DENNIS BROWN

Dennis Brown 1957-1999

Dennis Emanuel Brown was the most influential singers in the history of reggae music. All the successful reggae artists tore a page from his singing stylebook. Thus, his was and is the most copied voice in the genre. If Bob Marley is reggae music's "Classical Troubadour," then Dennis Brown is reggae music's quintessential singer or as producer/songwriter Mickey Bennett noted “The reggae singer's singer."

Bob Marley introduced reggae music to the world by defining its form, logic, ethos and content, while Brown's vocal styling defined its intimate sound, making him the defining voice of his generation. This is possibly Brown's greatest contribution to the world of music.

From Burt Bacharach's standard Wichita Line Man to root rock message music like Revolution his vocal range covered a wide gamut. Jamaican music still hasn't seen the likes of him since.
     
Michael ‘Ibo' Cooper leader of the 3rd World band eloquently summed up Dennis' importance and legacy to the world of music: “Dennis Brown made his mark on music…his music will have an impact on generations to come the way the way Beethoven  had an impact on Europe  and Fela had an impact on Africa. When the future comes Dennis will be one of the greatest names in music as a whole.” 

There could be no Sanchez, Luciano, Frankie Paul, Richie Stephens, George Nooks, Bushman or Maxi Priest, to name a few. Priest, when asked by Soul Train's host, Don Cornelius, who was his greatest influence, replied unequivocally "Dennis Brown." Brown, when he was asked who was the single greatest influence on his chosen style of singing, replied, the late Delroy Wilson.

In a 1989 interview at the Ritz, New York he spoke of his fascination with Wilson's phrasing and slurring. He also talked about how, in his early years, he practiced to sound like Wilson. Unlike a lot of Jamaica's great singers, many of whom trace their most significant influences to R&B giants (Beres Hammond, for example, is a cross between Sam Cook and Otis Redding, with some Alton Ellis thrown in), Brown sounds like none of them. This, despite his great love of R&B and the standards. I can recall stories by Sax man Tony Green (a member of Lloyd Parks and We the People, Brown's recording and backing band throughout his musical career) of Brown on the tour bus singing hundreds of R&B standards he'd learned growing up.

Brown's life was dedicated to music he loved to sing. Though his commercial hit-making slowed at the twilight of his career, he's the only singer to have completely dominated the reggae charts in the 70's and, the '80s, when the DJ'S ruled.

With songs like Have you Ever Been in Love , Revolution , Love's Got a Hold On Me , Hold On to What You Have Got , Sitting and Watching , If I Had the World, during the that time, his songs would compete with each other for the number 1 slot on ethnic charts in major American cities. His last major hit in NY was Stop Fighting So Early in the Morning , from the Willie Lindo-produced album Inseparable , in 1987.

While he continued to record, write songs and tour, he never had another hit after that. The highlights of his international career were: Money in My Pocket , his first and only global hit song in the late 70s, charted in Britain and Europe; in the early '80s he signed an international album deal with Herb Alpert's A.M. Records, making him label mates with groups like the Carpenters and UB40. Three albums came out of this association: Foul Play, Love Has Found Its Way, and The Prophet Rises Again.

His much-talked-about performance at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in 1979 established his credentials as a sterling stage performer. As then We the People sax man Dean "Cannon" Frazer noted, "There was a magic about the whole Dennis Brown experience, you felt like you were going somewhere."

He received Grammy nominations for his albums Temperate Rising (Heartbeat Records) in 1994 and, his second posthumously for Let Me Be the One in 2000, for which I wrote the albums' liner notes.”