Happy Birthday Sugar Minott
(25 May 1956 – 10 July 2010) After working as a selector on the Sound of Silence Keystone sound system, and then his own Gathering of Youth system, he began his singing career as part of The African Brothers in 1969, along with Tony Tuff and Derrick Howard. The group released several singles in the first half of the 1970s on labels such as Micron and their own Ital label, and were an early example of the Rastafari movement's influence on the Jamaican music scene, taking a clear lead from The Abyssinians. After recording "Mysterious Nature" for producer Rupie Edwards, the group recorded 1974's "No Cup No Broke" for Studio One, breaking up shortly after. Minott then teamed up with the producer Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, as studio apprentice at Dodd's Studio One, working as a singer, guitarist and percussionist, and soon began recording his own singles. Minott developed a talent for writing new songs to fit over existing rhythms (which at the time was common when singers performed live, but rare in the studio), often proving more popular than the original songs, pioneering an approach that would be central to the emerging dancehall style.
After a number of moderately successful hits for Studio One, such as "Vanity", "Hang On Natty", "Mr. DC", and "Jah Jah Children", his debut LP Live Loving made his name and increased his popularity, and is regarded as pioneering the dancehall style that would dominate the early 1980s. It was followed in 1979 with a second album, Showcase, which included his singles that had been omitted from the first album.
The Bittersweet album followed, and then the third album of 1979, Ghetto-ology, which saw a return to roots reggae. Roots Lovers (1980) saw a move towards lovers rock, which was a UK hit. He became a bigger star in the UK than in Jamaica, his self-produced "Hard Time Pressure" being a major UK reggae hit in 1980, leading Minott to relocate to the UK, where he became a focus for UK reggae.
Singles such as "Run Come", "Not for Sale", "African Girl", "Lovers Rock", "In a Dis Ya Time", "Africa" and "Make It with You" (with Carroll Thompson) were hits in the years that followed. "Good Thing Going" (a cover of a song originally recorded by Michael Jackson in 1971) was picked up for distribution by RCA and reached Number 4 in the UK Singles Chart in March 1981, leading to an album of the same name. The Herbman Hustling album saw a return to dancehall and roots reggae.Wiki.
Vincent George Forbes
Born in Kingston, Forbes was raised on Wildman Street and attended the Calabar All-Age School.
He began his career as a selector on the Tom the Great Sebastian sound system in the early 1950s, being given a chance after helping Tom Wong to change a tyre on his car. At the time he was known as 'Shine-Shoes Vinny' due to his smart appearance.
After travelling to England in 1954 as a stowaway on a boat from Kingston, he found work as an engine cleaner for British Rail, becoming an electrician two years later. George built his first sound system in 1955 using a second-hand turntable bought from a shop in Edgware Road, a speaker bought for £15 and an amplifier built for £4, soon establishing 'Duke Vin the Tickler's', in Ladbroke Grove, London, the first Jamaican-style sound system in the UK. The sound system played an important part in popularising ska in Britain. He initially played R&B but soon concentrated on Jamaican music - he was supplied with fresh Jamaican releases, including many from Studio One, by the Daddy Peckings shop in West London. Fellow Jamaican Count Suckle soon set up a sound system in the same area, leading to a rivalry between the two and several sound clashes, with Vin involved in the UK's first clash in 1958.
In the 1960s his sound played at top London clubs including The Marquee and The Flamingo.
In the late 1960s he served time in prison after being convicted of pimping, a charge that he denied. On his release he built a larger sound system and bought a house off Harrow Road. One of the tracks that exclusively featured on his sound system was "The Tickler", a track produced by Derrick Harriott that was unavailable elsewhere until it was released in 2006.
In 1973 he was one of the founders of the Notting Hill Carnival, and performed at the event for 37 years, despite suffering a stroke in his later years.
He was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Duke Vin and the Birth of Ska, directed by Gus Berger.
He died in London on 3 November 2012. Via Wiki.
Vintage photos via Vice
Bob Marley dies May 11th 1981
In what would prove to be the next to the last concert of his tragically short life, Bob Marley shared the bill at Madison Square Garden with the hugely popular American funk band The Commodores. With no costumes, no choreography and no set design to speak of, “The reggae star had the majority of his listeners on their feet and in the palm of his hand,” according to New York Times critic Robert Palmer. “After this show of strength, and Mr. Marley’s intense singing and electric stage presence, the Commodores were a letdown.” Only days after his triumphant shows in New York City, Bob Marley collapsed while jogging in Central Park and later received a grim diagnosis: a cancerous growth on an old soccer injury on his big toe had metastasized and spread to Marley’s brain, liver and lungs. Less than eight months later, on May 11, 1981, Bob Marley, the soul and international face of reggae music, died in a Miami, Florida, hospital. He was only 36 years old.
