Horace Ferguson
Horace Ferguson spent his youth in Spanishtown before moving to Linstead, St. Catherine. At the age of fifteen, he auditioned for Alvin ‘GG’ Ranglin who after hearing him sing and liking what he had heard decided to give him a chance. They recorded a few songs, and a contract was signed. However, the relationship didn’t turn out to be successful. It lasted until 1983 before Horace decided to start singing again in the studio. With Prince Jazzbo he recorded the well-known song Sensi Addict in 1983. Sometime later he re-recorded the song in the then-popular computerized style. His songs were released on Jazzbo’s Ujama imprint. In 1987 the album Sensi Addict hit the streets, a collection of singles he had recorded for Prince Jazzbo. Another album was released that same year as well, Leave Babylon. Since that time little has been heard of him in the musical field.
Horace Ferguson
Horace Ferguson spent his youth in Spanishtown before moving to Linstead, St. Catherine. At the age of fifteen, he auditioned for Alvin ‘GG’ Ranglin who after hearing him sing and liking what he had heard decided to give him a chance. They recorded a few songs, and a contract was signed. However, the relationship didn’t turn out to be successful. It lasted until 1983 before Horace decided to start singing again in the studio. With Prince Jazzbo he recorded the well-known song Sensi Addict in 1983. Sometime later he re-recorded the song in the then-popular computerized style. His songs were released on Jazzbo’s Ujama imprint. In 1987 the album Sensi Addict hit the streets, a collection of singles he had recorded for Prince Jazzbo. Another album was released that same year as well, Leave Babylon. Since that time little has been heard of him in the musical field.
Beth Lesser
During the 1980s, my husband and I traveled frequently to Kingston, Jamaica and Brooklyn, NY from our home in Toronto, Canada to follow the changing reggae scene. In that period reggae was changing fast, moving from the heavy roots sound of suffering and redemption to the lighter, faster, digitized sound of modern dancehall.
My husband and I saw it happen. We saw Junjo’s Volcano empire rise meteorically and them crash as his young artists emigrated or met untimely deaths. We witnessed Jah Love’s Brigadier Jerry take over the dancehall scene without ever having recorded a 45 – powered by the new popularity of dance hall cassettes.
We were in Waterhouse when King Jammy unleashed his Sleng Teng rhythm to an analog world and, one by one, producers dropped their previously recorded rhythms and started building again from scratch using programmable keyboards and drum machines. We were in Jammy’s yard while he cut the dubplates for the Clash of the Century, the event that brought dancehall culture to the larger Jamaican audience.
Over those years, I collected an archive of material that I would like to make available to the public – to present and future reggae scholars and fans.
All images © 1982-1988 Beth Lesser
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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