27-619: Kenneth George Boothe OD (born 22 March 1948) is a Jamaican vocalist known for his distinctive vibrato and timbre. Boothe achieved an international reputation as one of Jamaica's finest vocalists through a series of crossover hits that appealed to both reggae fans and mainstream audiences. Ken Boothe was born in Denham Town , Kingston . He attended Denham Primary Elementary School and during this period developed an interest in music after receiving encouragement from his eldest sister, Hyacinth Clover , who
54-517: A country other than Jamaica. The former are made Members of the Order, and the latter are made Honorary Members. The Order has two ranks: the higher class of Commander, and the lower class of Officer. Commanders take place and precedence immediately after Members and Honorary Members of the Order of Jamaica . A Member or Honorary Member may be promoted from the rank of Officer to that of Commander. Commanders of
81-474: A deejay album by Militant Barry based on the Brand rhythms, Green Valley . By the early 1980s, he was considerably out of step with modern trends in "dancehall" music. He reverted to his classic rhythms for his next to last album Playing It Cool (1981), recording new vocals on heavily overdubbed mixes of the earlier tunes. He released one final album in 1982, Steaming Jungle , which attracted little attention. It
108-522: A format that was to come into fashion three years later during the "Showcase" craze. In 1976 he moved to New York City and signed a four-year contract with Virgin Records , the first release being the soul-influenced album, Too Expensive , which was poorly received by critics and didn't sell well. Hudson returned to reggae with the "(Jonah) Come Out Now" single, released under the pseudonym Lloyd Linberg, and Virgin terminated his contract. Hudson then started
135-727: A large number of backing tracks and, after the limited success of his third LP Entering the Dragon he emigrated to the United Kingdom, where he signed up with Brent Clarke's Atra label and worked at Chalk Farm Studios in London with a number of British-based reggae musicians, overdubbing his Jamaican rhythms. The first album to emanate from these sessions was Flesh of My Skin, Blood of my Blood (1974), his first UK only release and an album that has been described by Colin Larkin as "a masterpiece", and one of
162-595: A new label of his own, Joint. He resumed working with the Soul Syndicate, who had backed him on many of his best recordings in Jamaica. His album Rasta Communication (1978), which had been preceded by its issue on dub as Brand , was well received by a wider audience and is considered a roots reggae classic. It was followed by Nuh Skin Up Dub and its vocal counterpart From One Extreme to Another in 1979. Hudson also released
189-471: A singer, and concentrated on his singing career from 1972. He started further record labels such as the Mafia label. His early Jamaican albums Furnace and Class and Subject featured his own distinctive rasping vocals, along with dubs and deejay versions. In 1974, Hudson released his classic Pick a Dub , widely considered to have been the first deliberately thematic dub album, with tracks specifically mixed in
216-505: A version of "The Train Is Coming", re-worked with Shaggy , was used in the soundtrack for the film Money Train . A two-disc set of Boothe's recordings for Trojan , Crying Over You , was released in 2001. Boothe was awarded the Order of Distinction for his contribution to Jamaican music by the Jamaican government in 2003. Order of Distinction The Order of Distinction ( OD )
243-544: Is a national order in the Jamaican honours system . It is the sixth in order of precedence of the Orders of Societies of Honour, which were instituted by an Act of Parliament ( The National Honours and Awards Act ) in 1968. The motto of the Order is "Distinction Through Service". The Order of Distinction is conferred upon citizens of Jamaica who have rendered outstanding and important services to Jamaica, or to distinguished citizens of
270-500: Is known for his influence on the dub movement. Raised in a musical family, Hudson attended Boys Town School in Kingston, where he organized school concerts with schoolmates including Bob Marley , Delroy Wilson , and Ken Boothe . He was an ardent follower of Coxsone Dodd 's Downbeat sound system and was soon hanging out with musicians such as Don Drummond , carrying his trombone into sessions at Dodd's Brentford Road studio when he
