Post by I on Feb 15, 2006 13:57:15 GMT
International recording artist and songwriter Jimmy Cliff, best known for the hit Many Rivers to Cross and the Harder They Come film and soundtrack, will soon have a school named after him.
At a private function in Kingston Saturday night, prime Minister PJ Patterson announced that the Somerset All-Age School in St James is to be named the Jimmy Cliff School for Excellence. The prime minister did not give a date for the name change to be effected. It is understood that both men attended the Somerset All-Age and both have regularly undertaken fundraising initiatives for the institution.
Born April 1, 1948, Cliff's career took off after his Hurricane Hattie became a hit in the early 1960s; it was produced by Leslie Kong, with whom Cliff would remain until Kong's death. Later hit singles included King of Kings and Pride and Passion, which never sold well outside Jamaica. In 1964, Cliff was chosen as one of the Jamaican representatives at the World's Fair, and soon thereafter signed to Island Records and moved to Britain. His international debut was Hard Road to Travel album, which received excellent reviews and included the single Waterfall, a Brazilian hit that won the International Song Festival.
Waterfall was followed by Wonderful World Beautiful People and Vietnam, both popular throughout most of the world. Folk rock singer/songwriter Bob Dylan even called Vietnam the best protest song he'd ever heard. The album included a cover of Cat Stevens' Wild World, which was a success in 1970.
Leslie Kong died of a heart attack in 1971. The soundtrack to The Harder They Come was a huge success that sold well across the world, but did not break Cliff into the mainstream.
After a series of albums, Cliff took a break and travelled to Africa, exploring his newfound Islam spirituality. He quickly returned to music, touring for several years before he recorded with Kool & the Gang for Power & the Glory (1983).
In the early 1980s, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band added Cliff's little-known Trapped to their live set. The follow-up, Cliff Hanger (1985), won a Grammy, though it was his last major success in the US until 1993. He continued to sell well in Jamaica and, to a lesser extent, the UK, returning to the mainstream pop charts in the US and elsewhere with a version of Johnny Nash's I Can See Clearly Now on the Cool Runnings film soundtrack in 1993.
Cliff's most recent album is Black Magic.
Observer
