Joe Issa Recommends Little-Known Former House Guest for Posthumous Award

It is said that when she passed away in London, England last year at age 84, few Jamaicans knew the name Totlyn Jackson, let alone the fact that she is an iconic figure who had reached out to the second and third generation to remind them of their Jamaican heritage.

Totlyn Jackson

However, if civic leader Joe Issa has his way, the little known “First Lady of Jamaican Jazz” from Port Maria could become nationally recognised, even if posthumously.

“I think she is an unsung hero; an outstanding Jamaican singer and entertainer who helped popularise Jamaica’s North Coast tourism among the rich and famous; people like comedian Bob Hope, Clark Gable and Paul Newman are some of the names I have read.

“Yet, so few Jamaicans today know of her and the contribution she made in promoting the country’s culture and heritage,” says Issa, who once hosted Jackson and her family at his home in St. Mary, some distance from the small village of Port Maria where she was born.

“She went on to help popularise Jamaican music in the regional and international community, especially in the UK where she became famous in London’s renowned theatres and clubs,” Issa says in the interview.

Stating there is so much more about Jackson to know and tell, Issa recalls, “I read where one writer having discovered so much about her, devoted an entire chapter of a book to her…Moreover, I understand that The Gleaner has a substantial archive on her.

“Perhaps these could be put together in a publication that can be accessed by the majority of the population, including education, culture and heritage establishments.

“And perhaps we might just see enough justification to honour her memory,” says Issa, who has hosted some of the world’s top luminaries.

Research shows that the book to which Issa refers, “Songbirds: Pioneering Women in Jamaican Music”, is written by Myrna Hague, who unearthed a June 14, 1961, photo and caption of Jackson in the Star Newspaper.

The caption reads: “Jamaica’s Singer, Totlyn Jackson with internationally-famous Jamaican entertainer Sagwa Bennett–scatting the ever-popular Mack the Knife at Round Hill Hotel, Montego Bay.” 

It also informed that Jackson “left Jamaica on Sunday for Bermuda by air en route to London where she expects to fill singing engagements. Whatever her turn of fortune, she expects to be back at Round Hill for the next winter tourist season.”

Seven months before Jackson died Hague, in an article titled, “Totlyn Jackson–First Lady of Jamaican Jazz”, said Jackson “is one of the leading ladies of Jamaican jazz, and beyond…she has an incredible vocal range and can scat with the best of them…many may know her from her recent work with Basement Jaxx on the 2003 album Kish Kash.”

Noting that Jackson had a long career that started in Jamaica before she moved to London, Hague captures some of that early history in her article in the spring/summer 2009 issue of Wadabagei.

“Coming out of a church situation, I was wearing boots and socks and an inappropriate dress, but Eric [Deans] knew what he was doing with me. Eric had inherited a big band folio – we did not call it jazz – I did not know anything about jazz. I was treated as a curiosity, but I did not know it then!

“I began to work with Eric and was making a name for myself at the Bournemouth Club every Friday where I came into my own. When Lester [Hall] left many of his abandoned musicians joined the Eric Deans band including Don Drummond, Brevett, and Lloyd Knibb.

“I was the only full-time professional singer; the others were part-time with daytime jobs. Friday nights at the Bournemouth and Sonny’s [Bradshaw] got in touch with me for the first big band concert at the Ward [Theatre]; by this time everyone thought of me as a jazz singer because of this concert, and I could sight-read, so I was easy to work with,” Jackson is quoted as saying.

In addition to Lester Hall’s Orchestra featuring Don Drummond and Sonny Bradshaw’s Orchestra, Jackson is said to have sung with all the great bands of the time, including Baba Motta’s Band, the Zodiacs, Herman Lewis and the Glass Bucket Band, the 18-piece Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, the Caribs, and with the son of Frank Sinatra, in a show at the Carib Theatre on February 5, 1966.

Jackson had even performed for National Hero Norman Washington Manley at his birthday party on July 3, 1956. Singing a song composed for him by Frank Clarice of Little London in Westmoreland, she is said to have moved Manley to tears.

“Island in the Sun” with the B side “Yellow Bird” in 1963 with the Audley Williams Combo, for the W.I.R.L. record label, is said to be Jackson’s only recording in Jamaica.

Another Star Newspaper photo and caption published five months before Jamaica’s Independence captures some of the nostalgia surrounding Jackson.

It reads: “Back in the island for a holiday since Sunday after stints in London and Bermuda nightclubs is Jamaica sweetheart of jazz and blues, Totlyn Jackson who makes an appearance at Flamingo Hotel at 11.30 tomorrow night.

“Totlyn, who is currently engaged at Bermuda’s leading nightclub, Jungle Room, spent three months in London appearing at the Stork Room, among other spots.

“She says that while in London she met tenor saxophonist little ‘G’ McNair whom she affirms is ‘just gone with his sounds.’ Tonight’s show will be n’s only one in the island as she leaves on Sunday for Bermuda. Music tonight will be supplied by Charlie Binger’s Band.”

In yet another photo in the Daily News in 1973, Jackson is captured at the opening the new Big Bamboo Night Club in Montego Bay wearing a raffia gown designed and made (complete with embroidery) a decade earlier by a straw vendor. She had returned after several successful years in London.

According to Hague, “Totlyn Jackson was born in 1930 in a small village in Port Maria, St. Mary…The family was extremely involved in the Hampstead Presbyterian Church and other social and civic organisations in the community, so Totlyn had the opportunity to sing in the church choir and participate in Christmas and other holiday performances.

“Plus, there was an organ in the family home, so Totlyn taught herself to play and sing, and she also began taking piano lessons from a neighbour. She was born with a club foot which was aggravated by an operation in her childhood. As a result, she has always had a significant physical deformity, but she has never let that slow her down.

“When Totlyn was 19 years old she moved to Kingston after winning a scholarship to Lincoln College. It was an enormous change for Totlyn, moving from a small village where her family enjoyed the social status, to an urban city where she was an unknown.

“She joined the choir at North Street Cathedral as a soprano, and then, like many other talented vocalists and musicians, Totlyn decided to try her hand at the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour. Accompanied by Frankie Bonitto, Totlyn won the contest by singing, ‘With a Song in My Heart’.” She then entered a contest at the upscale Colony Club where Eric Deans led the orchestra.” The rest, as it is said, is history.