>Subject: Joe Higgs RIP from the NY Times >Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 10:42:21 -0500 > >Joe Higgs, 59, Reggae Performer; Taught a Generation of Singers >By JON PARELES >Joe Higgs, the mentor to a generation of socially conscious reggae singers, >died on Saturday at Kaiser Hospital in Los Angeles. >He was 59 and lived in Los Angeles. >The cause was cancer, said his biographer, Roger Steffens. >Mr. Higgs sang, wrote songs and taught singing and stagecraft to major >performers including Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley and the Wailers. As a >singer, he brought a streak of jazz syncopation to reggae rhythms, and he >was a strong proponent of songs that held messages about faith and >resistance. >"Reggae is a confrontational sound," he said in "Roots Rock Reggae" a 1977 >documentary film by Jeremy Marre. "Freedom -- that's what it's asking for. >Acceptance -- that's what it needs." >Mr. Higgs grew up in Kingston, Jamaica. He made his first single, "Oh Manny >Oh," in a duo, Higgs and Wilson, with Roy Wilson, in 1960, and it sold >50,000 copies. It was one of the first records pressed in Jamaica; its >label, West Indian Records, was owned by Edward Seaga, who became prime >minister in the 1980's. >In Mr. Higgs's yard in Kingston's Trench Town area, he began tutoring >Marley >as a singer and performer in 1959 and worked with other members of the >Wailers, including Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh, as the group began >recording >in the early 60's. >In 1972 Mr. Higgs won Jamaica's Tourist Song competition with "Invitation >to >Jamaica," receiving a trip to New York for his first American performances. >When Bunny Wailer left the Wailers in 1973 Mr. Higgs replaced him for an >American tour. He wrote "Stepping Razor," which became Tosh's signature >song. >In the mid-1970's Mr. Higgs was the band leader for Mr. Cliff, touring >internationally and recording duets with him, including "Sound of the City" >and "Sons of Garvey." He also made his first album, "Life of >Contradiction." >Mr. Higgs continued to record in Jamaica. In 1983 "So It Go," which >protested the plight of the poor, was banned from radio airplay, and he >could not get bookings to perform. He went to Los Angeles, where he >remained >in self-imposed exile. He tutored American-based reggae musicians and >toured >North America and Europe. >The Wailers band accompanied Mr. Higgs on his 1990 album "Blackman Know >Yourself." Recently he had been working at U2's Dublin studio on "Green on >Black," a collaboration between reggae musicians and Celtic performers. >Mr. Higgs is survived by 12 children, among them a daughter, Marcia Higgs, >a >rapper, and a son, Peter, a studio guitarist. > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
