The Abyssinians – 1 Minute Jamaican Music Biography
RawHTML: The Abyssinians, Bernard Collins alongside Lynford and Donald Manning, created a spiritual sound that was totally unique for its time. Not influenced nearly as much as many of their contemporaries were by the Americanized version of soul, their vocals were brilliant. Perhaps not the most prolific group, their high standard was, and is, their […]
Beres Hammond – 1 Minute Jamaican Music Biography
RawHTML: Beresford Hammond’s work with producer Donovan Germain…beginning in 1990 with the mega-hit ‘Tempted to Touch’ is legendary. In fact Beres’ records are said to represent the high ground for Jamaican vocal music for the entire decade of the 90s. Born in Kingston in 1955, Beres actually got his career underway in the mid 1970s […]
Cutty Ranks – 1 Minute Jamaican Music Biography
RawHTML: Cutty Ranks replaced Shabba Ranks as the rough DJ voice in the Home T/Cocoa Tea triumvirate. Born back in 1965 in Kingston, Philip Thomas or Cutty Ranks, had been an important voice on sound systems during the 80s. By the 90s he was ready for bigger things. Thanks to the production skills of Donovan […]
Cocoa Tea – 1 Minute Jamaican Music Biography
RawHTML: In the early to mid 80s there were only a few vocalists in Jamaica who could compete for popularity with the DJs who were dominating the country’s Dancehalls. One of those vocalists was Cocoa Tea. Born Calvin Scott back in 1960, this Clarendonian possessed one of the purist, sweetest voices to ever sing into […]
Ken Boothe – 1 Minute Jamaican Music Biography
RawHTML: Ken Boothe began his distinguished career by singing and looking for guidance from the Back-a-Wall crew in Kingston. Friday nights saw young hopefuls going at it in an informal competition. Ken cut his teeth…musically speaking… alongside people like Bob Marley, Slim Smith, Stanger Cole, Roy Shirley and the Melodians. Boothe began recording as half […]
Big Youth – 1 Minute Jamaican Music Biography
RawHTML: Big Youth was a DJ who really had a handle on how to add his Roots commentaries to the hot rhythms and songs of the early 1970s. The top DJ of Lord Tippertone’s ‘sound’, Big Youth used the Bible as a source for lyrics rather than just using simple ‘catch-phrases’. Big Youth ruled the […]
Horace Andy – 1 Minute Jamaican Music Biography
RawHTML: Horace Andy…or Horace Hinds, as his family named him…was born in Kingston in 1951. His unique falsetto vocal style influenced alot of singers who followed in his wake. A true original, Horace Andy’s vocal technique was put to good use by many a producer and whenever their greatest works are mentioned so is Horace’s […]
Garnett Silk – 1 Minute Jamaican Music Biography
RawHTML: Garnett Silk, along with fellow artists Tony Rebel, Admiral Tibet and Yami Bolo, helped to re-inject Roots and consciousness back into the Jamaican Dancehall secene in the early 90s. It was a time when ‘slackness’ threatened to render the Dancehall almost devoid of meaninful substance. Born near Mandeville in 1970, Garnett Silk began […]
Culture – 1 Minute Jamaican Music Biography
RawHTML: Culture…featuring Joseph Hill…has been another of Jamaica’s international Reggae exports to succeed in a meaningful way. With a sound not unlike that of Burning Spear Culture’s Roots music, spiced with a whole heap of soul, has kept them in the spotlight for over a quarter of a century. And their fan base, seemingly, continues […]
Burning Spear – 1 Minute Jamaican Music Biography
RawHTML: Winston Rodney was born in St. Anne’s Bay back in 1948. As Burning Spear…a name he took from Kenya Independane leader Jomo Kenyatta…he began recording in 1969. Marcus Garvey, the repatriation of Africa, and the oppression of the Black race were, and are, the subjects that Burning Spear sings about. Uncompromising Roots music and […]
