Jamaican deejay Prince Jazzbo died yesterday at the age of 62, according to a source close to the family. Prince Jazzbo had been battling lung cancer.
Recently, a fundraiser had been organised through the Go Fund Me platform to help cover his needs. A new single, What A Tribulation, was also planned. It will be available on 14 September.
Born Linval Carter, Prince Jazzbo comes from the parish of Clarendon, where he was born in 1951. After cutting his teeth in the sound systems, he joined Studio One in 1971, where he put his deejay talents at the service of the label's greatest riddims, such as Crabwalking on Horace Andy's Skylarking (and many others, which can be discovered on the album "Choice of Version", belatedly released by Coxsone Dodd in 1993).
He did the same at Lee Perry's, who produced some of his best tracks and his first album, "Natty Passin' Thru" in 1976. Prince Jazzbo is also famous for his many clashes, friendly but hilarious, with deejay I-Roy. The two kept the feud going by lining up singles (Straight to Jazzbo's Head, Jazzbo Have Fe Run, Straight to I-Roy's Head, Gal Boy I-Roy…), in what remains a model of the genre since the musical confrontations of Prince Buster and Derrick Morgan.
At the head of his Ujama label, he recorded himself but also Johnny Clarke, Papa San, Ricky Chaplin, Horace Ferguson and Frankie Paul. Prince Jazzbo had returned to France in summer 2011, when he could be seen on the stage of the Garance Reggae Festival as part of the Studio One Revue, alongside King Stitt, Dillinger, Dawn Penn, Willi Williams, Winston Francis and Lone Ranger.
