Biography
Judy Mowatt, a founding member of reggae’s premier female vocal ensemble the I-Threes, helped shape Bob Marley’s final studio sessions into lasting recordings. Her layered harmonies also enriched albums by Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Big Youth, Pablo Moses, Freddie McGregor, U-Roy, and the Wailing Souls. Through her own releases—Black Woman in 1980 and Only a Woman two years later—she emerged as a forceful advocate for Rastafarian beliefs and feminist concerns.
Mowatt first drew notice as lead singer of the Gaylettes, also called the Gaytones, a trio she launched in 1967 with Beryl Lawrence and Merle Clemonson. Modeled on Motown acts such as the Supremes, the Marvelettes, and Gladys Knight & the Pips, the group fused R&B with Jamaican dance rhythms. The lineup held until 1970, when Lawrence and Clemonson moved to the United States, leaving Mowatt to begin a solo career under pseudonyms including “Juliann.”
Her pivotal break arrived in 1974 when Marcia Griffiths invited her to add harmony vocals at Studio One on a track with Griffiths’s duo partner Bob Andy; Rita Marley, wife of Bob Marley and mother of Ziggy Marley, was also enlisted for the session. The three singers bonded immediately, and that evening Griffiths asked Mowatt and Marley to join her for a performance of the Supremes tune “Remember Me” at the House of Chen in New Kingston. The well-received set led them to continue as the I-Threes.
Around the same period Bob Marley was rebuilding after parting ways with Peter Tosh and Bunny “Wailer” Livingston. During a visit to producer Lee Perry’s home in Cardiff Crescent in Jamaica’s Washington Gardens district, the suggestion arose to feature the I-Threes in Marley’s shows. After providing backing vocals on his song “Jah Live” and on the album Natty Dread, the trio made its concert debut with him in spring 1975 as the opening act for the Jackson 5. They remained Marley’s vocal support until his death in May 1981.
Five years later Mowatt and the I-Threes joined a package tour backed by members of Marley’s band the Wailers that introduced Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers to North American audiences. A member of the Rastafarian organization the Twelve Tribes of Israel, Mowatt reflected on Marley during an early-’90s interview: “I had gotten to realize in reading my Bible that this man (Marley) was really Joseph in his second advent. I saw in the man that this time he came not only with the physical corn to feed his people but he came with the spiritual corn, which was the message that transcended to the four corners of the world.”
Alongside her work with Marley and the I-Threes, Mowatt sustained a solo career; her album Black Woman, released in 1977, became the first project recorded at Marley’s Tuff Gong studios.
Mowatt first drew notice as lead singer of the Gaylettes, also called the Gaytones, a trio she launched in 1967 with Beryl Lawrence and Merle Clemonson. Modeled on Motown acts such as the Supremes, the Marvelettes, and Gladys Knight & the Pips, the group fused R&B with Jamaican dance rhythms. The lineup held until 1970, when Lawrence and Clemonson moved to the United States, leaving Mowatt to begin a solo career under pseudonyms including “Juliann.”
Her pivotal break arrived in 1974 when Marcia Griffiths invited her to add harmony vocals at Studio One on a track with Griffiths’s duo partner Bob Andy; Rita Marley, wife of Bob Marley and mother of Ziggy Marley, was also enlisted for the session. The three singers bonded immediately, and that evening Griffiths asked Mowatt and Marley to join her for a performance of the Supremes tune “Remember Me” at the House of Chen in New Kingston. The well-received set led them to continue as the I-Threes.
Around the same period Bob Marley was rebuilding after parting ways with Peter Tosh and Bunny “Wailer” Livingston. During a visit to producer Lee Perry’s home in Cardiff Crescent in Jamaica’s Washington Gardens district, the suggestion arose to feature the I-Threes in Marley’s shows. After providing backing vocals on his song “Jah Live” and on the album Natty Dread, the trio made its concert debut with him in spring 1975 as the opening act for the Jackson 5. They remained Marley’s vocal support until his death in May 1981.
Five years later Mowatt and the I-Threes joined a package tour backed by members of Marley’s band the Wailers that introduced Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers to North American audiences. A member of the Rastafarian organization the Twelve Tribes of Israel, Mowatt reflected on Marley during an early-’90s interview: “I had gotten to realize in reading my Bible that this man (Marley) was really Joseph in his second advent. I saw in the man that this time he came not only with the physical corn to feed his people but he came with the spiritual corn, which was the message that transcended to the four corners of the world.”
Alongside her work with Marley and the I-Threes, Mowatt sustained a solo career; her album Black Woman, released in 1977, became the first project recorded at Marley’s Tuff Gong studios.
Albums
Tuff Gong Presents: Songs of Bob Marley (From the Masters Vault)
2018
In Paradise / Who Told You So
2011
Sing Our Own Song
2003
Look At Love
1991
Love Is Overdue
1987
Working Wonders
1985
Only A Woman
1982
Black Woman
1980
Singles
