Prince JammyText by Harry Hawks
"New engineer round a Tubby's named Jammy. Him wicked!"
Prince Jammy
Real Name |
Lloyd James |
Born |
Oct 26, 1947 |
Place of Birth |
Waterhouse Montego Bay Jamaica |
Related Artist(s) |
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Born Lloyd James in Montego Bay on Jamaica's north coast 26th October 1947 Lloyd moved with his family in 1956 when his parents set up home at 92 Dromilly Avenue in the Waterhouse district of Kingston.
"When I left school my mother said she was going to seek a trade for me so she went down town to Chin’s Radio Service and they said 'Okay... they will take me on as an apprentice'. Prior to that I used to be with Tubby so I had some experience." Lloyd James
The legendary Ivan Chin was not only the proprietor of Chin's Radio Service but was also one of Jamaica's pioneering record producers and the mento releases on his Chin’s label were amongst Jamaica's first ever local recordings. The workshop and equipment at Church Street would stand Lloyd in good stead in the pursuit of his lifelong fascination with electronics, music and sound systems. However, Lloyd used to spend a lot of his spare time at the Ruddock's yard at 18 Dromilly Avenue with his close friend Osbourne 'King Tubby' Ruddock. It was at this time that Lloyd inherited his 'Jammy' nickname from his older brother. Bunny Striker Lee later added the royal title and dubbed him 'Prince Jammy'.
Jammy built his first sound system in 1962; a basic set with two speaker boxes on which he played out at local parties and weddings but it gradually expanded and Jammy began to employ two deejays named Lizzy and Carly. They regularly played out at venues including Chocomo Lawn and at Reedie Lawn where Jammy's sound occasionally clashed with King Tubby's Home Town Hi-Fi.
By the close of the sixties Tubby had installed a dub cutting machine and rudimentary two track recording equipment in the back bedroom of his home at 18 Dromilly Avenue. Jammy left Chin’s to work with Tubby on a permanent basis and his knowledge of both electronics and Kingston's musical hierarchy helped propel Tubby to the forefront of the musical scene. It was with Jammy's assistance that he recruited Ewart 'U Roy' Beckford to deejay for the Home Town Hi Fi.
Iris, who was then Jammy's girlfriend and is now his wife, emigrated to live with her mother in Toronto and in 1970 he too moved to Canada initially intending to stay for a short period. When he left Kingston he told Tubby to expect him back "after two weeks" but Jammy settled in Toronto.
Jammy asked his brother to send one of his amplifiers to him in Canada where he used it to build another sound system. He also studied electronics at George Brown Technical College and set up his own recording studio in the basement of a house in Lakeshore Boulevard where he recorded his first production 'Single Girl' by Nana McLean. Jammy began to record 'demo' tracks with visiting Jamaican artists such as Dennis Brown, Errol Dunkley, Scotty and Delroy Wilson singing over the version sides of records in his studio.
In 1972 King Tubby installed a four track mixing studio in his home at 18 Dromilly Avenue and began building his reputation as 'the dub inventor'. When his resident engineer Phillip Smart emigrated to New York at the beginning of 1975 Pat Kelly, an old friend from Chin's Radio Service well known as a singer for his work with The Techniques and his many solo outings, temporarily took over the controls. Tubby wrote to Jammy asking him to return to Kingston but by this time he felt properly settled in Toronto. Towards the end of the year Jammy returned to Jamaica "for a week or two" but:
"When I came home I saw my mother and my brothers and I saw the studio Tubby had built and realised all this was everything I ever wanted." Lloyd James
Jammy did not return to Canada. He took over the engineer's role at Tubby's, concentrating on the studio work, where Tubby allowed Jammy to establish his own identity. His first session was with legendary Tubby's regular Bunny Striker Lee.
"I think it was Cornell Campbell... a very good artist in his time. Bunny Lee used to have some wicked rhythms: flying cymbals, some one drop and horns. I used to love horns and harmonies. He was a great vibes man... always boosting you up. I start and with the boosting from Striker Lee... he would make anyone work wonders... he's a good innovator. The first dubs I mixed is just Bunny Lee... My style didn't take me long to develop because it was natural.... I taught myself from reading books. I started taking a course in engineering. I bought lots of books all over Europe and America and I used to read a lot in those days. I came up with certain techniques. Most of my things were natural." Lloyd James
Jammy soon became a vital part of the Dromilly Avenue studio set up: voicing, editing, mixing and operating the dub cutting machine. He then began working on his own productions. Jammy's first Kingston production was with Waterhouse resident Michael Rose who voiced a new song, 'Born Free', over a Vivian 'Yabby U' Jackson rhythm known as 'Prayer To Jah' which was released in London on the mighty Fatman's 'pre-release' Boss label. Encouraged by its success Jammy then began to build his own rhythms and the debut release on his Jammy's label, an update of the perennially popular 'Shank I Sheck' rhythm entitled 'Zambia', was made with Yabby You at Joe Gibbs' studio.
In 1977 Jammy began two album projects, one with The Travellers and one with Black Uhuru and lead singer Michael Rose, who had both started out as part of the loose local collective of harmony groups. The debut Black Uhuru long player, 'Love Crisis' released in Jamaica on the Jammys label and on Third World in the UK, was Jammy's first long playing release. The Travellers' 'Black Black Minds' album was released in London on Paradise in a very limited pressing but, after a handful of further recordings, The Travellers retired from the music business. Black Uhuru went on to become an international phenomenon.
"Those set of songs with Black Uhuru was my first real set of songs..." Lloyd James
When Tubby enrolled Hopeton Overton 'Scientist’ Browne as his new apprentice it allowed Jammy to move away from engineering at Tubby's and concentrate on his own productions. Jammy set up a two track tape machine for basic editing "around 1982" in the front room of his mother's house. He then purchased a new four track recorder so that he could voice and mix there. He produced top quality roots records with artists such as Junior Delgado, Sugar Minott, Hugh Mundell and Johnny Osbourne but after the release of Wayne Smith's 'Under Me Sleng Teng in 1985 there was no looking back. Jammy become the key player in the development of computer driven reggae and irrevocably altered both the form and the content of reggae music.
Date Added: May 02, 2018