POP MUSIC : What Was Life Like Before Reggae? Ask the Skatalites

A musical history lesson will be given at San Diego State University’s Montezuma Hall on Saturday night. The subject is ska, and the teachers are the Skatalites, the originators of the popular Jamaican music of the 1960s that served as a precursor to reggae.

The group was originally formed in Jamaica in 1963 and broke up soon afterward, only to reform nearly two decades later for Jamaica’s Reggae Sunsplash Festival.

“As youths, they listened to the American radio that came out of Miami and New Orleans, and they were heavily influenced by the rhythm-and-blues, jazz and boogie-woogie that they heard,” said Gaspare Genna of the Positive Action Mod Society, producers of the show.

“Initially, they wanted to play this same type of music, but their producers were pressing them to play something more danceable, so they added the native Jamaican back beat, and the result was ska.”

Ska flourished throughout the 1960s, gradually evolving into reggae. In the mid-’70s, there was something of a ska revival in England, with “two-tone” bands such as Madness, the Specials, the English Beat and the Selecter essentially speeding up traditional Jamaican ska and incorporating elements of rock ‘n’ roll and soul.

More recently, there’s been another ska revival on the West Coast.

“It started around 1987, with bands like Fishbone and the Untouchables playing music that was similar to the two-tone sound, and right now we’re seeing a return to the traditional Jamaican ska,” Genna said.

Three of these latter-day ska traditionalists--the Donkey Show from Los Angeles, Let’s Go Bowling from Fresno and the Liquidators from San Francisco--will appear with the Skatalites at Montezuma Hall.

A two-day pop music exposition will be held Feb. 16-17 at the Holiday Inn in Kearny Mesa. “Music Tech ‘90,” produced by San Diego audio-equipment firm New World Music and Sound, will feature seminars and exhibits and is designed to promote the local music scene, according to New World general manager John Hernandez.

“Basically, what we’re trying to do is wake up San Diegans and tell them they don’t have to go up to L.A. to do music, to get some high-tech studio time,” Hernandez said.

A panel of talent scouts from more than half a dozen major labels--including Atlantic, Capitol, EMI and Warner Brothers--will present a seminar titled “How to Get Your Demo Tape Into the Right Hands.” Scott Wilkinson, editor of Music Technology magazine, will give a lecture on music technology, present and future. And Alan Howarth--sound designer for such films as “Poltergeist,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and the “Star Trek” series--will host a clinic on creating sound effects for film.

More than 30 manufacturers’ reps will also be on hand, displaying a wide variety of high-tech electronic equipment and musical instruments. The highlight: a complete line of MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) equipment, including guitars, keyboards, drums, drum machines, amplifiers and digital effects processors.

In addition, San Diego techno-dance group and Enigma Records recording artists Red Flag will perform Feb. 16, starting at 9 p.m.

The exhibit hall will be open Feb. 16 between 2 and 8 p.m. and Feb. 17 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 in advance, $7.50 at the door.

LINER NOTES: A second night has been added to this year’s Ninth Annual Bob Marley Celebration at the California Theatre downtown. Performing Thursday, as originally scheduled, will be Black Uhuru, Tippa Irie and Shinehead; on Friday, Black Uhuru and Tippa Irie will return, this time with Ras Machael and Swelele. The second show is a benefit for twin sisters Kolita Meyers and Shunai Scruggs, each of whom lost a child last month in an Encinitas fire that destroyed their home. . . .

Another benefit, this one for a 16-year-old San Diego boy who was stabbed at a recent concert, will be held Saturday at the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas. The “Stop the Violence Now” show, featuring the Voices, Magic Trick, the Cry and Club of Rome, is produced by Musicians Who Care. . . .

The good news: At long last, there’s a new venue in town for San Diego rock groups: Club 950, at the recently remodeled Stardust Hotel in Mission Valley. The bad news: Only Top 40 bands need apply. . . . Don McLean has just been booked for a March 24 appearance at the Bacchanal in Kearny Mesa. Talk about good timing: The singer-songwriter’s signature “American Pie,” which topped the charts in 1972, has been resurrected on the newly released “Born on the Fourth of July” movie sound track album. . . .

Tickets go on sale Friday at 3 p.m. for Peter Murphy’s March 7 appearance at the California Theatre, and Saturday at 10 a.m. for Bobby McFerrin’s April 1 concert, also at the California. . . . The March 1 Great White concert at the California Theatre will start at 7:30 p.m., half an hour earlier than originally scheduled. . . .

Best concert bets for the coming week: the Smithereens with Too Free Stooges, tonight at the California Theatre; David Bromberg and His Big Band with Darius, tonight at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach; Doc Watson with Danny O’Keefe, Thursday at the Belly Up; Zachary Richard, Friday at the Bacchanal; the Rave-Ups, Friday at the Belly Up; Motley Crue with Faster Pussycat, Sunday at the San Diego Sports Arena, and Jonathan Richman, Sunday at the Belly Up.