Ewart Beckford
OD (21 September 1942 – 17 February 2021), known by the stage name U-Roy, was a Jamaican vocalist and pioneer of
toasting.
[Jo-Ann Greene]
U-Roy Biography
, AllMusic. Retrieved 11 April 2013. U-Roy was known for a melodic style of toasting applied with a highly developed sense of timing.
Early life
Ewart Beckford was born in Jones Town, Saint Andrew Parish,
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 ...
, on 21 September 1942. He was raised within a religious and musical family; his mother was an organist for the choir at a local
Seventh-day Adventist church.
[Taylor, Angus]
U-Roy Interview
, United Reggae, 20 December 2012. Retrieved 7 April 2013. The
sobriquet
A sobriquet ( ) is a descriptive nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another. A sobriquet is distinct from a pseudonym in that it is typically a familiar name used in place of a real name without the need for explanation; it may beco ...
U-Roy originated from a younger member of his family who found it difficult to pronounce his first name.
Beckford attended Denham Town High School in Kingston. As a young man Beckford listened to the music of
Louis Prima
Louis Leo Prima (; December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978) was an American trumpeter, singer, entertainer, and bandleader. While rooted in New Orleans jazz, swing music, and jump blues, Prima touched on various genres throughout his career: he ...
,
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...
,
Ruth Brown,
Fats Domino,
Rufus Thomas,
Smiley Lewis and was especially influenced by the vocal phrasing of
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the King ...
.
[Rougeot]
U-Roy Interview
, Reggae France. Published 22 October 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
Career
Inspired by
Count Matchuki, U-Roy started his professional career as a deejay in 1961 on Dickie Wong's
sound system (originally called Doctor Dickies later changed to Dickies Dynamic) moving later to the Sir George the Atomic sound system. He then worked on
Sir Coxsone Dodd's sound system where he ran the number two set while
King Stitt "The Ugly One" ran the main set. This was followed by a period with Sir Percy before he moved to
King Tubby's Hometown Hi-Fi sound system. His first single "Dynamic Fashion Way" (1969) was a
Keith Hudson production.
It was followed by the
Lee "Scratch" Perry production "Earth's Rightful Ruler" with
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 ...
.
In 1970, Jamaican singer
John Holt (lead vocalist of
the Paragons) heard U-Roy toasting over a
Duke Reid track at a dance. Holt told Reid about the performance and on his recommendation Reid asked him to come and see him and an informal recording deal was arranged.
His first two singles on Duke Reid's
Treasure Isle label in 1970, "
Wake the Town" and "Wear You to the Ball", were Jamaican hits and established his reputation as one of Jamaica's most popular toasters. He went on to work with other major producers on the island including
Lee "Scratch" Perry,
Bunny Lee,
Phil Pratt,
Sonia Pottinger,
Rupie Edwards,
Alvin Ranglin and
Lloyd Daley. 1971 saw the release of his deejay version of The Paragons' "
The Tide Is High". He first toured the UK in 1972 with the artists
Roy Shirley and
Max Romeo. The tour was organized by Rita and Benny King, the owners of R & B Records based in
Stamford Hill, London.
U-Roy's album ''
Dread in a Babylon'' was released in the US, Europe and Jamaica by
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...
in 1975.
The album achieved significant sales in the UK, due in part to the ongoing expansion of the Virgin label and stores. The track "Runaway Girl" from the album was released as a single in Europe that same year. The success of ''Dread In A Babylon'' led to a series of Tony Robinson produced albums: ''Natty Rebel'' (1976), ''Rasta Ambassador'' (1977) and ''Jah Son Of Africa'' (1978).
[ His international popularity led to the album ''Natty Rebel'' being released in 1976 on Virgin's Front Line label in Nigeria as well as in France on Virgin and Polydor.
U-Roy started his own sound system in 1978, which he named Stur Gav after his sons. The sound system would launch the careers of a younger generation of toasters and singers including Ranking Joe, Jah Screw, Charlie Chaplin and Josey Wales.] The pop group Blondie had a world-wide hit with a cover of "The Tide Is High" in 1980, prompting Virgin to re-release the original Paragons' recording from 1967 and the 1971 U-Roy version as a single that same year. His album ''Pray Fi Di People'' was released in 2012.
U-Roy was featured on the album ''True Love'' by Toots and the Maytals, which won the Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
in 2004 for Best Reggae Album, and showcased many notable musicians including Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...
, Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...
, Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold Beck (24 June 1944 – 10 January 2023) was an English musician. He rose to prominence as the guitarist of the rock band the Yardbirds, and afterwards founded and fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, ...
, Trey Anastasio, Gwen Stefani / No Doubt, Ben Harper, Bonnie Raitt, Manu Chao, The Roots, Ryan Adams, Keith Richards, Toots Hibbert, Paul Douglas, Jackie Jackson, Ken Boothe, and The Skatalites
The Skatalites are a ska band from Jamaica. They played initially between 1963 and 1965, and recorded many of their best known songs in the period, including "Guns of Navarone (song), Guns of Navarone." They also played on records by Prince Bus ...
.
He was awarded the Order of Distinction in 2007 by the Jamaican government for his contribution to music.
His last recording was the song "The Coming of Jah Jah" for the project "The Deejay Battle: Sly & Robbie vs Roots Radics" released in April 2023 produced by the Grammy nominated musician and producer Hernan "Don Camel" Sforzini.
