Reggae Sumfest tribute to King Jammy ‘happened at the right time’
Published:Sunday | July 23, 2023 | 12:06 AMYasmine Peru - Sunday Gleaner Writer
On Saturday night, Reggae Sumfest paid tribute to the legendary Lloyd Woodrowe James – better known as Prince Jammy or King Jammy – with a stellar line-up of artistes that included Admiral Bailey, Stitchie, Johnny Osbourne, Pinchers, Bunny General, Aza Lineage, Chaka Demus, Chuck Turner and Leroy Gibbons.
His first son, Lloyd ‘John John’ James, said that it was a case of perfect timing, and actually, for the dub master, timing is everything.
“This tribute happen the right time and I give thanks for Joe Bogdanovich [Reggae Sumfest producer]. Why? Because this man always investing in music … and him could jus’ low music business. There’s no one really keeping show and doing these things. Is like the man dem who a do the great works nobody nah acknowledge it. Dem coulda hear a riddim lick over 10 time dem just a dance to it .. dem nuh business. But me … I am giving thanks that we can still mek great music and my father can still mek music that a inspire dem,” John John said.
He shared the back story of how King Jammy heard that he would be honoured at Reggae Sumfest, which this year celebrated its milestone 30th anniversary.
“When Joe Bogdanovich send a message and seh him want talk to my father I told him, ‘King, mi a go bet yuh seh the same thing wha gwaan last year with Dave Kelly … a your time now.’ And he said, ‘John yuh know yuh right.’ Yuh see, after the operation I told my father ‘watch and see what God going to do for you.’ And look how everyting is unfolding.”
The operation John John referred to was the triple bypass surgery that King Jammy underwent close to two years ago.
“Thank God that I am here still. I went through a hard one; it was really tough, but God saved me. When I came out of surgery, I didn’t know where I was. The doctor told me, ‘Mr James, it’s not me, it’s the Man upstairs’. I did done mek up my mind that is God alone can get me through this and we all prayed and God answered our prayers,” King Jammy told THE WEEKEND STAR last year.
According to his bio, King Jammy began his musical career at King Tubby’s recording studio in Waterhouse. In the 1980s, he became one of the most influential producers of dancehall music. His biggest hit was 1985’s Under Me Sleng Teng by Wayne Smith, with an entirely digital rhythm hook.
Many credit this song as being the first “digital rhythm” in reggae, leading to the modern dancehall era. Later into 1980s, Jammy improvised reggae and dancehall, he digitalised old riddims, like Real Rock, and Far East. King Jammy then began working with top artistes in Jamaica throughout the 1980s and 1990s such as Admiral Bailey, Admiral Tibet, Chaka Demus, Frankie Paul, Lieutenant Stitchie, Pinchers, and Dennis Brown. Jammy’s productions and sound system dominated reggae music for the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s.
“Dub is an exciting thing ….and a dub album has to be exciting,” King Jammy said. “First of all, it have to have a good topic and since it was COVID time, we just take what was happening and created something positive. When I sent the title to VP [Records], they loved it.”
He was serenading his latest dub album, King Jammy Destroys The Virus With Dub. The songs have expressive titles which speak directly to the pandemic – Quarantined in Dub, Dub fi Social Distance, Closed Border Dub, A New Normal in Dub, Track & Trace Dub, Dub Tribute to All Frontline Workers and Messenger Dub.
King Jammy noted that he was happy to revisit 12 of his analogue and digital-era studio master tapes to create new, fresh, dub mixes “to put the virus under manners”. The icing on the dub cake was a specially commissioned illustrated sleeve by original Greensleeves album illustrator Tony McDermott.