
Jimmy Cliff, Reggae Music Pioneer, Dies At 81
HuffPost
His wife announced the news on Facebook on Monday.
KINGSTON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Jimmy Cliff, the legendary Jamaican singer who along with Bob Marley popularized reggae, ska and rocksteady music over a six decade career, has died, his wife Latifa Chambers announced on Facebook on Monday.
The cause was a seizure followed by pneumonia, she said.
Born James Chambers on July 30, 1944 during a hurricane in St. James Parish, northwestern Jamaica, he moved in the 1950s from the family farm to the country’s capital Kingston with his father, determined to succeed in the music industry.
At just 14 he became nationally famous for the song “Hurricane Hattie,” which he wrote.
Cliff would go on to record over 30 albums and perform all over the world, including in Paris, in Brazil and at the World’s Fair, an international exhibition held in New York in 1964. The following year, Island Records’ Chris Blackwell, the producer who launched Bob Marley and the Wailers, invited Cliff to work in the U.K. with him.













