FOUR days after the City of Kingston honoured him by naming a street for his famous Studio One recording label, Jamaican music pioneer Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd died suddenly yesterday.
He apparently suffered a heart attack at his offices at 13 Studio One Boulevard, which, until last Friday's big civic ceremony in honour of Dodd, was Brentford Road...
...Born Clement Seymour Dodd in Kingston on January 26, 1932, he earned the nickname "Coxsone" after a Yorkshire, England cricketer, while attending All Saints School in West Kingston. He was considered a good cricket all-rounder.
But it was as a pioneer of Jamaica's sound system and popular music, from rocksteady to ska and reggae that Dodd was to find fame.
He started out playing bebop and jazz records for customers visiting his parents' liquour store on Laws Street, and later Beeston Street, in Kingston. During a turn at farm work in the United States he widened his knowledge of rhythm and blues music and imported numerous original 45 rpm records, which became the hallmark of his sound system, Sir Coxsone Downbeat.
He started the sound system in the early 50s relying on his imported originals to outplay his competitors, chiefly the late
Arthur "Duke" Reid of Treasure Isle fame.
He opened his studio at Brentford Road in 1963 and since then the name, Studio One, has become synonymous worldwide with the best of early Jamaican pop rhythms - ska, rocksteady and reggae.
Dodd is probably best known outside Jamaica for bringing Bob Marley and the Wailers to national attention and producing some of their most memorable hits, including the international peace anthem, One Love..
