KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Lloyd Brevett, a renowned double bassist who helped carry ska music from Jamaica to the world as a founding member of the hugely influential band The Skatalites, died Thursday at age 80.
Family spokeswoman and close friend Maxine Stowe said Brevett died shortly before dawn at a Kingston hospital where he was being treated for seizures and complications from a recent stroke.
The pioneering musician suffered a debilitating stroke in March, two weeks after his 32-year-old son, Okine, was murdered by gunmen outside the family’s home in the rough Seaview Gardens area of Kingston. He was gunned down a couple of hours after accepting a reggae industry award for his father’s musical contributions.
“He took his son’s death as stoically as he could, but you knew it was devastating for him,” said Stowe, a music industry veteran who helped set up a fund to help Brevett’s family pay for his medical bills. “He deteriorated rapidly after that.”
Brevett was an original member of The Skatalites, which began in 1964 during the evolution of Jamaican music from American influenced rhythm-and-blues and jazz to the homegrown syncopated style of ska, the precursor of reggae, rock steady and dub.
During the first 14 months the band was together, it transformed jazz, movie themes like “Guns of Navarone” and other types of music with the uptempo shuffle style they invented. They played as studio musicians on numerous records and backed up groups including the early Wailers.
The band broke up in the mid-1960s, but regrouped in New York two decades later. Two of their albums, “Hip Bop Ska” and “Greetings from Skamania,” were nominated for Grammy awards in the 1990s.
Legendary Jamaican musicians say it’s difficult to overestimate the role the trained jazz bassist and the rest of the original Skatalites played in developing the Caribbean island’s unique music.
“He was there from the beginning,” Bunny Wailer told The Associated Press. “All my bass lines from all my recordings have been attributed to bass lines from Lloyd Brevett.”
Wailer, the reggae legend who was one of the original Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, praised Brevett as a devout member of the Rastafarian faith and an elder statesman of the island’s culture.
“Brother Brevett’s music is eternal,” Wailer said.
Former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, who was once a tour manager for The Skatalites, said that while the band’s great horn section often drew most of the accolades, it was “Brevett who quietly provided the mesmerizing backbone to the Skatalites’ sound.”
“To say that Brevett was a creator of both ska and dub is not to use hyperbole,” Patterson said in a statement.
Stowe said Brevett had dual U.S.-Jamaican citizenship and was a longtime resident of Newark, New Jersey.
He had not played with The Skatalites since 2004, when a dispute with newer members led to his removal from the group he had helped found, Stowe said.
Saxophonist Lester Sterling, who lives in Florida, is the sole survivor of the original lineup.
The Skatalites’ music influenced British ska revival bands like The Specials, The English Beat, and Madness in the late 1970s. In the 1990s, their music continued to influence up-and-coming groups, including the U.S. bands No Doubt, Sublime and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
In a 1998 interview with The Dallas Morning News, Brevett said he was gratified by the younger fans who packed the group’s shows.
“It gives me a surprise to see these little children, 14 or 16 years old, standing outside the club listening to our music,” he told the newspaper. “But it also makes me feel very, very good.”
Brevett is survived by his wife, Ruth, and several children. Funeral arrangements were pending.
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David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmcfadd
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Security personnel armed with M16s and machine guns manned roadblocks and detained dozens of young men Thursday as part of a crackdown in a Jamaican ghetto where a 13-year-old girl, two elderly men and three others were killed during reported shootouts between police and gunmen.
Residents of the Denham Town slum in West Kingston blame officers for Monday’s killings and the gritty area has been under curfew amid an ongoing security operation to seize illegal guns and fugitives.
Human rights groups accused police of trigger-happy tactics across Jamaica that have caused 45 deaths in just the first 10 weeks of the year. A total of 21 people were killed by police in the first six days of March.
The slayings, particularly the crossfire shooting death of Nicketa Cameron, a 13-year-old from Denham Town who loved to dance and hoped to become a soldier when she grew up, have outraged residents and activists here and abroad.
“The problem is that police continue to enter marginalized inner-city communities as if everyone there were a criminal suspect,” said Chiara Liguori, Caribbean researcher for Amnesty International.
Rights group Jamaicans for Justice said it was “untenable in any society that the police force should be resorting to that level of violence in order to control crime.”
