Seaga, the music man

(Jamaica Observer) Edward Seaga had a colourful and distinguished political life. He was Jamaica’s fifth prime minister from 1980 to 1989; and leader of the Jamaica Labour Party from 1974 to 2005. He spent 43 years as Member of Parliament for West Kingston.

Over the coming days I’ll be sharing a series of short videos on the fifth Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Most Honourable Edward Phillip George Seaga. Here is the first in the series looking at Mr Seaga as a Cultural Luminary. pic.twitter.com/P0ewrA2QUo

— Andrew Holness (@AndrewHolnessJM) May 29, 2019

His retirement from political life marked the end of Jamaica’s founding generation in active politics, as he was the last-serving politician to have entered public life before Independence in 1962. He was appointed to the Legislative Council (now the Senate) in 1959.

But he also left an indelible imprint on Jamaica’s music and culture.

The affable statesman, who died from cancer yesterday in a Florida hospital at age 89, produced Higgs and Wilson’s 1960 hit song, Oh Manny Oh.

“It ( Oh Manny Oh) was one of the early Jamaican music, after we moved away from the American R&B influences. During that period, we saw the rise of the sound system operators like Coxson (Clement Dodd) and Duke Reid, and a young producer named Edward Seaga,” musicologist Kingsley Goodison told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

Read more at: Jamaica Observer