Lloyd Brevett

Springline is sad to hear that Lloyd Brevett, bassist and co-founder of highly influential band The Skatalites passed away yesterday 3rd May at the age of 80.

Brevett, died at the Andrews Memorial Hospital in St Andrew Jamaica having been ailing for some time following a series of seizures and strokes since the February 26th murder of his son, Okeene who had just collected an award on his father’s behalf at the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association Awards at Emancipation Park. 

The original Skatalites only existed for around 18 months between 1963 and 1965, but were essential in popularizing Ska with hits such as "Guns of Navarone" and "Eastern Standard Time," and helped lay the groundwork for the emergence of rocksteady and reggae. In October 2001, he was conferred with Jamaica's fifth highest honour, the Order of Distinction and in October 2010, he was awarded the Silver Musgrave Medal for his contribution to music.

 Our thought and prayers go out to his family, who according to close family friend Maxine Stowe to the Jamaica Observer said “the family are very distraught at Brevett’s passing” and that his widow, Ruth, was doing “very poorly”.