Brigadier Jerry
Artist. Dancehall
- Active
- 1979-present
- Sunrise
- September 28, 1957, Papine, St. Andrew, Jamaica
- Also known as
- The General, Briggy
Robert Russell, known as Brigadier Jerry, built one of the largest reputations in Jamaican music on almost no records. His career was made in the dance rather than the studio, and the tapes that circulated from it did the work an album normally does.
He began performing as a stand-up comedian before switching to deejaying, started at U-Roy's King Sturgav Hi-Fi in the early 1970s, and by 1978 was a member of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and the resident deejay on their Jah Love Muzik sound system. Bootleg cassettes of his live sets traveled to Jamaican communities in Britain and the United States, and by 1980 he was among the most sought-after deejays on the island despite having released almost nothing.
He held to the "strictly 'cultural' approach" he had honed at Stur-Gav through a period when slackness was ascendant, and the Rough Guide counts him, with Ranking Joe, as the strongest of the U-Roy-influenced deejays of the late 1970s, models for Charlie Chaplin, Josey Wales, Peter Metro, and Yellowman. "As a cultural deejay I never talked slackness," he said; it "kept me on a conscious and focussed path." He has credited U-Roy, Big Youth, Prince Jazzbo, and Dennis Alcapone as the sources he combined.
He recorded for Studio One in the early 1980s and had his first hits in 1982 with "Pain," cut over the Never Let Go riddim, and "Gwan a School" for Delroy Stansbury. A live album, Live at the Controls, recorded on Jack Ruby's sound system in Ocho Rios, appeared in 1983, and his first studio album, Jamaica Jamaica, in 1985. He has made only a handful of albums since.
He mentored his sister, who records as Sister Nancy, and the deejay Sister Carol. He lived in New York between 1988 and 1991 and returned to Jah Love, later touring with the revived King Sturgav.
Last updated November 4, 2026
Connections
- Sister Nancy (sibling)
- Jack Ruby (producer)
- U-Roy (collaborator)
- Ranking Joe (same sound system)
- Josey Wales (collaborator)
- Charlie Chaplin (collaborator)
- Studio One (studio)
Notes
- Barrow and Dalton call him "the most respected - and imitated - deejay of the dancehall era, though far from the most prolific," and "one of the few under-recorded deejays": Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 264, 262.
- Barrow and Dalton say he "honed his strictly 'cultural' approach to mic work on U-Roy's King Stur-Gav Hi-Fi sound" and, as a member of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, has always put the Jah Love sound ahead of "the treadmill of Kingston studio work": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 262, 264. On the stand-up comedy and the 1978 date, "Brigadier Jerry," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigadier_Jerry.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 248, 262. Bradley notes that he "kept it cultural" in the 1980s dancehall: Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 506.
- Jah Rebel, "The Sturgav Files Volume 1: Brigadier Jerry," Reggae.be, March 15, 2009, https://www.reggae.be/en/magazine/archive/2009-03-15-the-sturgav-files-volume-1-brigadier-jerry/.
- "Brigadier Jerry," Wikipedia.
- Barrow and Dalton call "Pain" the "ultimate version" of the "Never Let Go" rhythm as updated by Don Mais: Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 262. Wikipedia dates "Pain" and "Gwan a School" to 1982 and credits Stansbury's Jwyanza label: "Brigadier Jerry," Wikipedia.
- Barrow and Dalton note "Jamaica Jamaica" as a single "for Jahlovemuzik" on the "Real Rock" rhythm and review the RAS album of the same name: Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 263-64. On the 1985 date, "Brigadier Jerry," Wikipedia.
- On Sister Nancy as his sister, Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 285, 288.
- "Brigadier Jerry," Wikipedia.
