Lloyd Brevett, the double bassist of the Skatalites, died yesterday at Andrews Memorial Hospital in Kingston, aged 80.
Lloyd Brevett had suffered a heart attack in March, two weeks after the murder of his son, who was shot dead in front of the family home in Kingston. "He took his son's death as stoically as possible, but you could tell he was devastated," family friend Maxine Stowe told the news agency AP. "His condition deteriorated rapidly after that."
Lloyd Brevett was one of the seven original members of the Skatalites, the definitive ska band, formed in 1964. When it split up the following year because of disagreements between the two leaders, Roland Alphonso and Tommy McCook, he followed the former, who founded the Soul Brothers (later to become the Soul Vendors), while McCook formed The Supersonics at Duke Reid's. In 1975, some of the Skatalites members came together for the album "African Roots" at Lloyd Brevett's instigation. They finally reunited in 1983, to worldwide success. At odds with his bandmates, Lloyd Brevett left the group in 2000.
His famous double bass was exhibited in France in 2004 as part of "I-Land, une saison jamaïcaine", in Lille.
Photo credit: David Corio / Redferns