‘Toots’ christened and converted the reggae genre
Frederick “Toots” Hibbert died on Sept. 11. Amy Harris/AP
Caribbean Life, Sept. 18-24, 2020 11
Each Sunday morning,
CBS-TV showcases
some of the most provocative
news stories
of the week.
Midway through the
90-minute, weekly round-up of
“Sunday Morning,” the inevitable
in memoriam roll call of
deaths of the week informs viewers
of some of the prominent
names and faces other media
might have missed mentioning.
On Sept. 13, a blues song titled
“Dreams” ushered audiences to
the segment known as “Sunday
Passage.”
Sung by Frederick “Toots”
Hibbert, the music registered
with Jamaicans, reggae fans and
a global community still grieving
the death of the iconic singer
who died on Sept. 11.
“Toots,” the affectionate
Jamaican musician most known
by his nickname died in a Kingston
hospital after reportedly battling
COVID-19.
“Jamaica has lost a great cultural
icon,” Claude Mills, his publicist
said. “The soul of an age
has died.”
The operative description of
the legend is what defined the
77-year-old musician, writer and
singer.
“Toots” epitomized soul.
He was soulful.
“He was our Otis Redding,
Sam Cooke and James Brown,”
Jamaican webmaster Leroy
“Dreamy” Riley said. “He is/was
our godfather of soul.”
Often described as a “spiritual
revivalist,” “Toots” attributed his
soulfulness to a family tradition
of regular attendance to church
outings.
The expressively chatty singer
explained that from early in his
youth he attended a “clap hand”
church. He said he used his soul
to convey the passion he enveloped
being the last of 14 siblings
born in a parish in rural, May
Pen, Clarendon, Jamaica.
The same year Jamaica
declared independence from its
British mother empire in 1962,
“Toots” bonded with two harmony
singers to form The Maytals.
Toots & The Maytals forged
a union that sustained through
almost six decades.
Together they won three consecutive
championships of the
island’s festival contest. After
repetitive wins, the indisputable
champions gracefully bowed out
of the national competition and
according to the leader yielded
to allow others an opportunity
to win.
That kind of benevolence
comes from the soul. Perhaps it
was what motivated him to coin
a word that would later identify
the nation’s music.
Allegedly at a juncture when
ska and rocksteady ruled the
dancehalls of the cities according
to the legend, while at a
recording studio he decided to
refashion a derogatory word to
name a song and dance. The
unflattering gender reference,
“streggay,” tainted particular
outcasts negatively branded
for assumed sexual deviances,
lifestyles, makeup and fashion
choices.
On impulse, inside the studio
“Toots” wrote and recorded “Do
The Reggay,” a song from documentations
claim the first mention
of the word that became a
genre. The birthing of the reggae
song also marked a christening
with confirmation from
Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley.
This was evidenced when
filmmaker Perry Henzell spotlighted
the group in his cult
favorite “Harder They Come,”
starring Cliff. Along with Island
Records founder Chris Blackwell
who is credited as the musical
consultant, the pair enabled
a performance with Toots & The
Maytals that Cliff’s Ivan character
emulated in his quest to
become a reggae star.
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