Roman Stewart: An Appreciation
When you're a serious reggae fan, you discover many artists
who have made a lot of great music over the years but remain obscure.
Everybody knows world-famous reggae singers such as Desmond Dekker
and Jimmy Cliff, and there is a lot of their music available. Then
you get the not so famous singers like Junior Byles, Dave Barker, and
Cornell Campbell; despite not being as popular, these artists are well-known to reggae fans and generally
speaking their music is quite easy to find.
And then you have singers like Winston Jarrett,
George Faith, Hortense Ellis, Leo Graham, Keith Rowe and dozens of others
who — despite creating a solid body of work over the years — remain
names that are only known to serious reggae fans, and to find their music
takes a lot more work.
Which brings us to Roman Stewart. Roman Stewart had a career
that lasted for more than 30 years which included several big hits in Jamaica. His buttery voice was equally suited to smooth love songs and more conscious themes. He
was well known and respected on the reggae scene in Jamaica and the United
States. And yet, there has never been a Roman Stewart anthology or compilation, an oversight that is hard to understand. His excellent work is scattered across dozens of hard to find
records and a handful of CD compilations.
As a "reggaeologist", I find this concept interesting:
that there are many great artists whose work is really terrific, but their
music remains obscure and elusive. Even with all of the excellent reggae
compilations that have come out in the past 10 years, more work needs
to be done.
Sadly, even if someone put out a Roman Stewart anthology
tomorrow, Roman wouldn't be around to appreciate it. He died in 2004 after
a heart attack.
Mick Sleeper