Westmoreland, Jamaica
Westmoreland is the westernmost parish in Jamaica, located on the south side of the island. It is situated south of Hanover, southwest of Saint James, and northwest of Saint Elizabeth, in the county of Cornwall. The chief town and capital is ...
– 27 February 2003, in
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...
) performed as a
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
vocalist and
deejay
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile D ...
.
Biography
While studying at Kingston Technical High School, Scotty and fellow students Valman Smykle and A. J. Franklin (born Franklin Spence) formed a reggae trio called The Federals. They began performing paid concerts in 1967, and shortly thereafter they attracted the attention of reggae producer and
music promoter
A promoter works with event production and entertainment industries to promote their productions, including in music and sports. Promoters are individuals or organizations engaged in the business of marketing and promoting live, or pay-per-view ...
Derrick Harriott
Derrick Clifton Harriott Order of Distinction, OD (born 10 February 1942) is a Jamaican singer and record producer. He was a member of the Jiving Juniors with Herman Sang before embarking on a solo career. He has produced sound recording and re ...
while performing at a Kingston venue called the Sombrero Club. Harriott added them to a tour of reggae artists, ''Derrick Harriott's Musical Chariot'', and helped them record a series of
singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
. Their first single, "Penny For Your Song", was a local
hit
Hit means to strike someone or something.
Hit or HIT may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities
* Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super''
* Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...
, but subsequent singles failed to
chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...
, and in 1969 Smykle quit the group and moved to New York City. After the break-up of The Federals, Scotty and Franklin re-formed their group by adding two new members, Noel "Bunny" Brown and Richard MacDonald. They adopted the name The Chosen Few, and resumed work under Harriott.Larkin, Colin: ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae'', 1998, Virgin Books, Their popularity increased in 1970 after they provided
back-up vocals
A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...
for
Hopeton Lewis
Hopeton Lewis (3 October 1947 – 4 September 2014) was a Jamaican born singer of rocksteady and reggae, an arranger, and radio music presenter.
Biography
Lewis was born in Kingston, Jamaica. He sang in church from an early age, and start ...
's single "Boom Shacka Lacka", and later that year they scored a Jamaican No. 1 hit of their own with "Psychedelic Train".
Shortly after this success, Harriott removed Scotty from The Chosen Few, replacing him with Busty Brown, the former singer for The Messengers. Instead, Scotty provided DJ work for various groups under Harriott's auspices, such as The Crystallites, his first DJ outing being "Musical Chariot". He appeared on numerous charting hits during this period, such as "Sesame Street" (1970, reaching No. 3 in Jamaica), "Riddle I This" (1970, #1) and "Jam Rock Style" (1971). His song "Draw Your Brakes", a deejay version of
Keith & Tex
Keith & Tex are the Jamaican rocksteady duo of Keith Rowe and Phillip Texas Dixon, best known for their 1967 hit " Stop That Train".
History
Keith Rowe (Born Keith Barrington Rowe) grew up in the Washington Gardens area of Saint Andrew Parish, ...
singjay
Singjaying is a Jamaican style of reggae vocals combining toasting and singing in an elastic format that encourages rhythmically compelling and texturally impressive vocal embellishments. The performer is called a singjay, a combination of singer ...
' style of the late 1970s.Barrow, Steve and Dalton, Peter:"Reggae: The Rough Guide", 1997, Rough Guides, He continued working with Harriott until 1972, after which he spent a couple of years working with other producers such as
Harry J
Harry Zephaniah Johnson (6 July 1945 – 3 April 2013), known by the stage name Harry J, was a Jamaican reggae record producer.
Biography
Born in Westmoreland Parish, Jamaica, Johnson started to play music with the Virtues as a bass player bef ...
,
Lloyd Charmers
Lloyd Charmers (born Lloyd Tyrell, 1938 – 27 December 2012, also known as Lloyd Chalmers, Lloyd Terell, or Lloyd Terrell)Ruddock, George (2012), ''Jamaica Gleaner'', 29 December 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2012 was a Jamaican ska and reggae s ...
, and
Sonia Pottinger
Sonia Eloise Pottinger OD ( Durrant; 21 June 1931 – 3 November 2010)Thompson, Dave (2002) ''Reggae & Caribbean Music'', Backbeat Books, , p. 316 Scotty moved to the United States in 1974, settling in Florida. He established a recording studio and a record label, but these both failed, and he returned to Jamaica. He resumed recording, now in a
ragga
Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music. Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music.
Wayne Sm ...
style, and was working on a new album when he died of
prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...
Trojan
Trojan or Trojans may refer to:
* Of or from the ancient city of Troy
* Trojan language, the language of the historical Trojans
Arts and entertainment Music
* ''Les Troyens'' ('The Trojans'), an opera by Berlioz, premiered part 1863, part 1890 ...
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...