Jennifer Lara

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies, Jennifer Lara passed away in the same city on 11 June 2005. Her first album took shape in 1974 when she entered Studio One’s Brentford Road facility to work with Coxsone Dodd; the resulting Studio One Presents Jennifer Lara met with immediate acclaim. A standout single from those sessions, “Where Have All The Good Men Gone,” achieved massive popularity and later attained anthem status. Additional successes produced under the Downbeat banner soon followed, among them “Consider Me” and “Do That To Me One More Time.” During her time at Brentford Road she also served as a session vocalist, most notably contributing to Freddie McGregor’s early-80s album I Am Ready. European tours brought her to the UK, where press and concertgoers alike responded with strong approval. In autumn 1980 she supplied three selections—“Lonely Christmas,” “Hands Of The Lord,” and the “Christmas Medley” duet with Johnny Osbourne and the family group—to the six-track collection Sir Coxsone’s Family Christmas Album. Although the prominence of her Studio One catalogue eclipsed subsequent releases, she still scored modest successes with “All My Love For You” and “Mark My Words.” By the mid-1980s she had collaborated with Prince Far I, Henry “Junjo” Lawes, and Triston Palma, the last of whom joined her on the duet “Midnight Confession.” The following decade found her recording for King Jammy on “I Wanna Sex You Up” with Thriller U, “You Turn Me On” alongside several leading Jamaican DJs including Bounty Killer, and “Stop” with Major Mackerel. Regular touring continued alongside the Ethiopians. Her death in June 2005 was attributed to an apparent brain haemorrhage compounded by high blood pressure.