World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

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Judy Mowatt

Artist. Reggae

Active
1960s-
Sunrise
1952
Also recorded as
Julie Anne

Judith Veronica Mowatt is a singer, a member of the I-Threes, and the producer of her own album Black Woman.

She was born in St. Andrew and toured the Caribbean as a teenager with a dance troupe before joining the vocal trio the Gaylettes in 1967. In 1974, after Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer left the Wailers, she joined Rita Marley and Marcia Griffiths in the I-Threes and sang with Bob Marley and the Wailers until his sunset. She sang on records by Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Big Youth, Pablo Moses, Freddie McGregor, U-Roy, and the Wailing Souls, and later helped Rita Marley run the touring of Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers.

Her first solo album, Mellow Mood, came out on Tuff Gong in 1975. Black Woman, recorded at Tuff Gong and issued on her own Ashandan label in 1979, she produced herself, working with Freddie McGregor, with whom she has a daughter, Yashemabeth. It has been called the first reggae album produced by a woman, though Sonia Pottinger had been producing albums before it; James Manheim's phrase, that she was "among the first female Jamaican musicians to seize creative control of her own music," is the safer claim. "I had my own struggles," she said, "and I think black women around the world could relate to these struggles." Its subjects, among them motherhood, African descent, and the place of women within Rastafari, were not otherwise being written about in the music, and "Joseph" is addressed to Bob Marley, whom she took to be the biblical Joseph returned.

Shanachie signed her in 1982 and released Only a Woman (1982), Working Wonders (1985), and Love Is Overdue (1986). Working Wonders was nominated for the reggae Grammy, making her the first woman nominated in the category. She was made an Officer of the Order of Distinction in 1999. A member of the Twelve Tribes of Israel through her reggae career, she converted to Christianity in the late 1990s and has recorded gospel since.

She wrote under the name Jean Watt. Two songs on the Wailers' Burnin' (1973) with Bunny Wailer singing lead, "Hallelujah Time" and "Pass It On," carry that credit, as does "Reincarnated Souls," which the Wailers issued as a single and which Bunny Wailer recut for Blackheart Man (1976). The pseudonym has caused lasting confusion with Jean Watt, Bunny Wailer's longtime partner, and several reference works state that the two women are being wrongly conflated.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Manheim says she toured the Caribbean with the Estrelita Dance troupe in the mid-1960s and formed the Gaylettes with two other members of the troupe; their "Silent River" was a Jamaican hit in 1968. James M. Manheim, "Mowatt, Judy," Contemporary Black Biography, Encyclopedia.com, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-popular-and-jazz-biographies/judy-mowatt. Wikipedia, citing Colin Larkin's Guinness Who's Who of Reggae, gives 1967 and her birthplace as Gordon Town, St. Andrew. "Judy Mowatt," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Mowatt. The Rough Guide and Manheim give Kingston. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 138; Manheim, "Mowatt, Judy."
  2. The Rough Guide says the I-Threes were brought in after Peter and Bunny "had departed to pursue their solo careers." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 138. Manheim says they sang on Natty Dread and first joined Marley on stage in the spring of 1975, remaining with him until his death in 1981. Manheim, "Mowatt, Judy."
  3. Manheim, "Mowatt, Judy."
  4. The original Ashandan sleeve reads "P + C 1979," credits Mowatt as producer, and thanks McGregor "for his kind spiritual and physical support in making this album possible." "Judy Mowatt, Black Woman," Ashandan LP, Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/1085284. Manheim says it was the first album recorded at Marley's new Tuff Gong studio; Campbell says it was recorded at Federal Records, later Tuff Gong International. Manheim, "Mowatt, Judy."; Howard Campbell, "Kaedi Philo Pays Tribute to Judy Mowatt's 'Black Woman' with Fresh Take," Jamaica Observer, April 23, 2026, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2026/04/23/kaedi-philo-pays-tribute-judy-mowatts-black-woman-fresh-take/. Other Ashandan pressings credit recording at Harry J's, Dynamic Sounds, and Channel One, with remixing at Tuff Gong. "Judy Mowatt, Black Woman," Ashandan LP, Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/5352664. The daughter is from Wikipedia. "Judy Mowatt."
  5. Wikipedia, citing AllMusic. "Judy Mowatt." Manheim says she "was among the first female Jamaican musicians to seize creative control of her own music." Manheim, "Mowatt, Judy." On Pottinger, see Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 161, on her work with Culture.
  6. Kediesha Perry, "One Strong Black Woman," Jamaica Observer, March 7, 2019, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2019/03/07/one-strong-black-woman.
  7. The sleeve notes: "Song Joseph dedicated to Bro. Bob Marley." "Judy Mowatt, Black Woman," Ashandan LP, Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/1085284. Mowatt, quoted by Manheim: "I had gotten to realize in reading my Bible that this man was really Joseph in his second advent." Manheim, "Mowatt, Judy." The Rough Guide calls Black Woman a contender for the "consummate cultural statement" by a Jamaican woman singer. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 202.
  8. Discogs dates the first Shanachie pressings to 1982, 1985, and 1986. "Judy Mowatt, Only a Woman," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/125970; "Judy Mowatt, Working Wonders," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/186971; "Judy Mowatt, Love Is Overdue," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/168953.
  9. The Recording Academy lists one nomination, for Working Wonders as Best Reggae Recording at the 28th Grammy Awards (1986). "Judy Mowatt," artist page, Grammy.com, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.grammy.com/artists/judy-mowatt/4766/. The first-woman claim is from Wikipedia, citing Larkin. "Judy Mowatt." Manheim instead names Love Is Overdue and 1987. Manheim, "Mowatt, Judy."
  10. Manheim, "Mowatt, Judy."
  11. The Rough Guide names her among the singers aligned with the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 209. The Gleaner says she converted in 1988 and "was a Rastafarian for 22 years before making the transition." Shereita Grizzle, "Bob Marley Would Have Been a Christian Were He Alive Today Says Judy Mowatt," Jamaica Gleaner, August 25, 2015, http://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20150826/bob-marley-would-have-been-christian-were-he-alive-today-says-judy. Wikipedia gives the late 1990s. "Judy Mowatt."
  12. Discogs transcribes the writing credit as "Jean Watt" on both songs and on "Reincarnated Soul," the B-side of "Concrete Jungle." "The Wailers, Burnin'," Island LP (UK), Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/550415; "The Wailers, Concrete Jungle / Reincarnated Soul," Island single (UK), Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/4845672.
  13. Wikipedia, citing David Moskowitz's The Words and Music of Bob Marley (2007), says Bunny Wailer credited these songs to his wife, Jean Watt, and that sources identifying her with Mowatt are mistaken; it adds, citing Larkin, that Mowatt recorded under several names in the early 1970s, including Julianne, Julie-Ann, and Jean. "Judy Mowatt." Manheim says contractual disputes led her to record "under the name of Julianne and several other aliases." Manheim, "Mowatt, Judy."

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