JaRIA remembers bass player Jackie Jackson

Seven months ago, bassist Jackie Jackson was one of six extraordinary foundation bass players celebrated by the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association (JaRIA) at Back 2 Bass-es, a Reggae Wednesdays event held at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston. The event, which also featured legends such as Lloyd Parks, Errol ‘Flabba’ Holt, Boris Gardiner, Daniel ‘Axeman’ Thompson, and Donald ‘Danny Bassie’ Dennis formed part of JaRIA’s Reggae Month 2026 calendar under the theme ‘Rhythms of Resilience’.

Jackson, who was a member of the Grammy-winning group Toots and the Maytals, was spectacular. He was joined by his daughter, Courtni, who sang as he played some of the basslines which made him famous, among them Alton Ellis’s 1960s rocksteady hit, Girl I’ve Got a Date; Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Hypocrites; Toots and the Maytals’ 54/46; the 1968 reggae/ska song, Israelites, by Desmond Dekker & The Aces), and Jimmy Cliff’s Harder They Come.

Following Jackson’s passing on September 23, JaRIA has joined those paying tribute to the legendary musician.

“JaRIA has been very deliberate about celebrating contributors to the reggae industry who sometimes get left out of the spotlight,” Chairman Ewan Simpson told The Gleaner.

He pointed out that, although the JaRIA Honour Awards “are specifically designed for that” the association also aims to celebrate the greats in how they curate all their activities throughout the year.

“And so we have consistently aimed to feature instrumentalists, poets, and emerging artistes in the same way we promote featured artistes. We have also sought to be novel and innovative in how we present our Reggae Month signature events and, as such, we have featured Noel Davy with his Casio K eyboard on which Sleng Teng was created …we have celebrated Reggae Queens and a show fully dedicated to the women of reggae,” Simpson said.

He explained that he and JaRIA Vice Chairman Stingwray conceptualised the show Back 2 Basses to celebrate the foundational significance of the bassline and also to celebrate the bass players who have given so much texture to our Jamaican music.

“We were very deliberate in the bassists we chose and are proud that Jackie Jackson was one of the first ones we invited to be featured, along with Lloyd Parks and Boris Gardiner, as well as Flabba Holt, Danny Bassie and Danny Axeman,” he told The Gleaner.

“Jackie’s response was an immediate yes and he was as grateful to be considered then as he was grateful for the phone call we made to him while he was in hospital a few weeks ago,” Simpson added.

The show, he said, “was as refreshing and entertaining as it was historic and educational, and this is how JaRIA seeks to differentiate its offerings from other events”.

Simpson shared that he and his team are already far ahead in their planning for Reggae Month 2027, specifically as it relates to the shows that they will be curating.

“We are well down the wicket in our plans to celebrate keyboard players who have given us not just chords, but memorable melodic lines in an evening called “Keys Please’,” the JaRIA chairman said.

Clifton ‘Jackie’ Jackson grew up in central Kingston but subsequently made Montego Bay his home. His uncle, according to his Wikipedia biography, was a well-known musician, Luther Williams. He attended a music school and started playing bass after seeing Lloyd Brevett play with the Skatalites.

The first band that he joined was Ty and the Titans and, after two years with them, he left to join the Cavaliers, led by Lester Sterling. When the Skatalites broke up, Jackson was recruited by saxophonist Tommy McCook, who was forming a new band, the Supersonics.

At his first recording session in 1967 with producer Duke Reid, he played on Alton Eliis’s Girl I’ve Got A Date, acknowledged as one of the foundational rocksteady songs. The bassline of Girl I’ve Got a Date was allegedly duplicated in other international hits, including The Liquidator by the Harry J Allstars, and I’ll Take You There, by The Staple Singers.

In paying tribute to Jackson, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange hailed him as “a musician’s musician”.

“He influenced bassists who followed, including such giants as Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett and Robbie Shakespeare. Jackie was a musician’s musician and a gentleman in every sense: humble, generous and devoted to his craft. He did not seek the spotlight, yet he helped to build the very foundation on which our music stands. Jamaica is richer for his life and his work, and his legacy will play on for as long as the world listens to our music,” Minister Grange said.

The father of four daughters, Jackson was married to singer Karen Smith, who pre-deceased him on September 11, 2021.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com