Chinese connection

THE Chinese contribution to Jamaica’s popular music will be the theme for this year’s Tribute To The Greats show, scheduled for July.

Dubbed ‘The Chinese Connection’, the event will salute a number of Chinese- Jamaicans involved in the music industry, headed by producer Leslie Kong and musician Phil Chen.

Kingsley Goodison, who started the show in 1998, believes the Chinese impact on the development of what became reggae is immense.

“They have contributed tremendously, going back to the 1940s and the sound systems. Then you have the musicians and the bands,” Goodison told the Sunday Observer.

He did not disclose the list of honourees, but said Kong and Chen deserve special recognition. Kong, who died of a heart attack in 1971, is one of reggae’s most influential producers.

His Beverley’s Records produced Judge Not, Bob Marley’s first song, in 1962.

Kong also helped launch the careers of Derrick Morgan, Jimmy Cliff and Toots and the Maytals. His catalogue includes classic songs like Cliff’s The Harder They Come and Many Rivers to Cross and 54-46 and Pressure Drop by Toots and the Maytals.

A bass player, Chen was a member of The Vagabonds band in the 1960s before moving to the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. He played on eight of the nine songs on Blow by Blow, the influential 1975 fusion album by the Jeff Beck Band.

Chen’s signature line can be heard on Rod Stewart’s massive 1978 disco hit Do Ya Think I’m Sexy.

The Chinese Connection follows the format of previous Tribute To The Greats shows which paid homage to the contribution of Caribbean, Australian and American musicians and impresarios to Jamaican music.