Honouring the American connection
THE American influence on Jamaican popular music will be recognised at this year’s Tribute To The Greats show, scheduled for July 27 at Curphey Place in St Andrew.
Dubbed ‘The American Connection’, promoter Kingsley ‘King Omar’ Goodison says the show pays homage to artistes, musicians and impresarios who not only impacted Jamaican music, but benefited from it.
“Instead of honouring a few people we decided to do a general thing, given the work American musicians have done in Jamaica,” Goodison told Splash.
Soul singers like Chuck Jackson, Fats Domino, Ben E King and Johnny Nash visited Jamaica frequently during the 1960s. They not only performed in Kingston but hung out at the recording studios of rival producers Clement Dodd and Duke Reid, the Khouri family-owned Federal Records and Byron Lee’s Dynamic Sounds.
Impresario Danny Sims, who managed Nash, was responsible for bringing many of the acts to Jamaica. He and Nash would record and produce a number of outstanding songs with The Wailers.
Stephen Hill, a leading Jamaican events promoter, will also be honoured posthumously by Tribute To The Greats.
So too, broadcaster Alan Magnus of Radio Jamaica; Ras Michael of the Sons of Negus fame; singer Carlene Davis, studio engineer Keith ‘Sticky’ Parke, dance promoter Joseph Bragga, and drummer Joe Isaacs, who played on numerous hit songs at Studio One during the 1960s.
Tribute To The Greats was first held in 1998. It acknowledges the contribution of stalwarts to the development of Jamaica’s music industry.