Word, Sound and Power is an intimate portrait of reggae music, its origins and the people who make it happen, featuring Jamaica's most prolific studio band, The Soul Syndicate. Filmed entirely on location in Kingston, Jamaica, the documentary by San Francisco independent filmmaker Jerry Stein explores the roots of reggae in the African “nyabingi” drum, its development into “ska” and later into “rock-steady.” Between musical numbers, some performed in the band's backyard, where so much of Jamaican social life takes place, the musicians speak for themselves of their music, of their experiences growing up in the ghettos of Kingston, and of their struggles to “make it” in Jamaica, where every youth envisions himself a recording star.