Bradshaw

Four days after inducting a second batch of 10 persons into the Jamaica Music Hall of Fame, the Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes and Affiliates (JAVAA) will close off its sixth anniversary celebrations by mounting the initial inductees' pictures in the Half-Way Tree Transportation Centre on Saturday, July 11, at 10 a.m.

Those whose images and a synopses of their contribution to Jamaica's musical heritage will loom larger than life approximately 20 feet high above the ticketing area, are Lord Flea, Vere Johns, Count Ossie, The Wailers, Alpha Boys' School, Miss Lou, Olive Lewin, Sir Coxsone Dodd, The Skatalites, Duke Reid, Ernie Ranglin and Derrick Morgan. They were inducted at last year's JAVAA fifth anniversary celebrations, held in the gardens of the Jamaica Pegasus.

Lasting tribute

And it will be a lasting tribute to their contribution, as JAVAA chairman Frankie Campbell told The Gleaner that they have been given a 100-year guarantee on the material which is being used.

"We did not want to put them in a museum downtown somewhere where young people would not see it," Campbell explained. "We want them to see it and eventually ask questions when they see it over and over. They will ask who they are and what they did."

He says that there is room for eight to 10 more year's sets of inductees, "then hopefully we will be able to find a space that is public-friendly."

"We want it to be a tourist attraction. We want people to do research," Campbell said.

Campbell emphasised the intention to make induction into the Jamaica Music Hall of Fame meaningful, with the attendant respect due to those who have made contributions to Jamaica's music.

Slated for induction

The individuals and organisations slated for induction next Tuesday at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston, are Sonny Bradshaw, Bob Marley, Otis Wright, Jimmy Cliff, Alton Ellis, Byron Lee, Merritone Music, Prince Buster, Stanley Motta Studio and the Frats Quintet.

In emphasising their contribution, Campbell said Stanley Motta was the first studio to start recording mento and that, in turn, had a huge impact on the development of ska and reggae. "If not for mento, we don't know what would have happened," Campbell said. Merritone Music took Jamaican music to an uptown audience that otherwise would not have been exposed to the beats from the streets below Half-Way Tree, while Otis Gayle was the first gospel singer to take Jamaican-style gospel into the mainstream and on radio.

"We are trying to make it meaningful. Jamaican music has done too much to not have a hall of fame," Campbell said.