Formed in 1967 JAD Records was a

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

that was co-owned by

Johnny Nash John Lester Nash Jr. (August 19, 1940October 6, 2020) was an American singer and 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 art ...

, producer Arthur Jenkins, and businessman Danny Sims, whose initials formed its logo. JAD Records was the label which signed

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, he fused elements of reggae, ska and rocksteady and was renowned for his distinctive voca ...

Peter Tosh Winston Hubert McIntosh (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 Bob Marley and the Wa ...

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 Alfarita Constantia "Rita" Marley OJ OD ( Anderson; born 25 July 1946) is a Jamaican reggae singer. She is the widow of reggae musician Bob Marley. Along with Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt, Rita was a member of the reggae vocal group the ...

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 ...

, Neville Willoughby and later

Jimmy Cliff James Chambers, Jamaican Order of Merit, 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 hol ...

. 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 Bob Marley & The Wailers 1967 to 1972'' series produced by

Roger Steffens Roger Steffens (born June 17, 1942) is an American actor, author, lecturer, editor, reggae archivist, photographer, and producer. Six rooms of his home in Los Angeles house reggae archives, which include the world's largest collection of Bob Mar ...

and Bruno Blum containing over 240 original tracks over the next six years, including more than a hundred previously unreleased recordings. 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 some of 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