At their warren-like apartment building in Denham Town, Nicketa’s mother and aunts pointed to bullet holes in the 8-foot-high (2.4-meter-high) sheet metal fence and say police indiscriminately fired through it during the Monday operation. Another patch of metal fencing with more bullet holes was taken away as evidence.
Nicketa was standing by a washing machine in a narrow hallway facing the street when she was killed by a bullet to the head during a roughly 40-minute gunbattle. The family insists the bullets were fired by police.
“They were just shooting crazy! They say they were getting shot at from here, but how come all the bullet holes are going into our house? There’s no bullets on the house across the street,” said Tanisha Stewart, the slain girl’s aunt.
Nikita’s mother, Beverly Kennedy, stared off into space, holding photographs of her slain daughter near the spot where her blood was mopped up off the wooden floor.
Police said that three of those killed on Monday were wanted for various crimes, while the girl and two others were apparently caught in the crossfire. They said an AK-47, a .357 revolver, a 9mm pistol and a .22 pistol were recovered in the operation.
Two other apparent bystanders, 60-something George Edmonson and Wesley Simpson, also were shot and died. Authorities said two other people were injured, but residents insist the number of injuries was higher.
London-based Amnesty International and local agencies are calling on authorities to investigate police operations, alleging a culture of impunity has allowed police to serve as judge, jury and executioner.
There were 211 reported police killings last year, though that was 69 fewer than the official tally of 2010 on the island of 2.8 million people.
National Security Minister Peter Bunting said the circumstances of the Denham Town shootings are still unclear, but he reminded police to use deadly force only if it is justified and necessary.
Police Commissioner Owen Ellington said Jamaican officers are threatened by the enormous number of illegal guns on the streets.
“If we’re going to be protecting the citizens it means we’re going to be confronting these individuals so some of the time these things will occur. We would love to minimize the incidents,” he told Television Jamaica.
Some Jamaicans said the killings of bystanders were tragic, but that security forces need to beat back criminal gangs.
“If the gangs win, then this country is finished,” said Kingston taxi driver Ronald Wright.
Denham Town is in a part of Kingston that gave birth to some of the country’s most notorious gangs.
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KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — The lighthearted tone of Prince Harry’s Caribbean tour changed Wednesday as the British royal modified his schedule at a military camp in Jamaica out of respect for six British soldiers reported killed in Afghanistan.
Harry, a British Army captain who recently qualified as an Apache attack helicopter pilot, was scheduled to rappel down a new training wall at a Jamaican military camp in the capital of Kingston but instead watched local soldiers do so.
Palace press officer Nick Loughran said Harry decided not to take part in a military activity considered peripheral to the duties of an Apache pilot when the day’s focus should be on the British Army’s core roles and “looking after the bereaved of those tragically killed in Afghanistan.”
Six British soldiers were believed killed Tuesday evening when an explosion hit their armored vehicle in southwestern Afghanistan, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defense. If confirmed, it would be the biggest loss of life for British forces in the country since a plane crash in 2006.
Dressed in camouflage, helmet, protective goggles and a flak jacket, Harry did take part in target practice, firing rounds with a M4 rifle on an outdoor 30-meter (98-foot) range at the Jamaica Defense Force’s Up Park Camp. He scored 39 out of 40 on two targets.
“He’s an excellent shot,” said Jamaican military Sgt. Anthony Forbes, holding up one of the paper targets which the prince autographed “Capt. Wales,” as the third-in-line to the British throne is known in the British military.
Before getting down in the dirt for target practice, a grinning Harry quipped to the dozens of photographers behind him filming his every move: “Anyone with a camera want to stand at the other end?”
Afterward, the 27-year-old flew in a helicopter to Jamaica’s north coast, where he planned to visit a cruise ship port in the coastal town of Falmouth, stop off at an 18th century plantation house called Good Hope, and dine at the Sandals Royal Caribbean resort in Montego Bay.
Harry is touring the Caribbean as part of a Diamond Jubilee tour in honor of Queen Elizabeth II as she celebrates 60 years on the throne. The prince, who made earlier stops in the Bahamas and Belize, arrived by private jet and received a 21-gun salute from members of the Jamaica Defense Force.
