let me tell you a little story. in the early eighties i was in college and my musical horizons were exploding. in the summer between my junior and senior year i was getting heavy into reggae, and as usual, once i lock into something i go in deep. i was starting to build a little catalog of not only the biggest names – marley, tosh, jimmy cliff and the like – but also newer acts like black uhuru and steel pulse. and, of course, i had a great little album called ‘funky kingston’ by toots and the maytals.

so i felt well prepared when a few guys from my fraternity decided to head down to jamaica for our senior spring break excursion. we had our little boom box and i brought my tape case that probably had room for 12-15 of my best reggae tapes. after an arduous flight into montego bay, we had about a two hour taxi ride to our campsite in negril. we found a guy willing to take us there, and he helped us secure a case of barely cold red stripe beer. as we started making our way through the countryside, i asked him if i could play one of my tapes for the ride. he said yes, and so i started rattling off some of the names above, until i got to toots. all of he sudden he turned and said ‘toots, mon, play the toots, mon’. and so i did.

and so a few white kids from the midwest got our first taste of the jamaican back country as our driver careened through those roads, listening to ‘funky kingston’, occasionally seeing the western caribbean coastline as we headed to the small town of negril.

it was my first realization that there is reggae that we were exposed to in the states, and then there was the music that was popular on the island itself. and there is really no one who is more loved and respected on that island than toots hibbert. he had 31 number one singles there. there are some that say he first coined the term reggae, with his 1968 song ‘do the reggay’.

besides being one of the founders of the genre, he was also arguably it’s most soulful singer, often compared to otis redding. and by most accounts that i have seen, he was also a very kind and generous soul who always called jamaica home. he had a long and prosperous career, and i last saw him at jazzfest two years ago. he still had it going on at the age of 75.

‘reggae got soul’. yes it does, and toots was the best.

if you want a little something to get an idea of the influence he had here in the states, i would recommend a tribute album to him done in 2004 called ‘true love’, where the likes of clapton, bonnie raitt, keith richards, and so many others played with him on his biggest hits. it is really a fantastic compilation.

there was also a documentary on his life put out recently by the bbc that was really well done.

rest in peace, my friend.

bill and brint, this one’s for you.