Half-century concert still on the cards
WHEN MARCIA Griffiths marked half a century in the business of music, a celebratory concert was in the making. And although it did not happen at the actual mark, Griffiths said it will still be done as her 50th anniversary event.
“It would have been done in decades,” Griffiths explained the format of the planned concert.
Guests from the earlier part of her career would be Bob Andy (with whom she recorded Young, Gifted and Black and Tony Gregory, Jeff ‘Free-I’ Dixon’s son agreeing to stand in on ‘Words’. The drum and bass duo Sly and Robbie would have been a part of the 1970s, and of course the I-Threes.
“It would come right up to the present moment,” Griffiths said, adding, “the ‘90s, that is when I did the combinations at Penthouse with Beres, Buju, Cutty Ranks, Tony Rebel.”
Among Griffiths’ numerous standout songs are Dreamland,
Electric Boogie, I Shall Sing and Land of Love. Noting happily that she connects to the generations of Jamaican vocalists who are emerging or have recently established themselves, Griffiths, said that her father — who, ironically, was a singer, though not professionally — did not want her to go into music.
She also looks back at her first recording, done at Studio One on Brentford Road (now Studio One Boulevard) on the same Easter Monday she bowled over the audience at Carib Cinema, Cross Roads, 54 years ago. She was taken there, along with her father, by Lynford Anderson after her performance.
STARTING POINT
At the time, although the audience response was “overwhelming”, Griffiths could not have seen that it was the starting point for a lifetime in music.
“I love to sing ... It was just another moment for me. I had no vision of having a career for the rest of my life and how much I would enjoy it,” Griffiths said. “When you stand in front of a multitude and open your mouth and talk to their souls, I feel on top of the world. When I make other people happy, that is the biggest moment of my life. I do not think God could have put me in any other position to serve but this one.”