Philip Smart (9 April 1960 – 25 February 2014) was a
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.
Biography
Born in
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the Capital (political), 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 spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...
, Smart's career spanned over five decades. While in high school, he produced his first record with reggae instrumentalist
Augustus Pablo
Horace Michael Swaby (21 June 1953 – 18 May 1999), Thompson, Dave (2002). ''Reggae & Caribbean Music''. Backbeat Books. , pp. 200–202. also known as Augustus Pablo, was a Jamaican roots reggae and dub composer, performer, record produc ...
and vocalist
Lee "Scratch" Perry
Lee "Scratch" Perry (born Rainford Hugh Perry; 20 March 1936 – 29 August 2021) was a Jamaican record producer, songwriter and singer noted for his innovative studio techniques and production style. Perry was a pioneer in the 1970s development ...
. The transition to recording engineering came when the Augustus Pablo's album ''Java'' was being recorded. Errol Thompson was the project engineer and Smart was taught how to record to sixteen-track tape machines and how to make rough mixes to two-track tapes. This was followed by working with
King Tubby
Osbourne Ruddock (28 January 1941 – 6 February 1989), better known as King Tubby, was a Jamaican sound engineer who influenced the development of dub music in the 1960s and 1970s.
Tubby's studio work, in which as a mixing engineer he achiev ...
, and then for producer
Bunny Lee
Edward O'Sullivan Lee OD (23 August 1941 – 6 October 2020), better known as Bunny "Striker" Lee, was a Jamaican record producer. He was known as a pioneer of the United Kingdom reggae market, licensing his productions to Trojan Records i ...
, who gave him the nickname Prince Philip. He was in fact King Tubby's first trainee, recording and mixing such hits as "None Shall Escape" by
Johnny Clarke
Johnny Clarke (born 12 January 1955) is a Jamaican reggae musician, best known for his recordings with producer Bunny Lee in the 1970s.
Biography
Clarke grew up in the Kingston ghetto of Whitfield Town and attended Jamaica College.Yabby U, and most of Dr. Alimantado's albums.
His HC&F Recording Studio in Freeport,
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
, was built in 1981 and opened in 1982. The first recording project was with the group Monyaka, titled "Go Deh Yaka", which was an instant hit, and reached number 14 on the UK Singles Chart. Since that time, the studio had several very successful projects such as Jah Life Productions, which featured such artists as
Sister Carol
Carol Theresa East (born 15 January 1959, Kingston, Jamaica), known by her stage name of Sister Carol, is a Jamaican-born American reggae recording artist. She has used many other stage names, including Black Cinderella (also the name of her r ...
, Scion Success,
Barrington Levy
Barrington Ainsworth Levy (born 30 April 1964) is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall artist from Clarendon, Jamaica.
Career
In 1977, Levy formed a band called the Mighty Multitude, with his cousin, Everton Dacres; the pair released "My Bla ...
and Carlton Livingston. Smart is also known for work he did with artists under labels other than his own, such as Island In the Sun Productions artist
Horace Andy
Horace Andy (born Horace Keith Hinds, 19 February 1951) is a Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer, known for his distinctive vocals and hit songs such as " Skylarking", as well as "Government Land", "Angel", "Spying Glass", and "Five Ma ...
; Narrows Records artist Mr Easy;
Donovan Germain Donovan Germain OD (born 7 March 1952 in Jamaica) is a reggae producer, one of the most successful of the digital era.
Biography
Germain's entry into the music industry was via his record shop in New York City in the 1970s.Larkin, Colin (1998) "T ...
Productions artists
Audrey Hall
Audrey Hall (born c. 1948 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican reggae singer.
Background
Hall began her career singing with Dandy Livingstone in the duo Dandy & Audrey.Larkin, Colin (1998) "The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae", Virgin Books, They ...
,
Owen Gray
Owen Gray, also known as Owen Grey (born 5 July 1939),Larkin, Colin (1998) "The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae", Virgin Books, is a Jamaican musician. His work spans the R&B, ska, rocksteady, and reggae eras of Jamaican music, and he has been c ...
, Tanto Irie, and
Johnny Osbourne
Johnny Osbourne (born Errol Osbourne, 1948) is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall singer, who rose to success in the late 1970s and mid-1980s. His album '' Truths and Rights'' was a roots reggae success, and featured "Jah Promise" and the album's t ...
; and Witty's Music Master Productions artists Shelly Thunder, Junior Wilson and Barrington Levy.
With the 1990s came digital recording and the introduction of
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...
' two-track computer-recording program to the studio. The first hit recorded with Pro Tools was
Dirtsman
Patrick Thompson (4 March 1965 – 21 December 1993), better known as Dirtsman, was a Jamaican dancehall deejay.
Biography
Born in Spanish Town on 4 March 1965, Thompson was the son of the owner of the Black Universal Sound System, and was the ...
's "Hot This Year", which was released on Smart's TanYah records. He later produced "Rikers Island" by
Cocoa Tea
Colvin George Scott (3 September 1959 – 11 March 2025), better known as Cocoa Tea, was a Jamaican reggae singer and songwriter.
Life and career
Born in the fishing village of Rocky Point, Clarendon Parish, Jamaica on 3 September 1959, Cocoa ...
and Nardo Ranks. Later that year,
Shaggy
Shaggy may refer to:
People
*Shaggy (musician) (born 1968), Jamaican American reggae rapper and singer
*Shaggy 2 Dope, half of the hip hop, horrorcore band Insane Clown Posse
*Shaggy Flores (born 1973), Nuyorican poet, writer and African diaspora ...
recorded "Mampie" with Smart; Red Fox and Screechie Dan's "Pose Off"; and "Shot Mek You Wiggle" by Junior Demus, which was later used in the film ''
Dancehall Queen
''Dancehall Queen'' is a 1997 indie Jamaican film written by Suzanne Fenn, Ed Wallace and Don Letts, starring Audrey Reid, who plays Marcia, a street vendor struggling to raise a bad-tempered daughter, Tanya (Cherine Anderson). Directed by Do ...
''. From 1993 until 1993, Shaggy recorded five albums with Smart, including '' Boombastic'' and '' Hot Shot''.
As dance music got bigger in 2000, multitrack Digidesign Pro Tools TDM was in demand, along with 24-track tapes. Mixes such as "Headacke", "All Out", and "Blue Drawers" were synced with 24-track tape and Pro Tools technology to achieve fatness and warmth placing emphasis on digital mixing and editing features. Smart's early Pro Tools and analog technology knowledge gave him a cutting edge in the 1990s, which provided reggae artists with the ability to record Jamaican-quality sound in New York.
Death
Smart died on 25 February 2014, aged 53, in
Port Washington, New York
Port Washington is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) on the Cow Neck Peninsula in the North Hempstead, New York, Town of North Hempstead, in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on the North Shore (Long Island), No ...
from
pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
Jamaica Gleaner
''The Gleaner'' is an English-language, morning daily newspaper founded by two brothers, Jacob and Joshua de Cordova on 13 September 1834 in Kingston, Jamaica.
It is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the Western Hemisphere. Original ...