International reggae icon Jimmy Cliff has died, his family announced Monday.
IN A POST to his official social media pages, his wife Latifa Chambers said Cliff passed away after a battle with pneumonia which followed a seizure. He was 81.
“I am thankful for his family, friends, fellow artists and coworkers who have shared his journey with him. To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career. He really appreciated each and every fan for their love,” she said.
Cliff, whose birth name was James Chambers, was instrumental in introducing reggae to an international audience, largely through his performance in the landmark film Harder They Come.
He began recording soon after moving from the countryside to Kingston, making several singles before topping the Jamaican charts with his own song, Hurricane Hattie, one of his earliest efforts for Leslie Kong’s Beverly Records, according to the Jamaica Information Service (JIS).
He had several more hits that combined pop and ska influences. After relocating to London in 1965 at the behest of Chris Blackwell of Island Records, Cliff broadened his musical approach to incorporate soul and Rhythm and Blues as he moved in the direction of reggae.
By the late 1960s he was a favourite in South America (having won a prize at a festival in Brazil with his song Waterfall), and his album Wonderful World, Beautiful People was an international hit as well as the record that prompted Paul Simon to investigate reggae.
As the star of The Harder They Come—he contributed to its sound track the classics Many Rivers to Cross, Sitting in Limbo, and the title song—Cliff became reggae’s biggest star.
