R.I.P. Alton Ellis
As you may already have heard, one of Reggae’s finest vocalists has passed away aged seventy after losing the battle with cancer. Although Alton Nehemia Ellis is perhaps best known for being the ‘Godfather of Rocksteady’, there is more than enough evidence to suggest he could hold his own with some of the more roots and politics-minded Reggae performers. Trying his hand at dancing and the piano before finally settling on singing, Ellis recorded many loving laments to his lady friends in his early career, working for both Dodd’s Studio One and great rival Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle. Love and heatbreak were consistant subjects with the singer throughout his career. However, it is his more serious work that first attracted me to the man, and his ability to extract the deepest sadness from his songs and deliver it back with a beautiful melancholy, using a voice that is as unique as it is memorable.
Ellis was still musically active right up to his admission to a London hospital in December 2007.
If I Could Rule This World – Alton Ellis
