Roots Archives Forum

A Big Respect to the man how give us the music I&I love.
I remember first time i say him play with The Skatalites
sitting on chair on stage ina 1993.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/lifestyl ... S_DEAD.asp





Jah Jerry (born Jerome Hinds) was one of the first members of the Skatalites at their formation (actually, the third member to join, after Roland Alphonso and Dizzy Johnny Moore). He learned the guitar from Ernest Ranglin in the late '40s and began playing with bands by the '50s. He then went on to play with every producer he possibly could (money was scarce) -- Count Boysie, Prince Buster, Sir Coxsone, Duke Reid -- everyone. Eventually the Skatalites came together and he joined up with them. His style of guitar was part of what defined the ska style of reggae, with chord changes unlike anything else heard at the time. Jah Jerry added jazz chords to the music and shifted chords repeatedly. Unfortunately, by the '90s, he was left uninvited at Reggae Sunsplash events, even for vintage acts, and is only heard in recordings, both as a backing man for the best -- Bob Marley, Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Cliff -- and, of course, as an essential part of the Skatalites.


Jah Jerry, who is retired from performing, has been living in the Jones Town section of Kingston for at least 40 years. Haines started in music late in life compared to his mates. "My old man used to have a little guitar yunno? When I was a big young man of 22 I decide say, well I'm gonna try a little of this thing. Well, there's a guitar player named Ernest Ranglin. We get Ernest Ranglin and he set me on yunno, assist me on to what I really know." According to Ranglin, he was asked to teach Jerry's father, who was blind. At the same time he also instructed Jerry. "I taught Jerry for seven years", Ranglin recalled. They also played together frequently before the formation of the Skatalites in Prince Buster's All Stars where Ranglin was the house bassist.

Lion

One more sad news...
Yes, Respect to a great pionner
RIP

Respect indeed to one of the greats!


MightyZ

www.myspace.com/mightyzallstars

Respect to all founders of reggae music! Ska-talites #1.

I man been spinning some Skatalites disks today in respect...

give thanks and praise for the man jah jerry!
the way he played chords turns me mad...
didn't now about his father...

Very sad news of Jerome Hinds passing.Another great rastaman and musician to succumb to the reality of life.Journey well my breadrin as you enter the kingdom of zion.Jah bless and Jah guide.

'Jah Jerry' Haynes


Guitarist pioneer of Jamaican ska

David Katz
Wednesday August 22, 2007
The Guardian

Guitarist Jerome "Jah Jerry" Haynes, who has died aged 86 following a brief illness, was a founding member of the Skatalites, the most important set of session musicians in Jamaica during the late 1950s and early 1960s. As leading exponents of ska, the island's first indigenous form of semi-electric popular music, they were central to the development of the country's cultural identity before and after independence in 1962. Jerry's rapid rhythm chords, strummed in a choppy manner, his thumb on a battered acoustic to emphasise the second and fourth beats of every measure, defined its rhythm.

Article continues
Known as "Jah Jerry" because of his Rastafarianism, Jerry spent much of his life in Jones Town, a west Kingston ghetto that borders Trench Town, from which many of Jamaica's best-known artists emerged. In 1948, having tried to teach himself the rudiments of music on his father's guitar, he sought the tutelage of Ernest Ranglin, one of the island's most gifted players.

In the mid-1950s, he joined saxophonist Val Bennett's jazz band before playing in bands active on the hotel circuit frequented by tourists and upper-class Jamaicans. Eventually, he joined forces with drummer Arkland "Drumbago" Parks at a time when various Kingston businessmen and sound-system personnel began recording local players. Jerry's first recording session, arranged by Drumbago, yielded Count Boysie's Special, made specially for Count Boysie the Monarch, a sound system based at West Street, Kingston, but the song was retained as a demonstration acetate and never publicly released.

By 1959, partly through his connection with Drumbago, Jerry became associated with Prince Buster, a sound-system operator and aspiring vocalist about to enter record production himself; at Buster's first recording session, he is said to have told Jerry to "change gear", resulting in Jerry's trademark rhythmic strumming, as heard on landmarks such as Derrick Morgan's Shake a Leg, Buster's own They've Got to Go and the Folkes Brothers' hugely popular Oh Carolina. Producer Leslie Kong also made use of Jerry's talents on early hits by Jimmy Cliff and Desmond Dekker (obituary, May 27 2006).

In 1961, Jerry was contracted exclusively to Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, founder of the Studio One group of labels and recording facility, though he continued moonlighting for other producers. He played on the first session arranged by Vincent "Randy" Chin and on rivals such as Duke Reid, King Edwards the Giant and Lyndon Pottinger. After the break-up of the Skatalites, he remained largely absent from the scene until 1981, when he was featured on trombonist Rico Rodriguez's That Man Is Forward album. Two years later, the reformed Skatalites played at the Reggae Sunsplash festival in Jamaica; its led to US dates and the Return of the Big Guns album (1984).

Jerry left the Skatalites in 1986 to live in relative anonymity in Jones Town.

· Jerome 'Jah Jerry' Haynes, guitarist, born August 11 1921; died August 13 2007

Thanks to David

Lion