Do the Reggay!

 

“Toots” Hibbert was one of those bona fide music pioneers we see so few of in any given generation. Born in early 1940’s Jamaica, he started singing in church with his preacher parents. Orphaned by age 11, he went on to live with his brother in the now famous Trenchtown neighborhood of Kingston, while his music slowly but surely evolved throughout the 1960’s with his group, the Maytals. That is when he started to make a mark: along with fellow pioneers Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley, he help cement the musical genre that has come to be known as Reggae music, even helping name it with his 1968 song “Do the Reggay”…

From the get-go, Hibbert infused exceptional depth into his music, both referring to themes taken from the Rastafari religion with songs like “Six And Seven Books of Moses”, all-the-while reflecting on the trials and tribulations of his times. In 1966, Hibbert got arrested for Marijuana possession and spent 18 months in jail, an episode he turned into one of his most notable compositions, “54-46 Was My Number“, an early international Reggae hit.

His encounters with musical history were far from over, though: not only did Toots and the Maytals sing their signature song “Pressure drop”on the soundtrack of cult 1972 film The harder they come, starring Jimmy Cliff and loosely based on Hibbert’s very life as a young aspiring musician, but the Maytals were also seen performing “Sweet and dandy” in the film. Released soon after, their album Funky Kingston became one of Reggae’s first international hits, in no small part thanks to the support of music producer and Island records founder Chris Blackwell. Superstar music critic Lester Bangs even called the LP “perfection, the most exciting and diversified set of reggae tunes by a single artist yet released”. You can’t get much higher praise than that…

The passing of Toots Hibbert essentially leaves Jimmy Cliff as the sole (or at least biggest) remaining Reggae pioneer left alive, much in the way Jerry Lee Lewis now stands as the flab-bearer of Rock and Roll following the untimely death of Little Richard. Here’s to wishing a very long after-life to Toots Hibbert — and a very long life to Jimmy Cliff…