New York (dpa) 21.12.99 - Er galt als "musikalischer Vater" vieler Reggae- Stars aus Jamaika. "Joe Higgs hat mir beigebracht, Reggae zu verstehen und zu lieben", sagte Bob Marley einmal über ihn. Mit 59 Jahren ist Higgs am Samstag in Los Angeles einem Krebsleiden erlegen, berichteten US-Medien am Dienstag.

Higgs Konzerte im Garten seines Hauses im Kingstoner Slumviertel Trenchtown zogen seit Ende der 50-er Jahre unzählige junge Musiker an. Er experimentierte damals vor allem mit Boogie, Jazz und jamaikanischen Folk-Elementen. 1960 nahm Marley erstmals an Sessions in Higgs Garten an der Third Street teil.

"Er weckte dieses Stimmung in mir, wo der Mond blau ist und du plötzlich Gefühle ausdrücken kannst", sagte Marley über seinen Lehrer. Auch Peter Tosh und Bunny Wailer nahmen bei Higgs Unterricht, der auf Jamaika "The Goodfather of Reggae" genannt wurde.

Seine ersten Schallplatten-Aufnahmen machte Higgs 1960, 1973 schloss er sich Bob Marleys Band The Wailers an. Zehn Jahre später siedelte er nach Los Angeles über, nachdem er sich bei der Regierung Jamaikas durch Songs über die Armut unbeliebt gemacht hatte.

Higgs, der zwölf Kinder hinterließ, hatte Singen und Gitarrespielen von seiner Mutter gelernt, die in einem Kirchenchor sang. Von ihr hatte er auch seine ausgeprägte soziale Ader. Er kümmerte sich um herumlungernde Jungen in Trenchtown und versuchte, sie für Musik zu interessieren, damit sich nicht kriminell wurden. Bob Marley, der vor allem Higgs seine internationale Star-Karriere verdankte, war bereits 1981 im Alter von 36 Jahren gestorben.

Saturday, 18 December 1999 Los Angeles, California	Text by Ras RoJah text printed with permission Photos by General Mohammed Old School Jam 99, Fathers Day, Long Beach, CA
Jamaican singer Joe Higgs, known as "The Father of Reggae Music," passed away this evening at the age of 59 at a hospital in Los Angeles, following months of treatment for cancer. Sat. Jan. 8 - The Celebration of the Life of the Legendary Joe Higgs - McCarthy Memorial Christian Church - 4101 W. Adams Blvd. Los Angeles (between Crenshaw and Arlington) - 2pm to 7pm - Web: http://nelson.olm.net/joehiggs.html.
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. One of the first local recording artists in Jamaica, his debut single, made with partner Roy Wilson, was "Oh Manny Oh," and sold over 50,000 copies in Jamaica in 1960. It led to his signing by Edward Seaga, who later became Jamaica's Prime Minister during the 1980s. "He was my first manager," Higgs recalled shortly before his death, adding with a sly smile, "We always got paid." Seaga arranged for Higgs to be booked in local shows alongside Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and other foreign stars. In 1964 he recorded "There's A Reward For Me," for producer Coxson Dodd's Studio One, a song that became an instant classic of suffering and hope. Although he claimed to have received no royalties from its sales, he was sanguine about the fact, claiming "I realize that the only person can give me my reward and what I'm entitled to is the Almighty."
	It was in Higgs' Trench Town yard that the young Bob Marley received years of private tutoring in vocal technique and stage craft from Higgs, years before he began recording with his group, the Wailers. Marley later admitted that "Joe Higgs was a genius," crediting him for his international musical success. In 1972, Higgs won the Tourist Song Competition with "Invitation to Jamaica," whose prizes included a trip to New York, where he performed for the first time. The bouncy tune was uncharacteristic of his more normal roots sound, which mixed rhythmic jazzy scat singing with heartfelt lyrics that expressed deep political awareness and a keen sense of history and classical literature. Songs like "So It Go" ("when you no have big friends") and "Freedom" kept him near the top of the local charts.
In 1973, when founding member Bunny Wailer quit the Wailers, Higgs was tapped to accompany his former students, Tosh and Marley, on an American tour as opening act for Sly and the Family Stone. They played critically acclaimed shows from New York and Boston to San Francisco, and were chief among the first wave of reggae musicians who brought the music to U.S. awareness. In 1974, another set of former students, the Wailing Souls, joined with Higgs briefly to form group called Atarra. But it was his allignment with emerging superstar Jimmy Cliff, hot off his success in the landmark film "The Harder They Come," that brought Higgs mainstream attention as Cliff's bandleader and co-vocalist, often before huge crowds in venues like New York's Central Park and Madison Square Garden. Opening each of Cliff's shows, plus singing a pair of songs in the middle of Cliff's sets, Higgs often received more attention than Cliff, and was eventually relegated to background vocals only. Duets recorded at the time by Cliff and Higgs, "Sound of the City" and "Sons of Garvey," remain among the finest work ever recorded by either man.
	His first solo album came out in the mid-'70s called "Life of Contradiction," and featured jazz guitarist Eric Gale, solidifying Higgs' reputation, as he often reminded audiences, as "the jazz connection for Jamaican music. I like phrasing my own voice like an instrument." In the compelling 1977 reggae documentary film "Roots Rock Reggae," Higgs told director Jeremy Marre that "Reggae is a confrontational sound. Freedom - that's what it's asking for. Acceptance - that's what it needs." "Unity Is Power" followed in 1979. His 1983 single, "So It Go," which called attention to the plight of the poor who have no mentors in high places, caused Higgs political problems with the ruling party in Jamaica, and he left for Los Angeles, where he lived in a self-imposed exile until his death.
During the past 15 years, he had resumed his unofficial career as tutor and mentor to a new generation of American-based reggae musicians, and continued to tour the world, headlining festivals throughout North America and Europe. Later albums included 1990's "Blackman Know Yourself," backed by the Wailers Band. The collection featured Joe's most famous composition, "Stepping Razor," which had become a signature song for the 6-foot 4-inch Peter Tosh, and was often mistakenly attributed to Tosh as its writer. "The give away line," the slightly built Higgs always told people, "is 'Don't you watch my size, I'm dangerous.' Is no six-foot-something guy could write that!"	Joe Higgs receiving the Ragga Muffins Lifetime Achievement Award from Barbara Barabino.
	At the time of his death, he was working on an autobiography with this writer, and had been working on a cross-cultural project recorded at U2's studio in Dublin, to be titled "Green on Black," uniting Gaelic artists like Sharon Shanon and Donal Luney with Higgs, in lengthy Irish-jazz-reggae improvisations. His final public performances were at the Ashkenoz in Berkely, CA on June 27, 1999 and Palookaville in Santa Cruz, CA on June 26, 1999. Joe was awarded the Ragga Muffins Lifetime Achievement Award at the Old School Reggae Jam in Long Beach, CA on Father's Day. Born June 3, 1940, Higgs leaves 12 children, several of whom are professional musicians.