Jackie Opel

Born Dalton Sinclair Bishop (born in Chapman Lane), Bridgetown, Barbados, Jackie Opel (1937–1970) possessed a rich, powerful voice with a high octave range. He was known as the "Jackie Wilson of Jamaica", and was a gifted dancer.

In the early 1960s, he was discovered by Byron Lee, the band master of the Dragonaires, who brought him to Jamaica. His styles included ska, R&B, soul, gospel, and calypso. He is credited with inventing spouge music, a fusion of ska, calypso, and R&B music. Opel performed duos with Doreen Schaffer and Hortense Ellis, and in 1964 was backed by Wailers Bob Marley and Peter Tosh on "Mill Man", "Hairy Mango" and "A time to cry" and maybe some others like "I Don´t Want Her".

Opel eventually moved to Trinidad and then subsequently to Barbados. On 9 March 1970, he died in a car crash in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Commemoration plaque at the Jackie Opel Amphitheatre

Discography (selected)

US

Note: ‘You Gotta Cry’ is in fact ‘Cry Me A River’ renamed to avoid confusion with the Julie London standard.

UK

Compact disc

Compilations

Legacy

Wikimedia Commons has media related to General Post Office Amphitheatre, Bridgetown.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/7/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.