Bim Sherman - Mr Independent

He was born in Westmoreland, Jamaica on 2nd February 1950, Lloyd Jarrett Vincent. He would have many aliases throughout his career - Jarrett Tomlinson, Jarrett Vincent, Lloyd Vincent, Lloyd Tomlinson, J.L. Vincent etc, (the name of Vincent came from Lloyd's mother), but it is as Bim Sherman that he is best known.
In the early seventies the Bim made a living as a fisherman but then went on to be an electrician and moved in with one of his brothers in central Kingston. It was once in Kingston that he developed a closes musical friendship with Keith Porter and Ronnie Davis, who would go on to form the vocal group the Itals.
Bim Sherman did not attribute his love of music to any one person but rather to his family, with whom he had attended church services and Sunday school. As he became older however, he started go to the local dancehall were he heard the sounds that would inspire him to begin a musical career of his own.
"... I always knew I could make the music, ever since I was small and it was all I wanted to do. I remember growing up and listening to it, singing along with it and feeling the power of it, which is the other side of roots, and feeling light-headed..."
His first recording experience was with an early mentor Gladstone 'Gladdy' Anderson at the famous Treasure Isle studios. But things did not work out as well as he hoped, or as he once so eloquently put it..."...things just go boof!"
With this he moved on. His first record to be released was cut at the Federal studio with Sid Bucknor who was the engineer for '100 Years'. 'Love Forever' followed, a self-financed affair on the Element label and then came a string of tunes now recognised as reggae roots classics on Sherman's own Scorpio, Red Sea and Sun Dew imprints. These singles expressed the Rasta vision of Babylon's fall and corresponding redemption for the righteous through roots reggae music, and met with a degree of local success and appreciation which convinced him to continue.Due to finance restrictions however, Bim often used each riddim track for two different songs. It was his writing skills and plaintive vocals though which ensured that every piece sounded fresh. Some of these 7" sides became available in the UK on 12" pressings, compiling the A and B sides of two original JA releases on one 12". Often the same song would appear on different issues and releases with different titles for example, "Fit To Survive" and "Tribulation", "World Of Dispensation" and "Revolution", and "Blacker Sound", "Black Jah Jah Sound" and "Ever Firm".
On the back of these UK releases he decided, like so many other young Jamaicans in the seventies, to try his luck in the UK, after being persuaded to join 1979's Roots Encounter tour alongside renowned toaster Prince Far I, Creation Rebel and Prince Hammer. Partly though his move to the UK was to escape the incessant pressures of trying to be an independent recording artist in Jamaica.
"Lots of people like Randy's or Joe Gibbs want to record me, and even producers before them like Coxsone. But it’s not easy in JA (Jamaica) to get what you want out of recording and those people have a range of tricks they use to oppress you..."
In fact his first album 'Love Forever' had been issued a year earlier on the Tribesman label, including the title tune plus nine other previous Jamaican singles. Sherman settled in the UK cementing a friendship and business relationship with the young maverick reggae producer Adrian Sherwood, a long-time admirer of the singer.
Sherwood is quoted as saying;
"All great singers and vocalists have one thing in common - their voice stands out like a uniquely tuned instrument that only one person can play. Bim Sherman [was] a singer/songwriter with a truly golden tone.
I have been throughout his whole career a huge fan. I first heard one of Bim's songs while working in PAMA records Soundville Shop in Harlesden, London, in the mid 1970s ... His was like a voice from the wilderness, the lyrics and fragile power ensured that in every subsequent batch of imports I was looking out for a new Sherman record. I wasn't disappointed."
With this love for the singer Adrian went on to buy all of the 7" pre-releases which featured the voice of Bim Sherman. It was during this time that Sherwood was developing his business collaboration with the heavyweight Jamaican DJ Prince Far I and he encouraged Far I to hook up with Sherman for recording purposes. Eventually tunes such as 'Down In Jamdown' with Jah Lion and 'Love Jah Only' with Jah Buzz came into the UK on the Hitrun label, a partnership venture between the young English producer and the veteran Jamaican toaster.
The success of these releases led to further collaborations with Sherwood's subsequent On-U Sound label with a vast range of musicians, artists and producers including Gary Clail, with whom he appeared on Top Of The Pops, crooning on his 'Human Nature' smash hit of 1991. Other artists he worked with include, Akabu, Tackhead, Japan's Audio Active, the Sabres Of Paradise, Groove Corporation, Bomb The Bass and Sinéad O'Connor. These collaborations continued along side Bim's own solo releases, mainly through his UK imprint Century.
In 1994 Sherman re-recorded six of his old tunes in an acoustic session at Richard Branson's Manor Studios, with Skip McDonald on guitar and Talvin Singh on tablas. A trip to Bombay followed where India's finest film musicians provided the extra layers of sound that resulted in 1994's 'Miracle' , the album which is probably Sherman's masterpiece and a fitting testament to reggae's sweetest voice. This album brings together disparate elements - 'playback' strings orchestrated by Suraj Sathe, Talvin Singh's tabla's, former Sugarhill sessioneers (guitarist Skip McDonald and bassist Doug Wimbish) and Sherman's meditative lovers and cultural songs. The lack of a conventional drum kit is barely noticed, and yet this is still recognizably reggae, albeit of a uniquely mutated kind. What marked Bim Sherman out from his contemporaries was not just his plaintively sweet vocal delivery, or the matching subtlety of his song writing, but the fact that throughout his career he maintained a fierce defence of his own independence as an artist, and managed to keep control of his output both creatively and commercially. This is a fine testament to the man himself. Sadly he passed away, as a result of cancer on November 17th 2000, and is a sorely missed independent and innovative member of the reggae community.

With thanks to Steve Barker's obituary & Adrian Sherwood’s sleeve notes from Bim Sherman's "Love Forever" compilation

LOVED FOREVER!