JACOB MILLER BIOGRAFIA

JACOB MILLER BIOGRAFIA

Jacob Miller (May 4, 1952 – March 23, 1980) was a Jamaican reggae artist, who first recorded with Clement Dodd. While pursuing a prolific solo career, he became the lead singer for reggae group Inner Circle with whom he recorded until his death in a car accident at the age of 27.

Biography

Jacob Miller was known as one of Jamaica's most distinctive vocal stylists, with a trademark vibrato he used to accent his performance.

He was born in Mandeville, Jamaica to Joan Ashman and Desmond Elliot. At the age of eight he moved to Kingston, Jamaica where he grew up with his maternal grandparents. In Kingston, Miller began spending time at popular studios including Clement Dodd’s Studio One. He recorded three songs for Dodd, including “Love is a Message” in 1968, which the Swaby brothers, (Horace, later called Augustus Pablo, and Garth) played at their Rockers Sound System. While the song did not garner much success nor maintain Dodd's attention in Miller, it resulted in Pablo’s sustained interest in Miller.

After the brothers launched their own label in 1972, Pablo recorded a version of “Love is a Message” named “Keep on Knocking” in 1974. In the next year and a half Miller recorded five more songs for Pablo, “Baby I Love You So,” “False Rasta,” “Who Say Jah No Dread,” “Each One Teach One,” and “Girl Named Pat”, each of which became a Rockers classic with King Tubby dubs on their b-sides. These singles developed Miller’s reputation and ultimately drew Inner Circle to hire him as a replacement lead singer.

Inner Circle was an emerging reggae group made popular playing covers of American Top 40 hits. Band leader Roger Lewis said Jacob Miller was “always happy and jovial. He always made jokes. Everyone liked jokes.” Adding Miller as lead singer, the band’s lineup was Roger Lewis on guitar, Ian Lewis on bass, Bernard “Touter” Harvey on keyboards, and Rasheed McKenzie on drums. Coining Miller as Jacob “Killer” Miller, the group continued to build popularity. They signed with Capitol Records in 1976 and released two albums, Reggae Thing and Ready for the World. Their first hit with Jacob Miller was “Tenement Yard”, followed by “Tired Fi Lick Weed In a Bush”.

While recording, Miller continued pursuing a solo career, recording “Forward Jah Jah Children,” “Girl Don’t Com” produced by Gussie Clarke, and “I’m a Natty” produced by Joe Gibbs. He earned second place in Jamaica’s 1976 Festival Song competition with the song “All Night ‘Till Daylight” and produced his first solo album in 1978, Dread Dread. While most of Miller’s solo work were backed by Inner Circle members, his preferred rockers style diverged from the tendency of Inner Circle to experiment with other genres, including pop, soul, funk and disco. The track which has brought him the most lasting recognition is the rockers standard "King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown" with Augustus Pablo, a dub of "Baby I Love You So," engineered by King Tubby. Other notable tracks with Augustus Pablo included "Keep on Knocking," "False Rasta" and "Who Say Jah No Dread", all produced by Pablo. The album Who Say Jah No Dread featured two versions of each of these tracks; the original and a dub engineered by King Tubby.

Miller was featured in the film Rockers, alongside many other musicians including Gregory Isaacs, Big Youth and Burning Spear. In the movie, he plays the singer of a hotel house band, (in reality Inner Circle), who are joined on drums by the film's hero, Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace and play a live version of Inner Circle's hit "Tenement Yard".

In March 1980, Jacob Miller went with Bob Marley and Chris Blackwell to Brazil, to celebrate Island opening new offices in South America. On Sunday, March 23, 1980, Miller was killed in a car accident on Hope Road in Kingston, Jamaica. Miller and Inner Circle had been preparing for an American tour with Bob Marley and the Wailers, and the next album, Mixed Up Moods, had been recorded before his death.

Jacob Miller was UK reggae artist Maxi Priest's cousin.

ESPAÑOL

Jacob Miller fue uno de los mejores cantantes que ha dado el reggae a lo largo de su historia. De hecho, hasta su muerte fue incluso más popular que Bob Marley en su Jamaica natal. Su voz transmite multitud de emociones, mientras que sus innovadores entonaciones sentaron un claro precedente para el reggae contemporáneo.

Su fecha de nacimiento no está muy clara, sólo se sabe que se produjo en Mandeville durante la década de los 50. Cuando aún era muy joven se fue a vivir a Kingston y allí inició su trayectoria musical. Empezó colaborando con el productor Coxsone Dodd, pero el aún inexperto Miller no logró impresionarle lo suficiente como para mantenerlo en su plantilla.

Entonces entró en contacto con Augustus Pablo, célebre por los riddims que creó durante años junto a su amigo King Tubby. Con él grabó los primeros singles que empezarían a forjar su leyenda. Uno de ellos fue ‘Keep on Knocking’ (Youtube), que asentó el modus operandi de esta nueva generación de artistas jamaicanos.

Entrados ya en los 70, Miller pasó a formar parte del grupo Inner Circle, con el que compondría buena parte de sus canciones aun cuando no quedara reflejado en los créditos. Los Circle son recordados principalmente por su canción ‘Bad Boys’ (ya sabéis, watcha gonna do when they come for you?), pero no menos importante fue su papel en la evolución de Miller como artista.

Jacob siguió grabando singles que explotaron como bombas en la isla: ‘Who Say Jah not Dread’, ‘False Rasta’, entre otros. Sin embargo, su álbum debut no llegó hasta 1978 con el nombre de Dread Dread. Los Inner Circle tenían interés por experimentar con estilos como el soul, el funk y el disco, pero Miller siempre mantuvo su estampa de rude boy con canciones profundamente callejeras.

Dentro de este primer álbum, encontramos temazos como ‘Tenement Yard’ y ‘Forward Jah Jah Children’ (Imeem). En muchos de ellos ya se olía la esencia del primer dancehall que llegaría unos pocos años después.

Ese mismo año apareció su segundo larga duración, Killer, donde Miller confirmaba que segundas partes no siempre fueron malas. El disco arranca con ‘Forward Ever’ (Imeem), cantada con un estilazo nunca antes visto en la isla. Como se puede ver, la idea de seguir hacia delante, en contra de las dificultades, es recurrente en sus canciones. El disco es bastante corto, apenas nueve temas, pero eso no impidió que se convirtiera en un clásico.

Junto con estos trabajos en solitario, siguió compaginando su carrera con los Inner Circle. La cosa pintaba muy bien, pero desgraciadamente, Miller murió en 1980 en un accidente de coche. Quedaron entre los amasijos del vehículo muchas canciones por grabar y muchos éxitos por conseguir. A pesar de todo, siempre nos quedará el recuerdo de este artista que llegó a eclipsar al grandísimo Bob Marley.

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