Formed in 1967 JAD Records was a

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the pr ...

that was co-owned by

Johnny Nash John Lester Nash Jr. (August 19, 1940October 6, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter, best known in the United States for his 1972 hit " I Can See Clearly Now". Primarily a reggae and pop singer, he was one of the first non-Jamaican artists ...

, producer Arthur Jenkins, and businessman

Danny Sims Danny is a masculine given name. It is related to the male name Daniel. It may refer to: People *Danny Altmann, British immunologist *Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator, director, producer, and writer *Danny Baker (born 1957), English journalis ...

, whose initials formed its logo. JAD Records was the label which signed

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements ...

Peter Tosh Winston Hubert McIntosh, OM (19 October 1944 – 11 September 1987), professionally known as Peter Tosh, was a Jamaican reggae musician. Along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, he was one of the core members of the band the Wailers (1963 ...

Bunny Wailer Neville O'Riley Livingston (10 April 1947 – 2 March 2021), known professionally as Bunny Wailer, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and percussionist. He was an original member of reggae group The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. ...

and

Rita Marley Rita may refer to: People * Rita (given name) * Rita (Indian singer) (born 1984) * Rita (Israeli singer) (born 1962) * Rita (Japanese singer) * Eliza Humphreys (1850–1938), wrote under the pseudonym Rita Places * Djarrit, also known as Rita, ...

to an exclusive long-term contract as recording artists from 1968 to 1972. Other notable artists to sign with the label included

himself,

Byron Lee Byron Lee ,
''Jamaica Gleaner'', 27 October 2008. born Byron Aloysius St. Elmo Lee ...

br>
Neville Willoughb

and later

Jimmy Cliff James Chambers OM (born 30 July 1944), known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor. He is the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, t ...

. In 1996 JAD released a set of reworked songs from the early years of Bob Marley's career on an album called ''Soul Almighty - The Formative Years Vol 1''. This was followed by ''Black Progress - The Formative Years Vol 2''. Both albums used the vocal tracks from Bob's early material from the 1960s and added modern backing tracks including vocals from Rita Marley, Bob's son Ziggy and members of the Melody Makers. The response to these modern day remixes was so hostile that the label released the groundbreaking Complete Wailers series with the original tracks over the next two years. Despite their best efforts they could not license the tracks that were already under contract to Island (as part of the '' Songs Of Freedom'' box set). However, several years later they managed to license all the tracks and various sets containing them were reissued on the now JAD/Universal records in 2004.

References

External links

Soul Rebels
Bob Marley, Jad-Patrick Yafaoui & The Wailers 1962-1972 American record labels Reggae record labels {{US-record-label-stub