297-912: The Soul Vendors . Boothe was promoted as " Mr. Rock Steady " by Dodd during this period. The rocksteady classic "Moving Away" was released in 1967 or 1968 on the Coxsone label. "Moving Away" is a song still popular today, and covered or sampled by many artists, among them Dennis Brown , Jackie Mittoo ("Macka Fat"), Jack Radics I-Roy , U-Roy ("African Message"), Janet Key , Jaime Hinckson , Romain des Bois , Bruno Mars , Al Campbell ("Dress Black" Garnett Silk ("It's Growing"), Half Pint ("Substitute Lover"), Wayne Wonder ("Time To Say Good Bye"), Leroy Smart ("Talk About Friends"), Sanchez ("Don't Worry"), Admiral Tibet ("Nuthin Nah Run" among many others. Many of Boothe's songs have been reused in one way or another. On
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#1732869356064324-647: The B-side of the single "Moving Away" was the instrumental "Streets of Gold" by the Skatalites . Boothe continued to record for Dodd until 1970, when he switched to producer Leslie Kong's Beverley's Records and reggae, where his success continued with hits such as "Freedom Street" and "Why Baby Why". After Kong died, Boothe recorded for many of Jamaica's top producers during the early 1970s, including Keith Hudson , Herman Chin Loy , Vincent "Randy" Chin , and Phil Pratt. He then formed
351-431: The Order of Distinction are entitled to use the post-nominal letters CD in the case of Members, or CD (Hon.) in the case of Honorary Members. Officers of the Order of Distinction are entitled to use the post-nominal letters OD in the case of Members, or OD (Hon.) in the case of Honorary Members. Keith Hudson Keith Hudson (18 March 1946 – 14 November 1984), was a Jamaican reggae artist and record producer. He
378-507: The Sir Percy sound system as well as recording two songs for independent producer Sir Mike though Boothe's major breakthrough came in 1963 after Cole arranged an audition at Duke Reid's studio. The audition with Cole and Boothe performing the song "Uno Dos Tres" was a success and Boothe and Cole formed the duo 'Stranger & Ken' with the first track released by them being "Hush Baby" on the B-side of Cole's Island Records single "Last Love". This
405-471: The deejay's biggest hit, with added motorcycle noises recorded in the studio beginning a trend followed by other producers such as Dodd and Perry. In the first half of the 1970s he regularly used the Soul Syndicate band, featuring George "Fully" Fullwood and Carlton "Santa" Davis . In 1970 he began to record his own vocal tracks. Whilst always somewhat limited vocally, he recorded countless tracks as
432-519: The dub style for the purpose of appearing together on an album. It featured dubwise mixes of his "We Will Work It Out", the basic track for "S-90 Skank", with a fresh melodica part by Augustus Pablo , Skiddy and Detroit's "The Exile Song", and remakes of The Abyssinians "Satta Massagana" and "Declaration of Rights". It was also the first dub album to gain a release in the United Kingdom. By now, he had effectively stopped recording other singers and DJs to concentrate on his own singing. He had completed
459-472: The first reggae albums proper, rather than merely a collection of singles and fillers. It has also been described as "reggae's first true concept album", with the lyrics relating to black history and "conscious" themes. The album was not released in Jamaica, although it acquired a formidable reputation there amongst more progressive musicians. His next UK-based album Torch of Freedom featured vocal cuts with their instrumental versions following immediately after,
486-474: The following months he worked with vocalists Delroy Wilson ("Run, Run"), Alton Ellis , Bunny Gale and John Holt ("Never Will I Hurt My Baby"). He was one of the first to record DJ U-Roy in 1969, although U-Roy's first recording had in fact been made with Peter Tosh for Lee Perry – "Earth's Rightful Ruler". Other deejay productions included numerous tunes with Dennis Alcapone (e.g. "Shades of Hudson"), and Big Youth 's "S.90 Skank" released in 1972 became
513-522: The group Conscious Minds with B. B. Seaton . Under a new direction from record producer Lloyd Charmers , Boothe released " Everything I Own " on Trojan Records , which reached Number One in the UK Singles Chart in 1974. The song, written by David Gates , was given a sympathetic light reggae feel and it received airplay and an appreciative audience in the West Indies and was regularly played on