Harry is scheduled to depart Jamaica on Thursday. He plans to travel to Brazil at the request of the British government on a trip to promote ties and emphasize the transition from the upcoming 2012 London Games to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
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David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmcfadd
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — It wasn’t much of a race, but then it really couldn’t have been as the world’s fastest man and Britain’s Prince Harry met up on a track Tuesday in the Jamaican capital.
Wearing a track suit emblazoned with Jamaica’s colors of green, black and gold, the prince got off to a false start and was about 50 meters down the track as Usain Bolt bent over with laughter. The Olympic medalist then jogged up to a grinning Harry, making one of his signature skyward points for a crowd of onlookers at the University of the West Indies in the Jamaican capital.
Harry then joined Bolt for a few pointing poses to an appreciative crowd.
Later, the two exchanged pleasantries and talked about running for a small audience, including many athletes. The prince noted Jamaica’s international reputation as a track and field powerhouse and said it was impressive for a small nation of nearly 3 million.
“Don’t go running off to America because you have a clear talent your country needs,” he told a group of up-and-coming Jamaican athletes as he sat beside Bolt.
Harry is touring the Caribbean as part of a Diamond Jubilee tour in honor of Queen Elizabeth II as she celebrates 60 years on the throne. The 27-year-old prince, who made earlier stops in the Bahamas and Belize, arrived by private jet and received a 21-gun salute from members of the Jamaica Defense Force.
Harry also met with the new prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, who repeated her position that Jamaica should sever ties with the British monarchy after a lighthearted lunch with Harry and several guests at a 19th-century Georgian-style mansion. Jamaica has been independent from Britain since 1962 but still recognizes the queen of England as the titular head of state.
“This is just another phase in our political history,” she told reporters after the lunch, without offering a deadline for a possible change.
Though many older Jamaicans are fond of the woman affectionately known as “Mrs. Queen,” pro-republic sentiment on the island has increased in recent years. Simpson Miller said that many Jamaicans were behind the move to replace the queen and instead adopt a republican form of government.
But she stressed that Jamaica would continue to have very close ties with Britain and that she harbored no bad feelings toward the queen.
“She is so warm. We’re all in love with her,” she said. Minutes before, she quipped that she was charmed also by Harry, telling reporters: “We might not let him go.”
About a decade ago, former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson made a similar call to replace the queen but the effort fizzled amid political bickering. In 2002, Jamaica’s Parliament moved to sever ties with its former ruler by changing its oath of allegiance from the queen to the Jamaican constitution.
The change to a republican form of government requires a public referendum and amending Jamaica’s constitution.
Harry arrived for their lunch in a black Range Rover under heavy security. The two embraced and warmly chatted on the steps of the Devon House mansion, where they ate citrus salad with mango dressing, jerked pork, curried coconut shrimp and Jamaica’s Blue Mountain coffee.
In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Simpson Miller said political change is necessary to eliminate the vestiges of colonialism.
“I think the fact that August coming will be 50 years since we have gained our independence, that it’s time for us to sever the ties,” she had said.
At the track stadium, though, there was nothing but enthusiasm for the prince, especially among the young women in the crowd. Female university students waved enthusiastically and cheered for him, calling for him to come out of his motorcade.
“It’s the first time I have ever been this close to royalty,” 23-year-old medical student Shikera Fearon said as the prince pulled away.
Among other Tuesday stops, Harry visited a children’s hospital and the headquarters of an educational center that works with at-risk youth in gritty downtown Kingston, where he energetically shimmied with youngsters showing off their dance moves and met Bob Marley’s widow, Rita.
About a dozen demonstrators called for Britain to pay reparations for slavery outside one of Harry’s stops in downtown Kingston, not far from the restive neighborhood of Denham Town where six people were killed during a Monday gun battle between police and alleged criminals.
The youngest son of Lady Diana and Prince Charles was by far the biggest royal draw in the Caribbean, but Buckingham Palace also sent the Duke of Gloucester to the British Virgin Islands and the Earl of Wessex to Antigua.
In Tortola, the main island in the British Virgin Islands, throngs of schoolchildren waved the Union Jack flag for the Duke of Gloucester, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.
In Antigua, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, stopped at Nelson’s Dockyard, a marina named after Admiral Horatio Nelson, who headed the British naval operations in the late 1700s. The island also recognizes Queen Elizabeth II as its official head of state.
