'Sir Coxsone' Dodd is dead Famed music pioneer collapses at Studio One; Played major role in launching Jamaica's popular music Balford Henry, Observer writer Wednesday, May 05, 2004 FOUR days after the City of Kingston honoured him by naming a street for his famous Studio One recording label, Jamaican music pioneer Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd died suddenly yesterday. He apparently suffered a heart attack at his offices at 13 Studio One Boulevard, which, until last Friday's big civic ceremony in honour of Dodd, was Brentford Road. Dodd was 72. Sources who were at the studio when he died, shortly after 4:00 pm, said that the veteran record producer and label boss was sitting around his desk chatting and joking with them when Dodd suddenly left for the bathroom. The next time they saw him, he was sitting on a chair outside the bathroom holding his chest and choking. "I held him in my arms and tried to revive him and Jennifer Lara kept trying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," said Bunny Brown, former lead singer of the Chosen Few, and one of Dodd's protÈgÈs. "He seemed like he was going to revive, then his eyeballs just turned over." Dodd was rushed into one of the cars on the premises and taken to the Medical Associates Hospital, Tangerine Place, St Andrew where he was pronounced dead. Dodd's close associate at the studio, Kingsley Goodison, said that it was obvious he was dead from before he left the premises. However, Dodd's workers, artistes and others still gathered at the studio, apparently hoping for a miracle, until the news came back from the hospital confirming his death. After doctors pronounced him dead, Dodd's body was immediately taken to the Madden's Funeral Parlour, North Street in the same car that had taken him to the hospital. Outside the morgue, dozens gathered as the news spread of Dodd's death. At Studio One, the mood was sombre among his associates and artistes, who lingered. His wife, Norma, couldn't understand Dodd's sudden death. "He didn't have a history of heart problems," she said last night, choking back tears at the Studio One complex. "He never had a heart attack before." In a statement last night, Opposition leader, Edward Seaga, a contemporary of Dodd in the music business in the 1950s and 1960s, described him as "one of the fathers of Jamaican music". He said that Dodd was "an extraordinary talent". Born Clement Seymour Dodd in Kingston on January 26, 1932, he earned the nickname "Coxsone" after a Yorkshire, England cricketer, while attending All Saints School in West Kingston. He was considered a good cricket all-rounder. But it was as a pioneer of Jamaica's sound system and popular music, from rocksteady to ska and reggae that Dodd was to find fame. He started out playing bebop and jazz records for customers visiting his parents' liquour store on Laws Street, and later Beeston Street, in Kingston. During a turn at farm work in the United States he widened his knowledge of rhythm and blues music and imported numerous original 45 rpm records, which became the hallmark of his sound system, Sir Coxsone Downbeat. He started the sound system in the early 50s relying on his imported originals to outplay his competitors, chiefly the late Arthur "Duke" Reid of Treasure Isle fame. He opened his studio at Brentford Road in 1963 and since then the name, Studio One, has become synonymous worldwide with the best of early Jamaican pop rhythms - ska, rocksteady and reggae. Dodd is probably best known outside Jamaica for bringing Bob Marley and the Wailers to national attention and producing some of their most memorable hits, including the international peace anthem, One Love. In later days, he has been in constant legal battles with newer Jamaican record producers who have relied on his rhythms of the 60s and 70s for the basis of their dancehall rhythms. But last Friday Dodd was hailed by Kingston's mayor, Desmond McKenzie, and other officials, including finance minister and South St Andrew MP Omar Davies - in whose constituency Brentford Road/Studio One Boulevard is located - for his and Studio One's contribution to the development and success of Jamaican music. This was based on a resolution passed last year by the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC), the city government.