Nesta Robert Marley was born on February 6, 1945, in rural St. Ann Parish, Jamaica, the son of a middle-aged white Jamaican Marine officer and an 18-year-old black Jamaican girl. At the age of nine, Marley moved to Trench Town, a tough West Kingston ghetto where he would meet and befriend Neville “Bunny” Livingston (later Bunny Wailer) and Peter McIntosh (later Peter Tosh) and drop out of school at age 14 to make music. Jamaica at the time was entering a period of incredible musical creativity. As transistor radios became available on an island then served only by a staid, BBC-style national radio station, the music of America suddenly became accessible via stateside radio stations. From a mix of New Orleans-style rhythm and blues and indigenous, African-influenced musical traditions arose first ska, then rock steady—precursor styles to reggae, which did not take shape as a recognizable style of its own until the late 1960s.
Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer performed together as The Wailers throughout this period, coming into their own as a group just as reggae became the dominant sound in Jamaica. Thanks to the international reach of Island Records, the Wailers came to the world’s attention in the early 1970s via their albums Catch a Fire (1972) and Burnin’ (1973). Eric Clapton spread the group’s name even wider by recording a pop-friendly version of “I Shot The Sheriff” from the latter album. With the departure of Tosh and Wailer in 1974, Marley took center stage in the group, and by the late 70s he had turned out a string of albums— Exodus (1977), featuring “Jamming,” “Waiting In Vain” and “One Love/People Get Ready;” Kaya (1978), featuring “Is This Love” and “Sun Is Shining”; and Uprising (1980), featuring “Could You Be Loved” and “Redemption Song.”
While none of the aforementioned songs was anything approaching a hit in the United States during Bob Marley’s lifetime, they constitute a legacy that has only increased his fame in the years since his death on this day in 1981. History.com
Joseph Hill
Joseph Hill was born in 1949 in Linstead, a town in Saint Catherine Parish in the southeast of Jamaica. He was raised in a Christian family and began singing in church at the age of six. Within two years he was making his own musical instruments. After leaving home he came into contact with Rastafarians and adopted the faith.
He began his career in the late 1960s as a percussionist, recording with the Studio One house band the Soul Defenders. He also worked as a sound system deejay, and began performing as a backing vocalist, leading to his singles "Behold the Land" and "Take Me Girl" in the early 1970s. In the early 70s Hill performed with two groups that included future reggae star Glen Washington – C35 Incorporated and Stepping Stone.[citation needed] He performed regularly on the hotel circuit, but had his greatest success with the group Culture.
Hill formed Culture in 1976, and had early success with the prophetic "Two Sevens Clash", predicting apocalypse on 7 July 1977.
During the seventies the group had a string of highly successful singles for producers Joe Gibbs and Sonia Pottinger including the song 'Two Sevens Clash' which made its mark on both Jamaica and the United Kingdom. It was named by Rolling Stone magazine in 2002 as one of the '50 Coolest Records' – the only single artist reggae album to make the list. The group also had a hit with 'Stop Fussing and Fighting', a song that addressed the chaotic political climate of the late 1970s and the attempt on Bob Marley's life.
Joseph Hill and Culture developed a reputation as a performing group after a performance at the 'One Love Peace Concert' in 1978, and was soon regularly touring the United States, Europe and Africa. In recent years the group continued to perform at least one hundred concerts each year – with Hill's wife Pauline performing road manager duties. Hill was a presence on stage – part deejay as he directed his band to reconfigure songs on stage and part teacher as he commented on Jamaican history and current political issues. In his lyrics, Hill often explored how the legacy of slavery continued to have an influence on Jamaican citizens. Yet, what made Culture unique was that Hill always tempered his messages by having a smile on his lips and a dance in his feet. He was never without a good joke at hand.
Hill had received a number of honours; an induction into the Jamaican Reggae Walk of Fame and a 2005 Independence Award presented by the Prime Minister of Jamaica. In 2005 hew received the Culture Shock Bronze Medal in recognition of his contribution to Jamaican music.
As a member of the Rastafari movement, Joseph Hill was a devoted worshipper of emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia. Indeed, Hill's honorific/nickname, "Keeper of Zion Gate" reflects his position as one of reggae's and Rastafari's greatest voices.Wiki.
Jacob Miller
Jacob Miller was known as one of Jamaica's most distinctive vocal stylists, with a trademark vibrato he used to accent his performance.
He was born in Mandeville, Jamaica to Joan Ashman and Desmond Elliot. At the age of eight he moved to Kingston, Jamaica where he grew up with his maternal grandparents. In Kingston, Miller began spending time at popular studios including Clement Dodd’s Studio One. He recorded three songs for Dodd, including "Love is a Message" in 1968, which the Swaby brothers, (Horace, later called Augustus Pablo, and Garth) played at their Rockers Sound System. While the song did not garner much success nor maintain Dodd's attention in Miller, it resulted in Pablo’s sustained interest in Miller.