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Associated Press writers Anika Kentish in St. John’s, Antigua, and Jason Smith in Tortola, British Virgin Islands contributed to this report.
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David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmcfadd
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — It wasn’t much of a race, but then it really couldn’t have been as the world’s fastest man and Britain’s Prince Harry met up on a track Tuesday in the Jamaican capital.
Wearing a track suit emblazoned with Jamaica’s colors of green, black and gold, the prince got off to a blatant false start and was about 50 meters down the track as Usain Bolt bent over with laughter. The Olympic medalist then jogged up to a grinning Harry, making one of his signature skyward points for a crowd of onlookers at the University of the West Indies in the Jamaican capital.
Harry then joined Bolt for a few pointing poses to an appreciative crowd.
Later, the two exchanged pleasantries and talked about running for a small audience, including many athletes. The prince noted Jamaica’s international reputation as a track and field powerhouse and said it was impressive for a small nation of nearly 3 million.
“Don’t go running off to America because you have a clear talent your country needs,” he told a group of up-and-coming Jamaican athletes as he sat beside Bolt.
Harry is touring the Caribbean as part of a Diamond Jubilee tour in honor of Queen Elizabeth II as she celebrates 60 years on the throne. The 27-year-old prince, who made earlier stops in the Bahamas and Belize, arrived by private jet and received a 21-gun salute from members of the Jamaica Defense Force.
Harry also met with the new prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, who repeated her position that Jamaica should sever ties with the British monarchy after a lighthearted lunch with Harry and several guests at a 19th-century Georgian-style mansion. Jamaica has been independent from Britain since 1962 but still recognizes the queen of England as the titular head of state.
“This is just another phase in our political history,” she told reporters after the lunch, without offering a deadline for a possible change.
Though many older Jamaicans are fond of the woman affectionately known as “Mrs. Queen,” pro-republic sentiment on the island has increased in recent years. Simpson Miller said that many Jamaicans were behind the move to replace the queen and instead adopt a republican form of government.
But she stressed that Jamaica would continue to have very close ties with Britain and that she harbored no bad feelings toward the queen.
“She is so warm. We’re all in love with her,” she said. Minutes before, she quipped that she was charmed also by Harry, telling reporters: “We might not let him go.”
About a decade ago, former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson made a similar call to replace the queen but the effort fizzled amid political bickering. In 2002, Jamaica’s Parliament moved to sever ties with its former ruler by changing its oath of allegiance from the queen to the Jamaican constitution.
The change to a republican form of government requires a public referendum and amending Jamaica’s constitution.
Harry arrived for their lunch in a black Range Rover under heavy security. The two embraced and warmly chatted on the steps of the Devon House mansion, where they ate citrus salad with mango dressing, jerked pork, curried coconut shrimp and Jamaica’s Blue Mountain coffee.
In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Simpson Miller said political change is necessary to eliminate the vestiges of colonialism.
“I think the fact that August coming will be 50 years since we have gained our independence, that it’s time for us to sever the ties,” she had said.
At the track stadium, though, there was nothing but enthusiasm for the prince, especially among the young women in the crowd. Female university students waved enthusiastically and cheered for him, calling for him to come out of his motorcade.
“It’s the first time I have ever been this close to royalty,” 23-year-old medical student Shikera Fearon said as the prince pulled away.
___
David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmcfadd
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — It wasn’t much of a race, but then it really couldn’t have been as the world’s fastest man and Britain’s Prince Harry met up on a track Tuesday in the Jamaican capital.
Wearing a track suit emblazoned with Jamaica’s colors of green, black and gold, the prince got off to a blatant false start and was about 50 meters down the track as Usain Bolt bent over with laughter. The Olympic medalist then jogged up to a grinning Harry, making one of his signature skyward points for a crowd of onlookers at the University of the West Indies in the Jamaican capital.
Harry then joined Bolt for a few pointing poses to an appreciative crowd.
Later, the two exchanged pleasantries and talked about running for a small audience, including many athletes. The prince noted Jamaica’s international reputation as a track and field powerhouse and said it was impressive for a small nation of nearly 3 million.
