Ken Parker

Jamaican vocalist Ken Parker entered the world near 1948, though accounts differ on the exact year, and spent his formative years in Savannah-La-Mar inside Jamaica’s Westmoreland Parrish, where his father worked as a preacher. Gospel music reached him at an early age, and its inflections remained audible in his singing across every phase of his career. The Blues Benders, assembled in 1965, constituted his first ensemble, yet he stepped out as a solo artist by 1967 and began cutting sides for nearly every major Jamaican producer then active. Coxsone Dodd issued “My Whole World Is Falling Down,” taped at Studio One and an enormous island hit in 1969; Duke Reid released both “True, True, True,” widely regarded as one of Parker’s strongest performances, and “Jimmy Brown” at Treasure Isle. Further sessions took place for Bunny Lee, Rupie Edwards, Byron Lee, Joe Gibbs, and Lloyd Charmers, the last of whom received Parker’s polished interpretation of Curtis Mayfield’s “Queen Majesty.” Disillusioned with the mechanics of the Jamaican scene, Parker eventually settled in the U.K., where he has directed his own label and production company since the 1980s.