10 Things You Didnt Know About Tenor Saw

Clive Bright, aka Tenor Saw, is generally regarded as one of the greatest voices of the dancehall era. Like too many artists from this period in Jamaica, Tenor Saw died at a young age, his lifeless body discovered on the side of a Houston, Texas freeway in 1988. 1. Tenor Saw, who honed his unique voice singing in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, recorded his first single “Roll Call” in 1984. A religious song sung over the “Queen Majesty” riddim, the single was produced by George Phang and released on the Powerhouse label. 2. Tenor Saw sought out Sugar Minott, whose Youthman Promotion sound was the ruling sound, by throwing rocks at his house until Minott came out to confront him. According to Minott, Saw apologized and said “bwoy Fadda, a long time me a try yuh nuh and mi cyaan get nobody fi listen mi.” Their friendship started right there in front of Minott’s house. 3. Tenor Saw’s biggest break came in 1985 when he followed Minott to Jammy’s studio in Waterhouse so that Minott could voice over a dubplate of Jammy’s Sleng Teng riddim. The dubplate is made to contain 4-tracks, two on the A-side, and two on the B-side. Minott voiced three tracks and invited Tenor Saw to voice the fourth. The result was “How Water Walk Go A Pumpkin Belly.” The title was eventually shortened to “Pumpkin Belly” and was Tenor Saw’s first big hit. 4. Tenor Saw’s stellar “Victory Train” anthem was arranged and co-produced by Freddie McGregor. It was released as a 12″ in 1985 on the Black Victory label. 5. Tenor Saw’s biggest hit was “Ring The Alarm,” which he voiced over the Stalag 17 riddim. 1985 was the year of a legendary four-way clash between Minott’s Youthman Productions, Prince Jammy’s crew, the Black Scorpio sound system, and the Arrows crew. Tenor Saw made dancehall history when he deconstructed the opposing sound and jumped to the stage to declare “Ring the alarm, another sound is dying.” 6. According to Minott, Tenor Saw was most interested in singing conscious lyrics and that the “bad bwoy” songs were usually written strictly for the sound clashes. 7. Success in Jamaica sent Tenor Saw to the U.S. in 1987, where he toured extensively with Freddie McGregor. Rumors started circulating about Tenor Saw’s excessive cocaine use and unraveling mental state. 8. In 1988, Tenor Saw was signed to RAS Records by label chief Doctor Dread. They got to work on a new album immediately. The Roots Radics were brought into Lion and Fox Studios in Washington, D.C. to lay down the riddims. When it came time to voice the riddims, Tenor Saw could not be found. He never resurfaced and those riddims were eventually voiced by Yellowman at Lion and Fox Studios for the album Yellowman Rides Again, which was released in 1988. 9. On October 26, 1988 the Jamaica Gleaner reported that Tenor Saw had been shot and killed in New York City after a domestic dispute. What the paper did not know at the time was that Tenor Saw was killed two months earlier in August 1988. His body was found on the side of a road with the official cause of death determined as a case of hit and run. However, after performing an autopsy, the Houston medical examiner listed his cause of death as pneumonia. Others insist to this day that he was murdered. 10. As Rick Sawyer points out in The Tragedy of Tenor Saw “’Ring the alarm, another sound is dying’ was meant as taunt, but, in retrospect, it sounds like Tenor Saw’s epitaph.” posted April 21, 2014 by Midnight Raver Reggae Archives

RIP Tenor Fly

Tenor Fly was a British singer, rapper and freestyler, who rose to prominence in the ragga movement of the early 1990s.

Born Jonathan Sutter, Fly had been a member of Freestylers and has worked as a solo artist. Fly had been active in the music business since 1988, and was best known for his work with other artists, such as Rebel MC, Top Cat, Barrington Levy and Sir Coxson Sound. Fly died suddenly on 17 June 2016.

Video - John Holt - Ali Baba w/ Version (Treasure Isle)

Winston Holt CD (11 July 1947 – 19 October 2014), better known as John Holt, was a reggae singer and songwriter from Jamaica who first found fame as a member of The Paragons, before establishing himself as a solo artist.

Video - Desmond Dekker - Israelites 1968

Desmond Dekker (16 July 1941 – 25 May 2006) was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. Together with his backing group the Aces (consisting of Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard), he had one of the earliest international reggae hits with "Israelites" (1968). Other hits include "007 (Shanty Town)" (1967), "It Mek" (1969) and "You Can Get It If You Really Want" (1970).

Video - The Melodians -Rivers of Babylon

The Melodians are a rocksteady band formed in the Greenwich Town area of Kingston, Jamaica, in 1963, by Tony Brevett (born 1949, nephew of The Skatalites bassist, Lloyd Brevett), Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton. Renford Cogle assisted with writing and arranging material.

