baker sold his remaining 20% share of Gee Street to Richard Branson in 2000. [24]
In 2002, he moved to Jamaica, became a Jamaican citizen. That year, he also produced the album Adelante, featuring Ky-Mani Marley and Alberto D'Ascola (aka Alborosie) [25]
In 2004, Baker produced Two Culture Clash in collaboration with producer Mark Jones in the UK. [26] In 2004 and again in 2005, he became a consultant for New Reality TV's Digicel Rising Stars talent competition on Jamaica's TVJ television station in 2004. [27] [28]
In 2006, Baker worked with Steve Beaver of the Hong Kong-based Beaver Music on the Singerz Collection album series through Universal Music Japan; it featured contemporary songs interpreted in a reggae style. Later that year, however, Baker and Beaver went into a more formal partnership and agreed to develop Geejam into a luxury private hotel. [29] To this point, Baker had devoted a great deal of his energy to make Geejam an exclusive residential recording studio. The studio's resources had earned a strong reputation among industry insiders and attracted several top artists including Gorillaz, No Doubt, India Arie, Dru Hill, Gondwana, Les Nubians, Wyclef Jean, and Björk. [30] [31]
Geejam opened to the general public in 2008 and is part of the Island Outpost brand. [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] Since 2008, Geejam has been rated Jamaica's number-one hotel by travel review website TripAdvisor.com in March 2010. [37] Over this time, Drake, Santigold, Major Lazer, and Amy Winehouse have all worked on recording projects there. [38] [39] The Geejam Group's most recent project involved the Jamaican mento band The Jolly Boys. Their album Great Expectation was released in the UK on 13 September 2010, and was received well by critics in Europe. [40] [41] [42] [43]
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another label recently acquired by PolyGram, were both at the time the largest independent record labels in history, with Island having exerted a major influence on the progressive music scene in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. Island Records operates four international divisions: Island US, Island UK, Island Australia, and Island France. Current key people include Island US president Darcus Beese, OBE and MD Jon Turner. Partially due to its significant legacy, Island remains one of UMG's pre-eminent record labels.
Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released rock, funk, R&B, doo wop, soul music, blues, pop, rock and roll, and jazz records. In the United States, it is operated through Republic Records; in the United Kingdom and Japan, it is distributed by EMI Records.
Rude boy is a slang terms for a subculture that originated from 1960s Jamaican street culture. In the late 1970s, there was a revival in England of the terms rude boy and rude girl, among other variations, being used to describe fans of two-tone and ska. This revival of the subculture and term was partially the result of Jamaican immigration to the UK and the so-called ”Windrush” generation. The use of these terms moved into the more contemporary ska punk movement as well. In the UK and especially Jamaica, the terms rude boy and rude girl are used in a way similar to gangsta, yardie or badman.
Ernest Ranglin is a Jamaican guitarist and composer who established his career while working as a session guitarist and music director for various Jamaican record labels including Studio One and Island Records. Ranglin played guitar on many early ska recordings and helped create the rhythmic guitar style that defined the form. Ranglin has worked with Theophilus Beckford, Jimmy Cliff, Monty Alexander, Prince Buster, the Skatalites, Bob Marley and the Eric Deans Orchestra. He is noted for a chordal and rhythmic approach that blends jazz, mento and reggae with percussive guitar solos incorporating rhythm 'n' blues and jazz inflections.
Damian Robert Nesta "Jr. Gong" Marley is a Jamaican DJ, singer, lyricist and rapper. He is the recipient of four Grammy Awards.
Stereo MC's are an English hip hop/electronic dance group that formed in Nottingham, England, in 1985. They had an international top 20 hit with their single "Connected". After releasing eight albums for Island Records, K7, Graffiti Recordings, and Pias, they formed the label Connected with Terranova to release their own material and that of other artists within the house/techno/electronic medium.
The Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJMG) was an American recording music unit, formed on New Year's Eve 1998 by the Universal Music Group. It consists of labels devised and consisted under the basic operations of Island Records and Def Jam Recordings. On April Fools Day 2014, Universal Music publicly announced the disbandment of the Island Def Jam Music Group, leaving Island, Def Jam and its affiliated subsidiaries as separate sister labels.
Gee Street Records was a British hip hop record label started by Jon Baker in 1985. The label's name came from its original location, a converted warehouse on Gee Street in London, EC1.
In Jamaican popular culture, a sound system is a group of disc jockeys, engineers and MCs playing ska, rocksteady or reggae music. The sound system is an important part of Jamaican culture and history.
Millicent Dolly May Small CD was a Jamaican singer who is best known for her 1964 hit "My Boy Lollipop". The song reached number two in both the UK and US charts and sold over seven million copies worldwide. It was also the first major hit for Island Records and helped to achieve the label its mainstream success. She was the Caribbean's first international recording star, and its most successful female performer.
The Jolly Boys are a mento band from Port Antonio, Jamaica. It was formed in 1945 and had great commercial success in the late 1980s and 1990s among reggae and world music fans. They released a new album in 2010 Great Expectation and are currently the house band at GeeJam, a hotel in Port Antonio.
Jacob Lee Williams, better known as Gappy Ranks, is an English dancehall musician of Jamaican and Dominican descent, from Harlesden, London.
33-45-78 is the 1989 debut album by the Stereo MC's. It was recorded on a shoestring budget with DJ Cesare as drummer and Cath Coffey as backing vocalist. Billboard declared that 33-45-78 proved the band "capable of wildly imaginative sampling". Songstuff reviewers called the album "a labour of love that involved hand-making drum loops in the most rudimentary of studios" and while admitting that the sound was raw, noted that its originality was enough that it drew attention from the Jungle Brothers who would later feature on the band's more polished second album, Supernatural.
Carlene Davis is a Jamaican gospel and reggae singer active since the 1970s. Successful since the early 1980s as a reggae artist, she survived cancer in the mid-1990s, after which she dedicated her career to gospel music. She has released over ten albums.
Cleveland Laing, better known as Lieutenant Stitchie, is a Jamaican deejay who originally worked in the dancehall style but switched to gospel reggae in 1997 after surviving a car crash, thereafter working under the shorter name Stitchie.
Dale Dizzle Virgo, is a record producer, musician, engineer and an entrepreneur.
Evelyn Maureen Baker was a British fashion designer. She was the chief designer for the Susan Small label for many years, before working for her own label. She is perhaps best known as the designer of the first wedding dress of Princess Anne.
Digital Jukebox Records began as a British hip hop record label under the name of FJ/Fatt Jointz Recordings in the early 1990s which has been an underground source for the success of some recording artists ever since. Label head Mark Duffus had very close musical links with many prominent East Coast / New York record producers and musicians.
DeeWunn is a Jamaican emcee, songwriter and performer. Introduced by Jamaican dancehall group Ward 21, he is popular for his style of creating an exotic blend of hip-hop in Jamaican Patois.
Nordia Coco Witter, also known as Coco, is a Jamaican singer and songwriter. She is known for popular songs in the Reggae style of music including "Be Alone Tonight" and "I'm a Player in the Band." She has been featured in Rolling Stone.
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