Prince Jazzbo

Born Linval Carter on 3 September 1951 in Jamaica, Prince Jazzbo stands among the enduring figures of reggae. Though never attaining the stature of fellow 1970s deejays such as U-Roy or Big Youth, he has sustained a distinctive personal presence and a steady audience via his Ujama imprint, where he both produces and steps behind the microphone at intervals. His earliest sessions took place at Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One in the opening years of the decade. Accounts describe a rural newcomer repeatedly rebuffed by Dodd until persistence secured a microphone and a randomly selected rhythm—Horace Andy’s “Skylarking”—on which Jazzbo laid down the instant success “Crabwalking.” Over the ensuing year and a half he remained at the label, delivering a run of incisive roots sides that included “Crime Don’t Pay,” “Pepper Rock,” “School,” and “Imperial I.” When the anticipated album never appeared, he turned elsewhere, working with Glen Brown and Bunny Lee before an unplanned collaboration with Lee Perry on “Penny Reel” yielded the 1976 set Natty Passing Thru, also issued as Ital Corner, for which he received only 1,000 Jamaican dollars—roughly £100 at the time. Additional releases from the period comprise Kick Boy Face and the shared collection Step Forward Youth with I. Roy.

Jazzbo inaugurated Ujama in 1977, issuing material under the Johnny Cool alias; neither the pseudonym nor the label achieved wide sales. Entering the 1980s and the rise of dancehall, he found himself in circumstances shared by I. Roy, U-Roy, and Big Youth—talent intact yet confronted by rapidly shifting tastes. Determined to stabilize Ujama, he succeeded from roughly 1983 onward, even though his singular production choices and unconventional concepts limited broader reach. The label continues to shelter veteran deejays including U-Roy and I. Roy while unearthing artists overlooked by others, among them Zebra, Manchez, and Horace Ferguson. None attained the prominence of Jazzbo’s best-known associate, Frankie Paul, yet that outcome aligns with Ujama’s emblem of the donkey, which Jazzbo often invokes: “a donkey may not arrive quickly, but it was good enough to carry Jesus and will not suffer a mechanical breakdown on the way.” Album covers, cheaply printed, routinely depict the cartoon donkey bearing Jazzbo or competing in a race. International breakthrough has remained elusive, yet his profile rose unexpectedly in 1991 when Studio One finally issued the long-delayed Choice Of Version, some eighteen years after its intended appearance, to widespread critical acclaim. Had the set surfaced in 1973, Jazzbo’s trajectory might have differed markedly.