Bassline King’ and musical legend Leroy Sibbles is “grateful” to be receiving his ‘flowers’ while he’s alive. The veteran will be honoured with a tour, dubbed ‘The Crowning – Leroy Sibbles in Concert’, acknowledging his contributions to the musical landscape throughout his more than 60-year career.
“There’s no words I can find to state how I really feel,” Sibbles said, with a laugh. “I’m really glad and appreciative of what’s really happening right now, and I hope that it will all be a total success.” Sibbles, who was the lead singer for the popular rocksteady and reggae group The Heptones, said he does not believe he has been given enough credit for his work in music.
“My contribution as a single individual in the business is vast; it has developed a lot of people’s careers musically, touched many people nationally. A lot of people have contributed, but my contribution is timeless. And the value people have taken unto these [basslines] and how these basslines have taken unto these people, have created some of the biggest songs and deejay works. My basslines have established a lot of singers and musicians’ careers that my contribution is still doing good for,” shared Sibbles.
The tour, initially conceptualized as a single concert in Jamaica, was expanded after word of the event elicited demands for the concert to be hosted in other countries. The tour will now see the artiste visiting Barbados, as well as Florida, New York in the US and in Canada performing at Rastafest on Saturday August 17, 2024
“Leroy is without a doubt the ‘King of Basslines’ [who] started out in the ska era of Jamaican music [then] went over into rocksteady. But a lot of his work was critical in bridging the divide between rocksteady and reggae. So [through this event] we wanted to look at [the] duality of Leroy to seh wi rate him as a vocalist, but also to go further to honour him for his critical input into the Jamaican music, sound and legacy to the music we now have. Because when we hear these new music, specifically reggae, it needs drum and bass. It needs instrumentation,” said creative director for The Crowning tour, Vonni Koromanti.
She opined that based on the “catalogue that Leroy has, not just in quantity, but in quality for the [composition of instrumentals], such as The Abyssinian’s Satta Massagana, the chart-topping Heptones’ standard Book of Rules and Pass the Kutchie, then you can see that he really truly should be honoured”.
Sibbles will be joined by Etana, Marcia Griffiths, Duane Stephenson and Singing Melody. However, Koromanti said that there may be changes as the event switches countries. The intended year-long tour will kick-start in Jamaica on August 31 at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre and culminate on August 25, 2025.
This article was first published in the Jamaica Star 2024/07/11
