Jamaican reggae artist and producer Sugar Minott died Saturday at age 54.
His wife Maxine Stowe said he died unexpectedly in a Kingston, Jamaica, hospital after complaining of feeling ill earlier
in the day. No cause of death was released.
Minott had cancelled a string of Canadian concerts in May because of health problems, reported to be angina.
The smooth-voiced singer helped popularize reggae in the 1970s and 1980s with hits such as Good Thing Going, Vanity
and Mr. DC.
He also was a pioneer of the Jamaican dance-hall scene, and known as a mentor to young Jamaican artists.
Born Lincoln Barrington Minott on May 25, 1956, in Kingston, he was involved in local sound systems (groups of disc jockeys
and MCs) from his youth.
In 1969, he joined Tony Tuff and Derrick Howard to form the African Brothers, and recorded the album No Cup No Broke.
In the early 1970s, the African Brothers broke up and Minott went solo. He built his reputation by laying vocal tracks
over backing tapes, instead of using a live band, a style that would be adopted by Jamaican dance-hall stars.
After recording Live Loving and Showcase, albums that were considered dance-hall breakthroughs, he left
the Studio One label to form his own Black Roots label. The label worked with his Youth Promotion company to advance the careers
of young artists, including Ranking Joe, Captain Sinbad and Ranking Dread.
Minott had U.K. hits with Hard Time Pressure and River Jordan in 1979 and relocated to Britain for a
few years.
In 1983, he returned to Jamaica for a performance at Reggae Sunsplash, an annual festival he would help anchor for several
years.
Through the 1980s, he continued to experiment with his musical style and perform live, as well as producing extensively.
He also performed with former protégés, Junior Reid on Wah Them a Do and Shaggy on Chow.
His albums from the 1990s include Happy Together, Easy Squeeze and Breaking Free. A last album, New Day,
is scheduled for release in the next few weeks.
Veteran singer, songwriter, musician and producer Sugar Minott - born Lincoln Barrington
Minott - from Kingston, Jamaica has been a driving force in pioneering the creation of reggae music. Contributing his indoctrination
to the reggae music from growing up near a dancehall where some of the best sounds of the day used to play.
From this
exposure he began to build a repertoire and entered talent contests like the Little Theatre Company. When finished school
he began his journey in the music business selling records and playing in a sound named, Sound of Silence Keytone.
Sugar
then started his own sound by the name of Black Roots which then led to the creation of Youthman Promotion.
In 1969
Sugar teamed up with Tony Tuff and Derrick Howard and formed the group the African Brothers. Tony was the lead singer and
they recorded for Micron Music which was run by Mick Johnson and Ronny Burke of Sunsplash fame. The group then recorded for
other producers from the likes of Keith Weston, Winston "Marrytone" Blake, Rupie Edwards and Coxsone Dodd. Some of the releases
were "Lead us father", Mystery of nature", Party time" and"Righteous kingdom".
The group sprang up from the gathering
at Delacree Rd. and Delamar Ave. corner, properly known as Tony Martin corner where many aspiring artists would mass. Due
to strong cultural content of the lyrics the group did not receive the type of publicity it deserved so they all decided to
pursue solo careers.
In 1974 Sugar teamed up with Ace producer Coxsone Dodd "Studio One". Bringing the label back to
life after the loss of John Holt, Ken Boothe, and Alton Ellis to other studio's, His first hit for "studio One" was "Vanity"
followed by "Mr DC", "House is not a Home" and "Hang on Natty", which led to his first solo album "Live Loving".
In
1979 he left Studio One to form his own label - "Black Roots" which led to the foundation of the Youth Promotion crew, recoding
artist's like Little John, Triston Palmer, Barry Brown and Tony Tuff.
Youth Promotion started back in 1979, in the
Maxfield park area of Kingston, Jamaica. Known as the Ghetto sound by the youths of the area. Started by Lincoln "Sugar" Minott
the Veteran singer, songwriter, musician and producer. The sound system was the opportunity of the youths to be heard by the
masses.
The Sound Youthman Promotion began to dominate the Dancehall scene by voiceing artist's like Junior Reid, Yami
Bolo, Don Angelo, the lateTenor Saw, Nitty Gritty and Garnet Silk who did his first recording for the Black Roots Label. The
list of Artists goes on - Tony Rebel, Colorman, Daddy Freddie, Johnny Osbourne, Steve "Shalom" Harper and many more.
RELATIVES of the late Reggae artiste
Lincoln ‘Sugar’ Minott, are angry that the cemetery in the Harkers Hall district in St Catherine where the singer
is to be buried is not in a satisfactory state.
“The cemetery is in a terrible
condition,” Conrad Newland, cousin of the late singer said.
“It is over a year now that the
cemetery has not been bushed. And still the parish council is collecting people’s money and not maintaining the place.
Then it better we don’t pay.”
