Biography
read full storyWinston Jarrett is a Jamaican reggae singer who was born in Lime Tree Gardens, St. Ann on September 14th, 1940.
While still young, he moved to Jones Town in Kingston where he formed alliances with two very important people, Jimmy Cliff and Alton Ellis. Cliff is the one who was responsible for teaching Jarrett how to play the guitar. This friendship opened the door for Jarrett to enter the music industry as a member of Alton Ellis' backing band, The Flames in the early 1960's. With the band he recorded songs such as "Sunday Coming" and "True Born African".
A few years later however, Ellis decided to move to the UK, so Jarrett and fellow band-member Edgar "Egga" Gardner formed The Righteous Flames with Junior Green. The trio recorded music under Arthur "Duke" Reid's label Treasure Isle and Coxsone Dodd's Studio One label. By 1970, they were known as Winston Jarrett and the Righteous Flames. The group released 4 albums as a collective.
In the late 70's Jarrett became tired of recording for others without receiving adequate payment for his work, so he began self-producing his work and he eventually broke away as a solo artist, eventually releasing 9 albums. In the late 80's he reformed The Flames re-releasing the album Jonestown and in the 90's a tribute album to Bob Marley that featured Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer.
His last album Bushwhackers Gangbangers was released in 2010 and we can look forward to hearing new material from the artist in the near future.