Luciano & Kiddus i w/Nederlands Blazers Ensemble
2023
@LeoOReggio
Kiddus I (born Frank Dowding Jr, December 1944) is a reggae singer and musician, best known for his appearance in the film Rockers.
Dowding was born in 1944 in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica. His mother, Maria Cathcart Dowding a homemaker and his father, Frank Dowding, a bookkeeper. He adopted the stage name Kiddus, which is Amharic for “blessed one”, after becoming a Rastafarian. In 1971, he set up a Rastafarian commune and craft centre located between uptown and downtown Kingston, which became a unique feature of a city generally divided by social class.
Dowding was a member of Ras Michael’s Sons Of Negus from 1971 to 1978, singing and playing funde drums. He recorded several self-productions in 1972 with Aston Barrett at Joe Gibbs’ studio, but these were not released due to lack of funds. Rockers director Theodoros Bafaloukos had seen Kiddus recording “Graduation In Zion” in 1976, two years before the film was made, and decided to film Kiddus recording the track as part of the movie.
Kiddus had by then released a few singles on his own Shepherd label, including “Security In The Streets” which was recorded with Lee Perry at his Black Ark studio. Dowding was a prominent member of the Peace Movement, and “Security in the Streets” was one of the first of several songs recorded in appreciation of the Peace Treaty of 1978 between rival political gang leaders Claudie Massop and Bucky Marshall.
After releasing a handful of further singles, and recording an album that was not released due to the master tapes getting lost, little was heard of Kiddus I until French label Makasound issued Inna De Yard in 2005, one of a series of albums recorded acoustically by vintage reggae artists in Jamaica. Japanese label Dub Store Records then reissued some of the 1970s singles, followed by the anthology Graduation In Zion: 1978-1980 in 2007. In June 2009, Kiddus I released Green Fa Life (Naya Records), remarkably his first full-length electric instrumentation album of his 30+ year career.
Around 2009 he set up the Green Fa Life project, promoting the planting of the Moringa tree and products derived from it.
In 2007, a copy of his album tapes from 1981 was discovered, and his debut album was finally released in 2009 as Rocking Rebel Volumes 1&2.
In 2014 he staged the first Rastaman Vibration concert in Cheapside, St. Elizabeth, with the intention of expanding it into a festival in future years.
Jepther McClymont OD (born 20 October 1964), better known as Luciano, is a Jamaican second-generation roots reggae singer.
More than 60 albums later, Luciano has cemented his name as one of the most successful and consistent reggae recording artists of all time.
Picking up countless accolades, from receiving the Key to Kansas City in 1999 and being invested into the Order of Distinction in the rank of officer for outstanding service representing Jamaica in the field of entertainment in 2007 to being nominated twice by The Recording Academy for the Best Reggae Album Grammy, Luciano is not short on honours. He remains one of the humblest talents walking the journey as a musical messenger – hence he has been proclaimed ‘The Messenjah’ since the beginning of his career in 1992.
“I have learnt a lot over the past three decades. The whole experience… it is really fulfilling in the sense that when I started our singing and travelling the world, having the opportunity to see different places and faces, I had no idea I would be touching so many lives,” Luciano said in his interview with The Sunday Gleaner.
Some of his biggest hits are from his first two albums – Where There Is Life and Messenjah – with Island Records released in 1995 and 1996. A New Day and Zion Awake earned recognition from The Recording Academy as contenders for the 44th Annual and 58th Annual Grammy Awards in 2001 and 2015, respectively.
Before music-making was woven into the fabric of Luciano’s life and the cultural tapestry of Jamaica, the singer-songwriter was stitching textiles and creating valuable pieces of furniture. Singing was just a hobby, he said. “Before I entered the music fraternity, I was working my way up the professional ladder as an upholsterer.
“Growing up in the countryside, I never thought I’d get to meet some of the greatest musicians who have achieved great heights, and not only singers is humbling. He names his performance with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 2014 in Holland, as well as an earlier appearance on Live At Brixton Academy in 1996 as the most memorable events in his career.
“It has been a grand opportunity to contribute to both dancehall and reggae culture and to touch lives. I have grown with the music, and it has carried me places, and I have expanded my life. I am proud at the same time to be a messenger of conscious music, and there is more music coming this year.