U-Roy's music and Rastafari
Rastafari
Rastafari is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by Religious studies, scholars of religion. There is no central authori ...
has been a feature of U-Roy's lyrics from his earliest singles to his latest album ''Pray Fi Di People''. Beckford's second single "Rightful Ruler" (1969) opens with a profession of Rastafari faith given in the Ethiopian language Amharic
Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...
:
Kibir amlak (Glory to Jah)
Qedamawi ras fetari (First creator)
Qedamawi iyesus kristos (Holy Jesus Christ)
Lebdama mabrak isad
Tenayistilgn (Greetings)
His "Joyful Locks" (1975) is a DJ version of Linval Thompson's "Don't Cut Off Your Dreadlocks"; an encouragement to others to keep their dreadlocks and to "let it grow". The original song and U-Roy's DJ version both allude to the biblical Samson who as a Nazarite was expected to make certain religious vows including the ritual treatment of his hair as described in Chapter Six of the Book of Numbers
The Book of Numbers (from Biblical Greek, Greek Ἀριθμοί, ''Arithmoi'', , ''Bəmīḏbar'', ; ) is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and complex history; its final f ...
:
All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.
Death
Beckford's death was confirmed on 17 February 2021 when his partner, Marcia Smikle, told the Jamaican newspaper '' The Gleaner''. Trojan Records
Trojan Records is a British record label founded by Jamaican Duke Reid, Lee Gopthal and Chris Blackwell in 1968. It specialises in ska, rocksteady, reggae and dub music. The label currently operates under the Sanctuary Records Group. Th ...
was also informed about his death. While no cause of death was made public at the time, he suffered from diabetes, hypertension, and problems with his kidneys prior to his death, and had been undergoing surgery at the hospital.
Legacy
Beckford was preceded by the toasters Count Matchuki, King Stitt and Sir Lord Comic who themselves were influenced by the '' jive talk'' of the US disc jockeys that they heard on American radio stations whose broadcasts reached the Caribbean. Beckford was the first toaster to popularize the form through a series of successful releases on the Duke Reid label gaining a wider audience for toasting. This approach to production and the remixing of previously recorded tracks with a new vocal influenced the early hip-hop
Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...
pioneers. Kool Herc states:
"Hip-hop….the whole chemistry of that came from Jamaica…..In Jamaica all you needed was a drum and a bass. So what I did was go right to the ‘yoke’. I cut off all the anticipation and just played the beats. I’d find out where the break in the record was and prolonged it and people would love it. So I was giving them their own taste and beat percussion wise….cause my music is all about heavy bass."
Many internationally known dancehall deejays have acknowledged U-Roy as an influence on their careers, including Sean Paul
Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques (born 9 January 1973) is a Jamaican dancehall musician. Paul's first album, ''Stage One'', was released in 2000. He gained international fame with his second album, ''Dutty Rock'', in 2002. Its single "Get Busy ...
and Shabba Ranks.
Album discography
*''Version Galore'' (1970)
*''Version Galore Vol. 2'' (1972)
*''U Roy'' (1974)[
*'' Dread in a Babylon'' (1975) – produced by Prince Tony Robinson][
*''Natty Rebel'' (1976)][
*''The Best of U Roy'' (1976)][
*''Right Time Rockers-The Lost Album'' (1976) ][
*''African Roots'' (1976)]
*''Rasta Ambassador'' (1977)[
*''Jah Son of Africa'' (1978)][
*''With Words of Wisdom'' (1979)][
*''The Originator'' (1980)][
*''Love Gamble'' (1980)][
*''Line Up and Come'' (1986)][
*'' Music Addict'' (1987) - produced by Prince Jazzbo
*''True Born African'' (1991) – produced by Mad Professor][
*''Smile a While'' (1993) – produced by Mad Professor][
*''Babylon Kingdom Must Fall'' (1996) – produced by Mad Professor][
*''Reggae Live Sessions Vol-1'' (1998)][
*''Serious Matter'' (2000)][
*''Now'' (2001) – produced by Guillaume Bougard/Pierre Simonin][
*''Rebel in Styylle'' (2005) – Mediacom][
*''Old School/New Rules'' (2007) – produced by Mad Professor][
*''Pray Fi Di People'' (2012) – produced by Ewart Beckford][
*''Talking Roots'' (2018) – produced by Mad Professor][
*''Solid Gold U-Roy'' (2021) ][
*''Dread In A Africa U-Roy'' (2022) Jamaican Art Records
*''The Deejay Battle: Sly & Robbie vs. Roots Radics feat. Big Youth'' (2023) Serious Reggae
]
References
External links
Smokeyroom's Version Galore
* U-Roy biographyat the AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
website
*
''Natty Rebel'' (1976) Nigerian release at Discogs
"Joyful Locks" (1975) Bunny Lee production at Discogs
U-Roy Live & Interview
"Heavy Duty" (2016) at Spotify
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uroy
1942 births
2021 deaths
Jamaican Rastafarians
Jamaican reggae musicians
Musicians from Kingston, Jamaica
Performers of Rastafarian music
Recipients of the Order of Distinction
Trojan Records artists
Treasure Isle (record label) artists
Former Seventh-day Adventists
Converts to the Rastafari movement
Jamaican former Christians
Virgin Records artists