Reggae music pioneer Jimmy Cliff dies at 81

KINGSTON, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Jimmy Cliff, the legendary Jamaican singer who along with Bob Marley popularized reggae, ska and rocksteady during a six-decade career, has died, his wife Latifa Chambers announced on Facebook on Monday.

The cause was a seizure followed by pneumonia, he said.

Born James Chambers on July 30, 1944 during a hurricane in St. James Parish, northwest Jamaica, he moved in the 1950s from the family farm to the country’s capital, Kingston, with his father, determined to make it in the music industry.

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At just 14 years old he became nationally famous for the song “Hurricane Hattie,” which he wrote himself.

Cliff would record more than 30 albums and perform around the world, including in Paris, Brazil and at the World’s Fair, an international exhibition held in New York in 1964. The following year, Chris Blackwell of Island Records, the producer who launched Bob Marley and the Wailers, invited Cliff to work in the UK with him.

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Cliff later turned to acting and starred in the classic 1972 film “The Harder They Come,” directed by Perry Henzell, which introduced reggae music to an international audience. The film portrayed the rawest aspects of Jamaican life, redefining the island as more than just a tourist hotspot of cocktails, beaches and waterfalls.

“When I’ve achieved all my ambitions, then I guess I’ve achieved it and I can just say ‘great,’” he said in a 2019 interview, while he was losing his sight.

“But I’m still hungry. I want it. I still have the hot fire burning brightly inside me, like I just told you. I still have many rivers to cross!”

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Known in part for the singles “You Can Get It If You Really Want It” and “Many Rivers To Cross,” as well as his covers of Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now,” which appeared on the soundtrack of the 1993 film “Cool Runnings” and Cat Stevens’ “Wild World,” Cliff was a prolific writer who wove his humanitarian views into his songs.

Bob Dylan said Cliff’s “Vietnam” was the best protest song ever written.

The anti-establishment bent of Cliff’s music gave voice not only to the hardships Jamaicans faced, but also to the spirit and joy they persevered despite poverty and oppression. Over the years, Cliff worked with the Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello, Annie Lennox and Paul Simon.

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In 2012, he won a Grammy Award for best reggae album for “Rebirth,” which was produced by Tim Armstrong of the punk band Rancid, and another Grammy in 1984 for “Cliff Hanger.”

Cliff received the Order of Merit, the highest honor in the arts and sciences, from the Government of Jamaica. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. (Editing by Diane Craft)