So very sad to hear of the death of Jamaican toaster U-Roy, aka Ewart Beckford, aka The Originator, aka Daddy U-Roy. One of the reggae greats.

Known as The Originator, he wasn’t reggae music’s actual first toaster (that was Count Matchuki) but he was the first I heard, on Virgin’s 1976 Front Line reggae compilation album ‘Sounds Of Reality’.

U-Roy was a massive influence on the toasters who followed in his footsteps – which effectively makes him the Godfather of Rap.

Ewart Beckfortd began deejaying back in 1961 (as Hugh-Roy) injecting new life into old riddims at dancehalls across Jamaica and was a fixture on many of the B-sides of the 7-inch pre-release singles I bought in my youth.

As ska evolved into rocksteady in the mid-Sixties, and rocksteady evolved into reggae, he made this landmark recording called Wake The Town – a version of Alton Ellis’s Girl I’ve Got A Date – with an up-and-coming young producer called Osbourne Ruddock.

Working at the time as a disc cutter at Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle studio, Ruddock would soon become better known as King Tubby, and – alongside the legendary Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry – one of the pioneers of what became dub music. 

Among U-Roy’s other most notable recordings are his take on two Marley classics, Soul Rebel and this one (below), Small Axe.