Joe Higgs

Joe Higgs is one of the most crucial people in Jamaican music, through both his teachings which allowed other musicians to become great, and also through his own groundbreaking music at the beginnings of ska, rock steady and reggae. At only 5-foot 7-inches in height, Higgs was small in stature. However, his music and message were as large as the rainbows he sung about. He was far too young when he died at only 59, but his tireless livication to reggae music and messages for the unity of all people will surely last forever.
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Jamaican singer Joe Higgs, known as "The Father of Reggae Music," passed away Saturday, December 18, 1999, at the age of 59 in a hospital in Los Angeles following several months of treatment for cancer. Joe Higgs was born on June 3, 1940 in Jamaica.<P>

Higgs was hugely influential in the birth of the ska, rock steady and reggae forms of Jamaican music, and was widely respected as a composer, arranger and performer, but perhaps most of all as a teacher. Among those he trained were Bob Marley, Derrick Harriott, Peter Tosh, Bob Andy, the Wailing Souls and Bunny Wailer.