Video - the Jamaicans - Ba Ba Boom

Rocksteady goodness from the Jamaicans

Video - Pat Kelly - I´m coming home

another ska classic from Pat Kelly with some fancy impressions of iconic symbols of the scene.

Vintage Photo

Left to Right: Rads, Leggo, Tappa Zukie, Bunny Lee, Prince Buster, Dennis Alcapone & Jah Shaka, via Jah Shaka.

Steel Pulse

Steel Pulse are a roots reggae musical band, from the Handsworth area of Birmingham, England, which has a large number of Afro-Caribbean, Indian and other Asian migrants. They originally formed at Handsworth Wood Boys School - composed of David Hinds (lead vocals, guitar), Basil Gabbidon (lead guitar, vocals), and Ronald McQueen (bass); along with Basil's brother Colin briefly on drums. Steel Pulse were the first non-Jamaican act to win the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.After the band formed in 1975, their debut release, Kibudu, Mansetta And Abuku, arrived on the small independent label Dip, and linked the plight of urban black youth with the image of a greater African homeland. They followed it with Nyah Luv for Anchor. They were initially refused live dates in Caribbean venues in Birmingham due to their Rastafarian beliefs. Aligning themselves closely with the Rock Against Racism organisation and featuring in its first music festival in early 1978, they chose to tour with sympathetic elements of the punk movement, including the Stranglers, XTC etc.: "Punks had a way of enjoying themselves – throw hordes at you, beer, spit at you, that kind of thing". Eventually they found a more natural home in support slots for Burning Spear, which brought them to the attention of Island Records.

Their first release for Island was the Ku Klux Klan 45, a considered tilt at the evils of racism, and one often accompanied by a visual parody of the sect on stage. By this time their ranks had swelled to include Selwyn Brown (keyboards), Steve "Grizzly" Nisbett (drums), Alphonso Martin (vocals, percussion) and Mykaell Riley (vocals). Handsworth Revolution was an accomplished long-playing record and one of the major landmarks in the evolution of British reggae (Executive Producer Pete King). However, despite critical and moderate commercial success over three albums, the relationship with Island Records had soured by the advent of their third album, Caught You (released in the US as Reggae Fever). The band made their US concert debut at the Mudd Club in New York in 1980. Wiki.

David "Ram Jam" Rodigan

David Rodigan Also known as Roddy, Ram Jam , David Michael Rodigan MBE (born 24 June 1951) is an English radio DJ who also performs as a disc jockey for his sound system. Known for his selections of reggae and dancehall music, he has played on stations including Radio London, Capital 95.8, Kiss 100, BBC Radio 1Xtra, BBC Radio 2 and BFBS Radio. Rodigan was born on a military base in Hanover. He attended Gosford Hill School, Kidlington, Oxfordshire. He has stated that his passion for Jamaican music was initiated by watching Millie Small perform her 1964 hit My Boy Lollipop at the Ready Steady Go! TV show as a school boy. By the age of 15, Rodigan was DJing at school dances and youth clubs. Leaving school in 1970, he spent a year studying economics before leaving to study drama. Despite pursuing an acting career, Rodigan kept his passion for music alive, selling records in Oxford then Putney, before obtaining a job on Radio London in 1978 to alternate with Tony Williams on the Reggae Rockers programme. A year later he was offered a permanent slot at Capital Radio to present Roots Rockers, which ran for 11 years. In 1990 a change in management and music policy at the station led to David leaving to start a new show for Kiss FM when it relaunched that September as London's first legal 24-hour dance music station. He hosted the Sunday night slot from 11pm till midnight until November 2012, when the slot was moved to midnight and he resigned in protest over what he called the "continued marginalisation" of the reggae genre.

Rodigan has clashed established soundsystems like Killamanjaro, Stone Love, Barry G and Bass Odyssey. He has acted as tour DJ for reggae and dancehall artists including Shinehead. During the 1970s and 1980s, he worked as an actor and appeared in a variety of TV programmes, including a part in the Doctor Who serial, The Mysterious Planet. In 1984 he joined BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service) where he broadcast his weekly reggae show for 25 years until 2009. In 2006, Rodigan was added to the Radio Academy hall of fame. Vocal samples of Rodigan can be found on the dubstep track "Hard" by Breakage, on the introductory track of Caspa's 2009 Album Everybody's Talking, Nobody's Listening, and on the intro to Alborosie's debut album "Soul Pirate", and the main vocal of Sukh Knight's "Ganja", plus countless other jungle/drum & bass tracks. Ad-Rock mentions Rodigan by name on the 2011 Beastie Boys track 'Say It'.