Jimmy Cliff, reggae icon and ‘cultural giant’, dies at 81

Jimmy Cliff, the legendary Jamaican singer who along with Bob Marley popularised reggae, ska and rocksteady music over a six-decade career, has died, his wife Latifa Chambers announced on Facebook on Monday.

The cause was a seizure followed by pneumonia, she said.

Born James Chambers on July 30, 1944, during a hurricane in St James Parish, northwestern Jamaica, he moved in the 1950s from the family farm to the country’s capital, Kingston, with his father, determined to succeed in the music industry.

At just 14 he became nationally famous for the song “Hurricane Hattie”, which he wrote.

Cliff would go on to record more than 30 albums and perform all over the world, including in Paris, in Brazil and at the World’s Fair, an international exhibition held in New York in 1964.

The following year, Island Records’ Chris Blackwell, the producer who launched Bob Marley and the Wailers, invited Cliff to work in the UK with him.

Cliff later went into acting, starring in the 1972 classic film The Harder They Come, directed by Perry Henzell, which introduced an international audience to reggae music. The film portrayed the grittier aspects of Jamaican life, redefining the island as more than a tourist playground of cocktails, beaches and waterfalls.