Jamaican musician Frederick Nathaniel Hibbert, known as “Toots”, died Friday September 11 in Kingston at the age of 77, his family announced.
He had been in an induced coma earlier this month after being admitted to hospital with respiratory problems.
His relatives said in a message posted on Twitter that he had "died peacefully, surrounded by his family".
Leader and founder of Toots & the Maytals, he was one of the first to use the word "reggae", which gave its name to the famous musical style.
Born in 1942 in May Pen, Jamaica, Toots Hibbert grew up in a family linked to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
He begins the music by singing gospel in church.
As a teenager, the young man moved to the Trench Town district of Kingston, where the local music scene was thriving, going from street parties to recording studios.
In 1962, he formed a vocal trio, The Maytals with two accomplices from Kingston, Henry "Raleigh" Gordon and Nathaniel "Jerry" Mathias.
The musician's vocal power as well as his enigmatic stage presence attracted Jamaican record producer Sir Coxsone, who signed him to his famous Studio One label.
The masterstroke will come in 1968, when the group, renamed Toots & the Maytals released "Do the Reggay", a song that will remain widely recognized as the one that gave its name to the musical genre.
Hits taken over by the Clash
"When a girl wasn't very pretty or she wasn't dressed very well we used to say that she was 'streggay'. One day I was playing and I don't know why but I 'started singing:' do the reggay, do the reggay '- it came out like that, "he explained to the Daily Star in 2012." Maybe I could have called him' streggay 'if I' had thought longer. It would be something, if everyone danced to streggay music. "
The group gained popularity and increased tours, after signing a contract with Island Records in 1975, Chris Blackwell's label.
The music of Toots & The Maytals will particularly appeal to England: this is how songs like "Pressure Drop" and "Monkey Man" were taken up respectively by the British groups The Clash and The Specials.
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