Nambo’s Death A Blow To The Music Fraternity

Veteran musician, vocalist, percussionist and recording artiste Ronald 'Nambo' Robinson has died.

Details surrounding the actual cause of death have been sketchy, but The Gleaner can confirm that the musician died early yesterday morning. It has also been revealed that he had been ailing for some time.

Industry persons have been reacting to the news of Nambo's passing.

Producer Mikey Bennett described Nambo's death as a blow to the music fraternity, dubbing him a legendary musician whose smile could brighten even the darkest day.

"This (his death) has put a damper on my day. He was a comedian and we always running jokes. Nambo was always smiling," he said, recalling a moment he and the deceased shared up to last week.

"He was a real mentor, a stalwart in the business, and I know many of the young people today really gravitated to him because unlike other older musicians, Nambo was really in tune with the young people."

Bennett said that as a close friend of the deceased, he knows that his legacy will live on as Nambo was a hard-working musician who took his career seriously.

"When you think about his music and how important he was, you know that his legacy cannot be questioned. It was important for him that his generation build a bridge into the next, and he was determined to make that happen, and so he took it upon himself to mentor young people. When you see children at Edna Manley doing their final-year show with him in the horn section, you know how much passing on this knowledge meant, and more than that, how much he loved music."

Desi Young, the President of Jamaica Federation of Music, agreed that Nambo's passing was a great loss for the industry.

Young, however, refrained from making a statement on the musician's passing as he said that he was grieving and didn't want to issue a statement that would do the iconic musician any type of injustice.

Several other industry persons including Earth Kry and Copeland Forbes, paid their respects to the musician via his Facebook page.

entertainment@gleanerjm.com