Reggy vale johnson5/5/2023 ![]() As a kind of mobile discothèque, the system offered a peerless selection of exclusive records, serving both as a promotional tool and as a laboratory for testing street-crowd reaction to songs being considered for release. Johnson established the Silverhawk sound system, named after a favorite motorcycle. By their accounting, they worked on 75 percent of the hit reggae records of the late 1980s.Īfter Steely & Clevie left Jammy’s to start their own record label, bearing their names, in 1988, Mr. The two also laid down rhythm tracks for top dancehall labels like Penthouse, Techniques and Music Works. Johnson’s digital bass lines and graceful keyboard riffs invested mid-1980s dancehall in its so-called computerized style with melody, groove and an unmistakably human touch. By some estimates he participated in more sessions than anyone else in the history of reggae. Johnson worked at seminal Jamaican recording studios like Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One, Lee (Scratch) Perry’s Black Ark and Sugar Minott’s Youth Promotion. Best known for his role in the team Steely & Clevie, he was equally influential in his early work as a sideman, and helped to transform reggae at several stages, from roots to dancehall to digital.Īn expert keyboardist who worked with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, Mr. ![]() ![]() Johnson as Steely, a boisterous producer with a larger-than-life personality and a belly to match. He had moved to Brooklyn this summer for treatment of kidney problems related to hypertension and diabetes, she said, and died at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital several weeks after surgery for a blood clot in the brain. The cause was a heart attack following pneumonia, said his daughter Kerry Johnson. He was 47 and lived in Kingston, Jamaica. ![]() Wycliffe Johnson, an innovative composer and producer known as Steely, who held sway over two decades of reggae music, died on Tuesday in East Patchogue, N.Y.
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