“Don’t go running off to America because you have a clear talent your country needs,” he told a group of up-and-coming Jamaican athletes as he sat beside Bolt.
Harry is touring the Caribbean as part of a Diamond Jubilee tour in honor of Queen Elizabeth II as she celebrates 60 years on the throne. The 27-year-old prince, who made earlier stops in the Bahamas and Belize, arrived by private jet and received a 21-gun salute from members of the Jamaica Defense Force.
Harry also met with the new prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, who repeated her position that Jamaica should sever ties with the British monarchy after a lighthearted lunch with Harry and several guests at a 19th-century Georgian-style mansion. Jamaica has been independent from Britain since 1962 but still recognizes the queen of England as the titular head of state.
“This is just another phase in our political history,” she told reporters after the lunch, without offering a deadline for a possible change.
Though many older Jamaicans are fond of the woman affectionately known as “Mrs. Queen,” pro-republic sentiment on the island has increased in recent years. Simpson Miller said that many Jamaicans were behind the move to replace the queen and instead adopt a republican form of government.
But she stressed that Jamaica would continue to have very close ties with Britain and that she harbored no bad feelings toward the queen.
“She is so warm. We’re all in love with her,” she said. Minutes before, she quipped that she was charmed also by Harry, telling reporters: “We might not let him go.”
About a decade ago, former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson made a similar call to replace the queen but the effort fizzled amid political bickering. In 2002, Jamaica’s Parliament moved to sever ties with its former ruler by changing its oath of allegiance from the queen to the Jamaican constitution.
The change requires a public referendum and amending Jamaica’s constitution.
Harry arrived for their lunch in a black Range Rover under heavy security. The two embraced and warmly chatted on the steps of the Devon House mansion, where they ate citrus salad with mango dressing, jerked pork, curried coconut shrimp and Jamaica’s Blue Mountain coffee.
In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Simpson Miller said political change is necessary to eliminate the vestiges of colonialism.
“I think the fact that August coming will be 50 years since we have gained our independence, that it’s time for us to sever the ties,” she had said.
At the track stadium, though, there was nothing but enthusiasm for the prince, especially among the young women in the crowd. Female university students waved enthusiastically and cheered for him, calling for him to come out of his motorcade.
“It’s the first time I have ever been this close to royalty,” 23-year-old medical student Shikera Fearon said as the prince pulled away.
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David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmcfadd
Bullet holes fill a sheet metal fence in front of the doorway of a home where the relatives of Nicketa Cameron, who was killed in crossfire, stand a few feet from where she died in the Denham Town ghetto in Kingston, Jamaica, Thursday March 8, 2012. Cameron, 13, was standing by a washing machine in a narrow hallway facing the street when she was killed by a bullet to the head during a roughly 40-minute gun battle between police and criminals. The family insists the bullets were fired through the sheet metal fence into their home by police. (AP Photo/David McFadden)(Credit: AP) 
Britain's Prince Harry dances during a visit to the non-governmental organization RISE ( Reaching Individuals through Skills and Education ) in Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday March 6, 2012. Harry is touring the Caribbean as part of a Diamond Jubilee tour in honor of Queen Elizabeth II as she celebrates 60 years on the throne. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)(Credit: AP) 
Britain's Prince Harry, right, and Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt pose for photographers doing Bolt's landmark gesture after a mock race in Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday March 6, 2012. The Prince is in Jamaica as part of the Diamond Jubilee tour in honor of Queen Elizabeth II who celebrates 60 years on the throne. His visit comes as the new prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, has called anew for the severing of ties with the British monarchy. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)(Credit: AP) 
Britain's Prince Harry, right, and Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt run during a mock race in Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday March 6, 2012. The Prince is in Jamaica as part of the Diamond Jubilee tour in honor of Queen Elizabeth II who celebrates 60 years on the throne. His visit comes as the new prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, has called anew for the severing of ties with the British monarchy. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)(Credit: AP) 
Britain's Prince Harry, right, and Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt run during a mock race in Kingston, Jamaica, Tuesday March 6, 2012. The Prince is in Jamaica as part of the Diamond Jubilee tour in honor of Queen Elizabeth II who celebrates 60 years on the throne. His visit comes as the new prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, has called anew for the severing of ties with the British monarchy. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)(Credit: AP) 