540-585: The radio stations of the UK due to its "crossover" appeal. David Gates ' own group, Bread , had had a minor UK hit with the song in the spring of 1972, but it had only reached No. 32. Boothe's reggae version of the song " Everything I Own " reached Number One in the UK Singles Chart on 26 October 1974, and stayed at the top of the charts for three weeks. It featured Lloyd Parks on bass guitar, Paul Douglas a.k.a. Paul Williams on drums, Willie Lindo on guitar, and Lloyd Charmers on organ, piano and percussion. The recording
567-516: The same year. He had almost immediate success with songs including " The Train Is Coming " (on which he was backed by the Wailers ), the first, ska version, of later reggae song You're No Good with Soulettes (the group Bob Marley's future wife Rita Anderson was in) on B-side, and "Lonely Teardrops". The following year, Boothe and Alton Ellis had a successful UK tour with the Studio One session group,
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#1732869356064594-624: Was referenced by lyricist Joe Strummer in the Clash 's song, " (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais ". Boothe reunited with Charmers in the late 1970s when a revived Trojan Records released the albums Blood Brothers (first issued on LTD in 1976) and Who Gets Your Love , but the reunion proved to be short-lived. He continued to record during the 1980s and had a few hits during 1986 and 1987. In more recent times, Boothe has recorded for Bunny Lee , Phil Pratt , King Jammy , Pete Weston, Jack Ruby , Hugh "Red Man" James, Castro Brown and Tappa Zukie. In 1995
621-451: Was an established vocalist. Boothe cites singer Owen Gray as a major influence, particularly after hearing Gray perform the Leiber and Stoller rhythm and blues version of the 1920s blues standard , " Kansas City Blues ", written by E L Bowman and notably performed by Jim Jackson in 1927. Stranger Cole , who was an established artist and neighbor to Boothe, had already worked with Boothe on
648-818: Was around fourteen. His first release circa 1969 was "Shades of Hudson" by DJ Dennis Alcapone on his own Inbidimts label, using a rocksteady track that had been recorded a few years before. After leaving school he served an apprenticeship in dentistry, and used these skills to raise money for recording sessions. In the same year he obtained some Termites and Carl Bryan rocksteady rhythms from Olympic Records, and recorded new vocals over them, such as "Old Broom" and "You Must be Popular". These early 45s on his own Imbidmts and Rebind labels enjoyed sufficient success to enable him to purchase some studio time of his own. His first recording session produced Ken Boothe 's Jamaican hit "Old Fashioned Way", later versioned by Dennis Alcapone as "Spanish Omega" and U Roy as "Dynamic Fashion Way". In
675-568: Was followed by the singles "Thick in Love" both released in 1963 on R&B Records. They released several more popular singles between 1963 and 1965, including "World's Fair", "Hush", and "Artibella". Boothe also recorded as a duo with Roy Shirley (as Roy & Ken), which resulted in the release of the single "Paradise" in 1966. Boothe's first solo tracks were recorded in 1966 after Clement "Coxsone" Dodd had signed him to his Studio One Label. He also recorded material for Phil Pratt and Sonia Pottinger
702-509: Was produced by Lloyd Charmers. Boothe had one more hit in the UK Singles Chart during the 1970s, "Crying Over You", which made No. 11, with Trojan Records' collapse and a split with Charmers losing much of the momentum built up by his two hits. Boothe recorded a reggae version of the standard " When I Fall in Love " which was released in 1974 on the Studio One label. In 1978, along with Dillinger , Leroy Smart , and Delroy Wilson , Boothe
729-602: Was reported in 1984 that he was once more working with Aston and Carlton Barrett , who had played on Pick a Dub and Torch of Freedom . Hudson was diagnosed with lung cancer in August 1984, and appeared to be responding well to treatment, but on the morning of 14 November he complained of stomach pains, collapsed and died. His youngest son Keith Hudson Jr better known as Tryfle is following his own step in music Industry. Currently living in New York City Keith "Tryfle" Hudson
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