Bim Sherman

Bim Sherman stands among reggae’s most lasting cult icons and ranks as one of his era’s most esteemed vocalists, his gentle, melancholic, and singular timbre singled out by historians as among the clearest and most pristine to arise from Jamaica’s recording studios. Born in 1950, he first drew attention via the 1974 single “One Hundred Years in Babylon.” Although the Kingston session network soon opened its doors, Sherman charted an independent course, declining to interpret any compositions apart from his own. Consequently he stayed sparsely documented across his career, an uncommon situation in reggae’s history; by 1976 this situation compelled him to launch the imprints Scorpio and Red Sea, hawking his 45s directly on Kingston thoroughfares. Independent releases such as “Golden Locks” and “My Whole World” attracted a modest yet fiercely loyal audience, prompting the British concern Tribesman Records in 1978 to gather his earliest sides onto the album Love Forever, later digitally restored and reissued as Love Forever: The Classic Jamaican Recordings.

During the 1980s he moved to England and entered the On-U Sound collective led by producer Adrian Sherwood. Under Sherwood’s guidance Sherman cut the widely praised Across the Red Sea in 1982, after which he started yet another personal imprint, Century, to issue an album bearing the same title. Subsequent LPs Crazy World and Haunting Ground appeared, yet widespread international recognition arrived only with the 1996 set Miracle, an acoustic collaboration with Sherwood that also featured drum’n’bass innovator Talvin Singh. Regarded as one of the year’s standout reggae releases, Miracle prompted the 1997 remix collection It Must Be a Dream. Rub-A-Dub reached stores in spring 2000.