We had known for several weeks that Gregory Isaacs' health was alarming. The Cool Ruler, 60, died this morning at his home in London.
Both badman and lover, Gregory Isaacs and his golden voice left their mark on the history of Jamaican music. He recorded his first track, Another Heartache, for Byron Lee in 1968, before briefly forming a trio, The Concords, which lasted until 1970. His solo career really took off in 1973 when he set up the African Museum label with Errol Dunkley. To finance it, he recorded for other producers (Glen Brown, Gussie Clarke, Niney the Observer, Harry Muddie, Lee Scratch Perry...), scoring several hits including the classics All I Have is love, his cover of Dobby Dobson's Loving Pauper, and Your Love is overdue (his first number one, produced by Alvin Ranglin, with whom he also made Border and Number One).
In 1978 he went international by signing with Virgin. That same year, he appeared in the film Rockers, where he performs Slave Master. Two essential albums, "Cool Ruler" and "Soon Forward", came out of that partnership. He then signed with Island Records, which released the album "Night Nurse" with its title single, his biggest success. The 1980s would be harder. Struggling with drug problems, he even went to prison for six months for possession of a firearm. After a second album for Island, "Out deh!" in 1983, he worked with the producers Prince Jammy, Bobby Digital and Steelie & Cleevie.
He thus kept up a regular output, even if it drifted from the quality of his early standards, into the 1990s, working notably with Philip Fattis Burrell, who produced the album Midnight Confidential in 1994.
His latest album, "Brand New Me", released in 2008, promised better days. But his health, weakened by excess, finally got the better of him. Touring tirelessly, he was forced by violent pains in his leg to cancel several concerts in 2010. In London, where he lived part of the time, he underwent several medical tests in September, which set off the first rumours of his death, denied by his manager, Copeland Forbes. In mid-October, he announced on his Facebook page that he was back in the studio. Another reggae legend is gone. Our thoughts are with his wife and children.
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