Art of Jamaica

Next up in our Unsung series is Gregory Isaacs. Gregory was born on July 15, 1951, in the Fletcher's Land area of Kingston, Jamaica. He entered several talent shows and was first noticed by Bryon Lee. Bryon brought him and Winston Sinclair to record a duet titled "Another Heartbreak" (click on the video below to hear this track). It has no success. Gregory then joined a trio called The Concords. They spent the next couple years recording and releasing singles but did not gain the interest of the Jamaican audience.  The Concords ended in 1970 and Isaacs went at it alone for the next couple years. Isaacs persisted despite his failures and set up his own record store and label, African Museum, in partnership with Errol Dunkley in 1973. Under this label, Isaacs released his first hit "My Only Lover." This is credited as the first lover's rock record ever made. To finance more recordings made by African Museum's label and shop, Gregory recorded...

Garnet Damion Silk was born on April 2, 1966 in Hatfield,   Manchester, Jamaica. He was the 6 th of his mother’s 9 children. Garnett knew what he wanted to be as a child and started his musical career early. At the age of 12 years old, he had his first stage appearance at the Soul Remembrance sound system where he used the stage name “Bimbo”.   There he started his journey as a DJ. During the 1980s, in addition to working on Soul Remembrance, Garnett also on sound systems such as Pepper’s Disco, Conquering Lion, Destiny Outernational and Stereophonic.   In 1985, at the age of 19 years old, Garnett took his musical journey a step further and recorded his first track. It took him two years though to release his first single called “Problem Everywhere”, in which Garnet deejayed his lyrics. (See video below)   This single did not perform well so Garnett began focusing more on singing after veteran Derrick Morgan suggested this. He moved from Manchester to...