{"id":65447,"date":"2020-09-12T11:19:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-12T08:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/toots-and-the-maytals-toots-hibbert-dead-at-77\/"},"modified":"2020-09-12T11:19:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T08:19:00","slug":"toots-and-the-maytals-toots-hibbert-dead-at-77","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/toots-and-the-maytals-toots-hibbert-dead-at-77\/","title":{"rendered":"#Toots and the Maytals\u2019 Toots Hibbert Dead at 77"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Toots and the Maytals\u2019 Toots Hibbert Dead at 77<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Toots and the Maytals singer Frederick \u201cToots\u201d Hibbert died Friday night (September 11) in Kingston, Jamaica, the BBC reports. A statement on the group\u2019s Twitter<\/a> account confirmed the news<\/a>, giving no cause of death. He was 77.<\/p>\n

With the Maytals, Hibbert established himself as a leader in the development of the bright, easygoing sound of reggae in the mid-1960s. He was also credited with popularizing the term through his 1968 song \u201cDo the Reggay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hibbert formed the Maytals as a trio with Nathaniel \u201cJerry\u201d Mathiasin and Henry \u201cRaleigh\u201d Gordon in Kingston in 1962. The group released their debut, The Sensational Maytals<\/em>, in 1965, quickly finding popularity in Jamaica. They won Jamaica\u2019s National Song Prize in 1966 with Hibbert\u2019s song \u201cBam Bam.\u201d As the group expanded, they repeated the feat in 1969 with \u201cSweet and Dandy\u201d and again in 1972 with \u201cPomps & Pride,\u201d both of which Hibbert wrote. In 1972, \u201cSweet and Dandy\u201d and \u201cPressure Drop\u201d app<\/a>eared on the soundtrack to the Kingston crime film The Harder They Come<\/em>, which helped introduce reggae to American audiences.<\/p>\n

In 1966, not long after winning the National Song Prize, Hibbert was sentenced to 18 months in prison on charges of marijuana possession that he says were invented by corrupt authorities. The experience inspired him to write \u201c54-46 Was My Number,\u201d which became one of the Maytals\u2019 best known songs after its release on 1973\u2019s In the Dark<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Maytals released their third album, Funky Kingston<\/em>, in 1972 on the Island imprint Dragon Records, which helped the record cross over to the United Kingdom. In 1975, another version of Funky Kingston<\/em> was released in the United States that featured songs from In the Dark<\/em> and only three of the album\u2019s original tracks. The American version helped cement the band\u2019s stateside popularity, and they toured with the Who, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, and the Eagles around its release.<\/p>\n

Hibbert continued to release music throughout the 1980s and 1990s, both solo and with new iterations of Toots and the Maytals. He won a Best Reggae Album Grammy for 2004\u2019s True Love<\/em>. The group\u2019s final record was August\u2019s Got to Be Tough<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That month, Hibbert was hospitalized in an intensive care unit at a private facility in Kingston, where he was tested for COVID-19. On September 2, Jamaica\u2019s Gleaner<\/em> reported that Hibbert\u2019s condition had worsened, and that he was in a medically induced coma at Kingston\u2019s University Hospital of the West Indies. He is survived by his wife of 39 years and seven children, the band wrote on Twitter<\/p>\n

Paying tribute to Hibbert on Instagram, Ziggy Marley wrote, \u201cI will miss his smile and laughter, his genuine nature. Toots was a father figure to me, his spirit is with us, his music fills us with his energy. I will never forget him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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