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woo name stanley beckford? oonnoo fii cum widd sum info pon imm cah mii neva air aff imm beefore
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Re: woo name stanley beckford
Jamaican music pioneer who enjoyed a career revival in Europe
David Katz
Tuesday April 17, 2007
The Guardian
In the mid-1970s Stanley Beckford, who has died aged 65 following throat cancer, pioneered reggaemento, setting the vocal style of Jamaican country folk music to contemporary electric reggae beat. Beckford also helped revive traditional mento in the new millennium, finding particular success in France with live performances and leading label record releases.
Beckford was born in the north-eastern Jamaican parish of Portland. His mother died during his infancy. At seven, following the death of his father, he was raised by his grandparents, between the west Kingston ghetto areas of Greenwich Farm and Maxfield Avenue. He began singing in the local Church of God, and became choirleader, while neighbour Carlton Smith taught him guitar. Like many of his peers, Beckford gained recognition outside the church by winning one of journalist and radio presenter Vere Johns's talent contests at west Kingston's Majestic theatre.
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In 1968 Beckford joined a neighbourhood reggae band, Soul Syndicate but his high-pitched, nasal timbre and mento-influenced style did not fit with its focus. Ousted, he became a telephone company night watchman.
Working one night in 1973, and witnessing an arrest, Beckford wrote You Are a Wanted Man - which impressed producer Alvin "GG" Ranglin when Beckford gave an audition. Credited on release to the Starlights, the song's mento-styled vocal bucked urban reggae trends and went straight to No 1 in the Jamaican charts.
Similar material followed from Beckford under the Starlights credit. His biggest hit was the lewd Soldering (1975), banned by Jamaican radio, which prompted vinyl ripostes from Big Youth, I-Roy and Jah Lloyd. He became a regular on the north coast hotel circuit, playing to tourists and upper-class locals. After royalty disputes with GG, Beckford, changed the name of his group to Stanley and the Turbines, switching to producer Barrington Jeffrey, at the Dynamic Sounds studio.
Jeffrey ran the Dr Komina label and an adaptation of the ribald mento classic Leave Mi Kisiloo (1977) was a big hit. It led to an album of the same name and a follow-up set, Brown Gal.
In 1980 Beckford won the prestigious Jamaica festival song contest with Dreaming of a New Jamaica (A Land of Peace and Love), which he wrote during a bloody election year in which more than 900 citizens lost their lives to politically motivated violence. Financially disappointed with Jeffrey, Beckford recorded the album Big Bamboo (1981), with GG. It suffered from a less distinct mento influence.
In the mid-1980s Beckford's output waned as Jamaican music underwent a digital revolution and the computerised dance hall style took hold. Yet he still recorded significant material, most notably the digitally-backed Jamaica festival song contest winner Dem A Fi Squirm for trombonist Calvin "Bubbles" Cameron's Uhuru label and Stanley No Idiot (both 1986) for fellow singer Keith Poppin's Movements label
During the 1990s, he recorded songs such as A Wah A Gwan, and Amazon, and made seven tours of Brazil. In 2000 Fi Wi Island A Boom won the Jamaica festival song contest and he regularly performed with the Rod Dennis Mento Band at the Kingston Hilton.
In 2001, while playing hotel performances with the Fab 5 band, he was asked by French record executives to record an album of oldtime mento for the European market. On Stanley Beckford Plays Mento, released by Barclay, Beckford was backed by the Blue Glaze band, one of the island's top mento groups, with additional harmony provided by his wife Thelma and daughter Monique. The album and European tours gave Beckford a new audience; in France, he was compared to Compay Segundo of the Buena Vista Social Club and his success there led to the 2004 follow-up, Reggaemento, released by Warners.
Towards the end of 2006, Beckford underwent radiotherapy treatment at the University hospital of the West Indies. He is survived by his wife, five daughters and two sons.
· Stanley Beckford, singer and songwriter, born February 17 1942; died March 30. 2007
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