Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Sugar Minott - file photos
The 'Gully Creeper' and 'Nuh Linga' are among the latest dances to be making the party rounds, but popular dancers and dance crews are nothing new in Jamaican music.
However, in the visual age where the camera is everywhere and there are numerous outlets for the moves and the music, many of the outstanding 'legsmen' of earlier days have been overlooked.
The cat
Two of those earlier movers and shakers, Persian 'The Cat' Samuels and the Hully Gully Dancers, are among the nine awardees at the 11th Tribute to the Greats, slated for Curphey Place, Swallowfield, St Andrew, on Saturday, July 26.
The concert and awards show is being put on by Kingsley Goodison's King Omar Promotions, in association with Sounds and Pressure.
Dennis Howard of Jahmento Productions, who hosted the concert and awards show's official launch at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel's gardens last Thursday evening, said: All you hear 'bout is Bogle an' dis ya one an' dat dey crew, on a good day Carl Percy and the Hully Gully Boys would make them look like joke."
The other awardees are singers Leroy Sibbles, Sugar Minott and Toots and the Maytals; singer and emcee Tommy Cowan, sound system operator Bunny Goodison; musician Marjorie Whylie; radio disc jock Winston 'The Whip' Williams and Studio One UK liaison lady Thelma 'Dimples' Harris.
And while, true to the vintage of the event, Ernest Wilson, Mary Isaacs, Dennis 'Drifter' Walks and Lloyd 'Paro' Clarke will be performing, the guest performer is Christopher Martin.
Young admiree
Chris Martin
"Christopher Martin is going to pay tribute to the stalwarts. Is not a old man thing alone," Howard said.
Still, Goodison made it clear that Tribute to the Greats is a cultural event. "It is not a bling-bling event, therefore, you are not going to get a lot of sponsors. It is a humble thing," he said.
"It is one of the few awards that acknowledges some of the unsung heroes of the music," Howard said. "Some of the men have been revitalised, reborn, after being honoured at Tribute to the Greats".
Musician Marjorie Whylie
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