Reverence to Toots Hibbert

Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals, in concert in Chicago, Illinois, April 2, 1982. Getty Images - Paul Natkin

By: Joe Farmer Follow

4 min

In December, "L'épopée des Musiques Noires" honors the great figures who died in 2020 ... 

Publicity

2020 has been one of the most trying years for all of us on this planet.

The Covid-19 has changed our daily lives and left families in mourning.

Everyone has been affected, directly or indirectly, by this pandemic.

Over the months, we have had to come to terms with the departure of our loved ones, our friends and, sometimes, our idols.

In "L'épopée des Musiques Noires", we made an effort to salute the memory, whenever we could, of those who left us.

From Manu Dibango to Ellis Marsalis, they were very numerous to join the ancestors and our modest radio tributes could only humbly accompany their departure.

Preciously preserved in our archives, the voices of all these essential figures will continue to resonate on the airwaves. 

Toots Hibbert in concert at Golden Gate Park (United States), in 2008. © Corbis via Getty Images / Tim Mosenfelder

Passed away on September 11, 2020 at the age of 77, Frederick Nathanaiel Hibbert was a pioneer in Jamaican musical history.

Creator, says legend, of the word "Reggae", long before Bob Marley popularized it internationally, he was undoubtedly one of the pillars of a Caribbean culture that had become universal.

Strongly influenced by American Soul-Music, his repertoire often flirted with the tones of his illustrious contemporaries, including Ray Charles whom he particularly appreciated.

A few days before leaving us, Toots Hibbert had released Got to be tough, a final daring album steeped in sounds on the border of ska, reggae, Soul and rock.

A sound cocktail that the author assumed without batting an eyelid. 

With his group Toots & The Maytals, Toots Hibbert had recorded a good sixty albums in Jamaican heritage since the mid-60s. On July 18, 2008, he came to discuss in our studios in Paris,

, and even if he was used to this meticulous exercise in discographic recording, he did not minimize the stake that this represented for his career.

On each of his records, Toots Hibbert told himself, indirectly summoned his heroes and gave a new reading to old compositions.

In 2004, on the album

, he revitalized the title

 recorded in 1972. He did the same in 2020 on his last album by adapting the classic

 with Ziggy Marley, the son. eldest of his friend and late Robert Nesta Marley. 

Toots Hibbert and Toots and the Maytals on stage in Portland (Oregon), in May 2010. © Redferns - Anthony Pidgeon / Getty images

For more than half a century, Toots Hibbert carried the reggae banner high, hesitating to confront it with other forms of expression.

He will multiply encounters with artists from very diverse backgrounds, from Ben Harper to Willie Nelson, from Shaggy to Eric Clapton, but never compromises himself.

It was his "little personal glory", he liked to repeat. 

→ The

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• Culture

• Music

On the same subject

Tropical colors

[Live] Interview with reggae legend Toots (2)

The epic of black music

Bob Marley is 75!

The epic of black music

Jamaïca Jamaïca!