Augustus Pablo, (with melodica), who recorded for Randy's Records early in his career, performing at the Carib Theatre in 1974. - File

A THREE-DISC set looking at the history of Randy's Records will be released in October, a spokesperson for VP Records said last week.

Clive Chin, whose father Vincent started Randy's in October 1959, said the project will commemorate the label's 50th anniversary. Two of the discs contain 50 of the songs that helped put the company on the map; the other disc is a DVD looking at Randy's evolution from a downtown Kingston label to VP Records, the all-reggae label Vincent Chin founded in Queens, New York in 1979.

Clive Chin told The Gleaner that it is important for fans to know the difference between the two labels.

"We never had a label that released the historic productions because we never wanted to confuse the market," Chin said. "People have always associated VP with dancehall acts like Sean Paul."

Chinese extraction

The first disc features music from 1962-70. It has songs from early Randy's acts including Trinidadian singer Lord Creator, Skatalites trombonist Don Drummond, Peter Tosh, trumpeter Rico Rodriquez and pioneer deejay Count Matchukie.

Disc two covers the years 1970 to 1979. It contains songs from Augustus Pablo, Dennis Brown, John Holt, Delroy Wilson and The Heptones.

Vincent Chin was one of several Jamaicans of Chinese extraction who ventured into the country's burgeoning music scene. His Randy's record store and studio was located at North Parade where some of reggae's finest moments were captured.

One of the label's first hits was Creator's Independent Jamaica which celebrated the country's independence from Britain in August 1962. Randy's embraced the emergence of roots-reggae in 1973 with Pablo's exotic instrumental Java.

Vincent Chin died in Miami in February 2003 at the age of 65.