After the brothers launched their own label in 1972, Pablo recorded a version of "Love is a Message" named "Keep on Knocking" in 1974. In the next year and a half Miller recorded five more songs for Pablo, "Baby I Love You So," "False Rasta," "Who Say Jah No Dread," "Each One Teach One," and "Girl Named Pat", each of which became a Rockers classic with King Tubby dubs on their b-sides. These singles developed Miller’s reputation and ultimately drew Inner Circle to hire him as a replacement lead singer.
Inner Circle was an emerging reggae group made popular playing covers of American Top 40 hits. Band leader Roger Lewis said Jacob Miller was "always happy and jovial. He always made jokes. Everyone liked jokes." Adding Miller as lead singer, the band’s lineup was Roger Lewis on guitar, Ian Lewis on bass, Bernard "Touter" Harvey on keyboards, and Rasheed McKenzie on drums. Coining Miller as Jacob "Killer" Miller, the group continued to build popularity. They signed with Capitol Records in 1976 and released two albums, Reggae Thing and Ready for the World. Their first hit with Jacob Miller was "Tenement Yard", followed by "Tired Fi Lick Weed In a Bush".
While recording, Miller continued pursuing a solo career, recording "Forward Jah Jah Children," "Girl Don’t Com" produced by Gussie Clarke, and "I’m a Natty" produced by Joe Gibbs. He earned second place in Jamaica’s 1976 Festival Song competition with the song "All Night ‘Till Daylight" and produced his first solo album in 1978, Dread Dread. While most of Miller’s solo work were backed by Inner Circle members, his preferred rockers style diverged from the tendency of Inner Circle to experiment with other genres, including pop, soul, funk and disco. The track which has brought him the most lasting recognition is the rockers standard "King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown" with Augustus Pablo, a dub of "Baby I Love You So," engineered by King Tubby. Other notable tracks with Augustus Pablo included "Keep on Knocking," "False Rasta" and "Who Say Jah No Dread", all produced by Pablo. The album Who Say Jah No Dread featured two versions of each of these tracks; the original and a dub engineered by King Tubby.
Miller was featured in the film Rockers, alongside many other musicians including Gregory Isaacs, Big Youth and Burning Spear. In the movie, he plays the singer of a hotel house band, (in reality Inner Circle), who are joined on drums by the film's hero, Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace and play a live version of Inner Circle's hit "Tenement Yard".
In March 1980, Jacob Miller went with Bob Marley and Chris Blackwell to Brazil, to celebrate Island opening new offices in South America. On Sunday, 23 March 1980, Miller was killed in a car accident on Hope Road in Kingston, Jamaica, along with one of his sons. Miller and Inner Circle had been preparing for an American tour with Bob Marley and the Wailers, and the next album, Mixed Up Moods, had been recorded before his death.Wiki.
Tom the Great Sebastian
Tom the Great Sebastian was an early Jamaican sound system started by Tom Wong in 1950, named for a trapeze performer in Barnum and Bailey's circus. The group has been called "the all-time giant of sound systems" and helped launch several notable artists. Count Matchuki is generally credited as Tom's first deejay, before he joined Coxsone Dodd, and Duke Vin was one of Tom's selectors. The sound was also backed by Prince Buster. It was later known as Metromedia.
Tom Wong, half Chinese Jamaican and half African Jamaican, owned a hardware store where he played music and got started in the music business by taking his equipment out to parties. He was "widely regarded as the leading sound system of his day," and helped popularize dancehall music and sound system dance, aided in no small part by powerful amplifiers built by fellow DJ Hedley Jones. In addition to the equipment, his musical selections (many imported directly from the United States) and his originality as a DJ have been credited for his success.
Tom played rhythm and blues loved by the "ghetto folk" and music intended to attract a more upper-class audience, such as merengue and calypso. There are rumors that Duke Reid, a competing sound system operator who started four years after Tom and is credited with bringing gangland-style tactics to dancehall, drove Tom out of the downtown area of Kingston using ruffians from the Brick-O-Wall slum, but Duke Vin insists that Duke and Tom were friends and that Duke's followers never bothered Tom. The closest they came to a sound clash was a set of competing parties in adjacent yards; they never went head-to-head. Tom did, however, move away from the violence of the downtown area to the Silver Slipper club in the more upscale Cross Roads area, a move which did not harm him financially.
Tom the Great Sebastian was the most popular of the first generation of sound systems until the mid-1950s when the "big three" of sound systems rose to popularity: Coxsone Dodd's Downbeat, Duke Reid's The Trojans, and King Edward's Giant. Tom Wong committed suicide in 1971. After his death, the sound system was continued by Lou Gooden, who changed its name to Metromedia, after a record label. In 1976 it was sold again to Haidan "Jimmy Metro" James. Metromedia became one of the most popular sounds of the 1980s, featuring the deejay Peter Metro and selector Sky Juice. The sound system still operates from its Woodford Park base.Wiki.
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