Phil Pratt
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Phil Pratt, born George Philips (born c. 1950 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican reggae singer and record producer.
Phil Pratt used to work in Studio One for Coxsone Dodd during the rocksteady period when Lee Perry was operating there. He recorded a single as a singer named Safe Travel but was never issued. He moved to Ken Lach label Caltone and recorded a few tunes there. In 1966, he decided to get into production and launched inside of Caltone his own label named Sun Shot by recording the young Horace Andy. During the rocksteady period, he recorded singers like Ken Boothe, John Holt and Pat Kelly, backed by sessions men as talented as Lynn Taitt.
Throughout the 1970s, he enjoyed successes with Ken Boothe ("Artibella", "I'm Not For Sale"), Al Campbell, Delroy Wilson, Bobby Kalphat, and Keith Poppin, and had a major hit with "My Heart Is Gone" by John Holt, Dennis Brown's "Let Love In" and "Black Magic Woman", and Pat Kelly's "How Long", "Soulful Love" and "They Talk About Love". More particularly, from 1971 to 1975 he produced many DJs including Dennis Alcapone ("This Is Butter"), Dillinger ("Platt Skank"), I-Roy ("My Food Is Ration") or U Roy ("Real Cool") and Jah Woosh ("Psalm 21" and "Zion Sound"), but he remains mostly known for the singles he recorded in 1972 with Big Youth (among his earliest songs), "Tell It Black" and "Phil Pratt Thing".
Pratt recorded mainly in the Channel One Studios working with the musicians who would later be called The Revolutionaries but also teamed again with Lee Perry at Black Ark Studios producing among others Linval Thompson's first single. He set up his own label Terminal in London to release his productions worldwide and finally moved there by the beginning of the 1980s and opened a restaurant.
[edit] Partial discography
- Phil Pratt - Star Wars Dub - 1978 - Burning Sounds
- Various Artists - The Magnificent Seven - 1978 - Burning Music
- Various Artists - Hits of the Past - Sun Shot (1994)
- Various Artists - Raw Roots volume 1 - 1970-1975 - Jet Set Records (1998)
- Various Artists - Raw Roots volume 2 - 1971-1978 - Jet Set Record
- Various Artists - The Best Of Sunshot - 1971-1975 - Jet Set Records
- Various Artists - Phil Pratt Thing - Pressure Sounds (1999)
- Various Artists - Safe Travel - 1966-1968 - Pressure Sounds (2005)