http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/arts/mus...?ref=obituaries

 

July 13, 2010

Sugar Minott, Reggae Star, Dies at 54

By DENNIS HEVESI

 

Sugar Minott, a popular Jamaican singer whose joyful, lilting voice

bridged four decades of transformation in reggae music, died Saturday in

Kingston, the nation's capital. He was 54.

 

The cause has not yet been determined, but Mr. Minott recently suffered

heart problems, his wife, Maxine Stowe, said.

 

After gaining recognition as a teenager for his harmony singing with

Derrick Howard and Tony Tuff as the African Brothers, Mr. Minott

(pronounced my-NOT) went on to a long career as a solo artist on record

and in concerts around the world. Among his early hits were "Vanity" and

"Mr. DC," recorded for Studio One, Jamaica's first black-owned recording

studio and label.

 

"He mastered every reggae style and made significant contributions to

each of them - from roots and message music into lover's rock to the

computerized techno music of the dancehall genre in the mid-'80s," said

Roger Steffens, a co-founder of the reggae magazine The Beat, which

recently ceased publication after 28 years.

 

From the days of Bob Marley, who died in 1981, reggae has evolved from

its Rastafarian message of peace, love and justice to a style called

lover's rock and the more stripped-down dancehall style, characterized

by digital rhythm tracks and harsher vocals. The rappers, or toasters,

who came to dominate dancehall "turned the music into homophobic and

misogynistic rants," Mr. Steffens said. But Mr. Minott, an early

practitioner of the form, shunned the harshness.

 

"Sugar brought his trademark sweetness and humor, even to what can be

quite a violent genre," said Vivien Goldman, the adjunct professor of

reggae at the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York

University. "Reggae has always been loved for its golden voices, and

Sugar Minott ranked among the greatest."

 

Ms. Goldman cited his 1984 hit "Buy Off the Bar" as evidence of

dancehall at its sweetest: an encouragement to forget the troubles of

everyday life, buy drinks and keep the party going.

 

Mr. Minott's biggest hit was a cover of the Jackson Five's "Good Thing

Going," which reached No. 4 in the British singles chart in March 1981.

But the recordings that made him famous, Ms. Goldman said, came in 1979:

"Hard Time Pressure," bemoaning the plight of the poor, and

"Ghetto-Ology," about starvation and mass brutality, in which he sang,

"I got an A in starvation, I pass my grades in sufferation."

 

"One of the outstanding aspects of Sugar Minott was his commitment to

poor youth," Ms. Goldman said, pointing out that he started a label,

Black Roots, that featured young artists from the deprived downtown

areas of Kingston. Among those who became popular were Garnet Silk, Tony

Rebel, Tenor Saw and Johnny Osbourne.

 

In recent years Mr. Minott recorded with the Easy Star All-Stars,

singing "Exit Music (for a Film)" on their album "Radiodread" (2006), a

reggae interpretation of the Radiohead album "OK Computer," and "When I'm

Sixty-Four" on Easy Star's "Lonely Hearts Dub Band" (2009), which took a

similar approach to the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"

and reached No. 1 on the Billboard reggae chart.

 

Lincoln Barrington Minott was born in Kingston on May 25, 1956, one of

eight children of Austin and Lucille Minott. He attended a trade school,

where he learned how to install shelves, then worked with friends who

built sound systems. That led to the formation of the African Brothers

and his work with Studio One, which had been founded by Coxsone Dodd.

 

In 1993, Mr. Minott married Mr. Dodd's niece, Ms. Stowe. Besides his

wife, he is survived by his mother, three sisters, four brothers and 14

children. Ten of his children, Ms. Stowe said, came from two previous

relationships.

 

An animated entertainer, Mr. Minott roamed the stage to reggae's

pulsating, off-beat rhythms, acting out the roles in his songs, dancing.

But another "uniquely striking" feature encapsulated his exuberance, Mr.

Steffens said: "a hugely gap-toothed smile that you could drive a

minibus through."

 

 

10 years ago it was covered by Sid "Rickaaay" Owen

R.I.P.

i cant pretend to be upset by someone i barely knew nor particually liked...

 

he was only a year older then me...

10 years ago it was covered by Sid "Rickaaay" Owen

 

 

I'd forgotten about his version!

a lot of good things are going

Very sad-R.I.P