This is a great documentary produced by PBS on the Alpha Boys School and the school’s contribution to Jamaican music.

Check it out and enjoy!

Alpha Boys Video

The Alpha Boys’ School was founded in the 1880’s in Central Kingston as a home for wayward boys, providing them with an education and practical training.

The musical program of the School gained a unique stature during the jazz-era of the 1940s and ’50s. This period saw the training of the majority of Jamaica’s top hornsmen, many of whom would go on to be instrumental in the development of the island’s first indigenous pop music: ska.

Ska’s most famous supergroup was the Skatalites, and four of its founding members — Tommy McCook, Johnny “Dizzy” Moore, Lester Sterling and the internationally-recognized Don Drummond — were all graduates of the Alpha Boys’ School.

Alpha graduates continue to feature prominently in the local music scene.