Newland, who said only last week he buried
his mother at the cemetery, noted the cost to bury in a sepulchre is $15,500 while a vault is $7,500.
“Why you paying you money and they
not using that money to maintain the cemetery?” Newland asked. “Right now if you go over there to visit you dead
bush reach you at your waist.”
“They need to clean it and close
the cemetery gate,” Alyson Newland, Minott’s cousin added.
She explained that when the parish council
was approached, they stated that cleaning of cemeteries was being done in phases, and they have not yet gotten to Harkers
Hall cemetery.
Minott will be buried in the same cemetery
where his father and other relatives had been laid to rest.
When the sweet-voiced reggae singer Sugar
Minott made the UK Top 5 with his easy-on-the-ear cover of a Michael Jackson B-side, "Good Thing Going" in the spring of 1981,
he became one of the leading voices of the soul-flavoured Lovers' Rock genre so popular in Britain at the time. First released
on Hawkeye, the London reggae label run by former Trojan Records employee Roy Forbes, but based on a little-known 1974 version
by Zeita Massiah, "Good Thing Going" sold so many copies that it was picked up by RCA, not only for British distribution but
across Europe and further a field and went on to chart in several countries.
Then living in London, Minott appeared
on Top Of The Pops and issued a follow-up single, a Lovers' Rock adaptation of "Never My Love", the Addrissi Brothers composition
popularised by The Association in the 1960s, which stalled just outside the Top 50 in the autumn of 1981. Minott never troubled
the mainstream charts again but continued recording, writing and producing, and played an important part in the development
of the dancehall genre in Jamaica.
I try not to be a specialist," he told
Chuck Foster, the author of Roots, Rock, Reggae. "I sing all kinds of songs. Political songs, lovers rock, dancehall, soul.
I can identify with different kinds of people."
Born in 1956, Minott came from a tough
ghetto background. In his teens he began entering talent contests in Kingston and, encouraged by the reaction, gave up school.
He spent his time hanging around sound systems and became a "selector" – the Jamaican term for DJ. "I was just following
this music thing all the way," he said. "I admired people like Ken Booth, Dennis Brown and Delroy Wilson."
In the late 1960s he met Tony Tuff and
Derrick Howard and formed the African Brothers, a vocal harmony group who struggled to make ends meet and broke up after several
singles, most notably in 1974, "No Cup No Broke" for Studio One, the label run by the sound-system operator turned producer
Clement "Coxsone" Dodd. Minott stayed on at Studio One, learned the tricks of the trade and contributed guitar, percussion
and backing vocals to many recordings. He was also given the chance to showcase his song writing and the honeyed tones which
earned him the nickname and eventual stage name "Sugar" on a series of re-voicing over Dodd's vintage rhythm tracks, including
"Vanity", "Hang On Natty", "Oh Mr DC" and "Jah Jah Children".
This development effectively provided
the blueprint for the dancehall genre and makes Minott a significant figure in the history of reggae music, yet he received
little income for his efforts. "I signed a one-year contract with Coxsone but I reached a stage that I couldn't see nothing
coming out, financial wise," he recalled. "I decided to stop with Studio One and get together with some musician friends I
knew a long time, pay them on trust and form a company called Black Roots production and Youth Promotion."
Not content with issuing his own roots
albums such as Ghetto-ology and Roots Lovers on Black Roots and then licensing them to labels on a one-off basis, Minott was
also committed to helping new Jamaican talent. He produced records by the vocalists Yami Bolo, Barry Brown, Freddie McGregor,
Michael Prophet, Junior Reid, Tenor Saw as well as the UK-based Trevor Hartley, and the toasters and DJs Jah Stitch, Ranking
Joe, Captain Sinbad and Ranking Dread, while his Youth Promotion sound-system helped popularise dancehall on the island.
As well as spending considerable time
in London, where he recorded a version of Bread's "Make It With You" with Carroll Thompson, Minott worked in New York, making
the Wicked A Go Feel It album there in 1984. He also collaborated with Jamaica's premier rhythm section, bassist Robbie Shakespeare
and drummer Sly Dunbar, and made the "Rub A Dub Sound Style", "Devil's Pickney" and "Herbman Hustling" singles with them in
the mid-'80s.
One of the most versatile and prolific
singers to come out of Jamaica, with a career that spanned the roots, lovers' rock, dancehall and ragga genres, he freelanced
for other producers such as Prince Jammy and Donovan Germain and guested on a reggae reworking of Radio head’s "Exit
Music (For A Film)" on the Radio dread album credited to the Easy Star All-Stars in 2006.
Minott was suffering from angina pectoris.
His new album, entitled New Day and featuring Toots Hibbert, Ranking Trevor, Sly Dunbar and Bongo Herman, is due out at the
end of the month.
Lincoln Barrington Minott, singer, songwriter,
producer, sound-system operator: born Kingston, Jamaica 25 May 1956; married; died Kingston, Jamaica 10 July 2010.
