Grace Jones-Warm Leatherette
Grace Jones was a disco star in the late ’70s, scoring dance hits with campy tunes like “La Vie en rose” that earned her a place in the inner circle of Andy Warhol and Studio 54. But it was at the dawn of the ’80s when the Spanish Town, Jamaica native truly made her mark on music, with new-wave influenced yet reggae-centric recordings made at Chris Blackwell’s Bahamas studio Compass Point with Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. Warm Leatherette was the first album Jones made with Sly and Robbie (other Jamaican musicians who took part included percussionist Uziah “Sticky” Thompson and guitarist Mikey Chung), a partnership continued on the similarly dynamic Nightclubbing and Living My Life, released in ’81 and ’82, respectively. Jones, in fact, has continued to work with the Riddim Twins, who appeared on two tracks from 2008’s Hurricane.