World of Jamaican Music

Sources Your Voice

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

Remembering Derrick Harriott (1939-2026), rocksteady singer and producer. Read his story →

Naomi Cowan

Artist. Revival

Active: 2010s-present

Naomi Cowan is a reggae singer of the revival generation, the daughter of the producer and promoter Tommy Cowan and the singer Carlene Davis, whose gospel background shapes her music.

She lived in Toronto, where she led a church feeding program for the homeless, before moving home to Jamaica, and she has spoken on girls' empowerment tours. Her breakout single, "Paradise Plum" (2018), came with a video she conceived with Kia Moses and Jason Panton, and "Peace of Mind" became a signature song. Her debut album, Welcome to Paradise (2025), runs to twelve songs, with Johnny Osbourne and Runkus among the guests; she says the album grew from the sound of "Paradise Plum," and calls her music "reggae evolving, but it's still true to the core."

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Tommy Cowan (parent)
Johnny Osbourne (collaborator)

Notes

Kimberley Small, "5 Questions with Naomi Cowan," Jamaica Gleaner, November 1, 2018, https://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20181102/5-questions-naomi-cowan. O'brian Wynter, "Naomi Cowan's 'Welcome to Paradise' Takes Guests on Soulful Journey," Jamaica Gleaner, October 9, 2025, https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20251010/naomi-cowans-welcome-paradise-takes-guests-soulful-journey.
Small, "5 Questions with Naomi Cowan." Wynter, "Naomi Cowan's 'Welcome to Paradise.'"
O'brian Wynter, "Naomi Cowan's Welcome to Paradise Takes Guests on Soulful Journey," Jamaica Gleaner, October 9, 2025, https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20251010/naomi-cowans-welcome-paradise-takes-guests-soulful-journey.

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map

Sources & Acknowledgements

About this project

I began building World of Jamaican Music in 2025, after many years of listening to, reading about, playing, and performing this music. The work is ongoing: entries are revised as I consult further sources, new figures are added, and portraits are still being completed. Coverage is deepest for the rocksteady and roots eras of the 1960s and 1970s and grows thinner as the timeline approaches the present, an imbalance I intend to correct over time.

Acknowledgement

World of Jamaican Music is a labor of love in honor of reggae and rocksteady music most of all, and of the rich musical landscape of Jamaica, and the people of Jamaica who created it.

Some people say music started with the heartbeat.

In reggae music, that heartbeat is the sound of the funde in Nyabinghi drumming. It's the music of the African diaspora that carried deep roots to distant soil, and somehow made everything it carried, joy and sorrow, love and rage, into a rich new garden.

It's the music of the Caribbean, steel pans, bamboo and abeng horns, Kumina drumming, banjo, rhumba boxes, calypso, and mento.

It's the music of the church and the poetry of the King James Bible. It's the fire of preachers and teachers: Marcus Garvey, Leonard Howell, Archibald Dunkley, Robert Hinds, Joseph Hibbert, and Prince Emmanuel Charles Edwards. It's the inspiration of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie. It's voices rising together to praise Jah.

It's the ritual ganja smoke of Hindu laborers swirling into Reasoning sessions around a chalice.

It's the street dances and the sound systems - when the right record at the right moment was a competition for survival. It's the radio. Miami. Nashville. New Orleans. The harmonies of The Impressions, The Mills Brothers, The Drifters, and The Flamingos.

It's music whirring around the world in all directions and reformed into new shapes born when material constraints meet boundless creativity.

And back again, to the heartbeat.

"Who feels it knows it."

Thanks for listening. This site was created by Jody Segar with a lot of help from the sources listed below and from AI. If you discover mistakes or misstatements, inaccuracies or omissions, please get in touch and help this resource get better!

Support Jamaican music and rebuilding after Hurricane Melissa →

How This Site Was Made

The biographies on this site were drafted with Anthropic's Claude and then checked against published sources, chief among them Lloyd Bradley's Bass Culture (published in the United States as This Is Reggae Music), Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton's The Rough Guide to Reggae, and the books of Roger Steffens, David Katz, John Masouri, and Heather Augustyn, together with the other books, archives, and interviews listed below. This site would not be nearly as comprehensive without their work, and I have drawn heavily from it. I hope this site will encourage visitors to read their works directly and to explore all of the sources listed here.

The aim is for every statement that is not common knowledge to carry a footnote: quotations, figures, recording credits, contested claims, and interpretations that originate with a particular writer. Page numbers refer to the editions listed below.

Portrait Credits

The portraits are original illustrations generated with Google's Gemini, each based on period (or in some cases more recent) photographs of its subject. Where a portrait closely follows a particular photograph, the photographer is credited on that person's page. In many cases, I was unable to identify the original photographer. Please reach out through Your Voice if you have information to share about photo credits.

Rights and Reuse

© 2025–2026 Jody Segar. Text and data licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. Portraits are illustrations based on photographs; photographers are credited where known. Rights holders may request a credit or removal through Your Voice.

Works Consulted

Books & Academic Works

Bradley, Lloyd. Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King. Penguin Books, 2001. Published in the United States as This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music. Grove Press, 2001; page numbers in the notes refer to this edition. [Author's Rock's Backpages podcast]
Barrow, Steve and Peter Dalton. The Rough Guide to Reggae. Rough Guides, 2004.
Katz, David. Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae. Bloomsbury, 2003.
Katz, David. People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee "Scratch" Perry. Payback Press, 2000. Revised edition, Omnibus Press, 2006.
Masouri, John. Wailing Blues: The Story of Bob Marley's Wailers. Omnibus Press, 2008.
Masouri, John. Steppin' Razor: The Life of Peter Tosh. Omnibus Press, 2013.
Veal, Michael E. Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae. Wesleyan University Press, 2007.
Chang, Kevin O'Brien and Wayne Chen. Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music. Temple University Press, 1998.
Davis, Stephen and Peter Simon. Reggae Bloodlines: In Search of the Music and Culture of Jamaica. Anchor Press, 1977.
Hebdige, Dick. Cut 'n' Mix: Culture, Identity and Caribbean Music. Routledge, 1987.
White, Timothy. Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley. Henry Holt, 1983.
Steffens, Roger. So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley. W. W. Norton, 2017.
Augustyn, Heather. Ska: An Oral History. McFarland, 2010.
Augustyn, Heather. Ska: The Rhythm of Liberation. Rowman & Littlefield, 2013.
Augustyn, Heather. Don Drummond: The Genius and Tragedy of the World's Greatest Trombonist. McFarland, 2013.
Augustyn, Heather. Songbirds: Pioneering Women in Jamaican Music. Half Pint Press, 2014.

Online Resources

Reggaeville.com - Comprehensive reggae news, reviews, and artist profiles
ReggaeJamaicaway.com - Rich Lowe's extensive reggae history and artist documentation
BovineSka.com - Generoso Fierro and Lily's Bovine Ska and Rocksteady Radio show archives and historical documentation
SkaBook.com - Heather Augustyn's ska and Jamaican music research
Rootsland - Henry K's reggae history podcast and documentation
Discogs.com - Discographies, release information, and label details
Wikipedia - Biographical information and historical context
AllMusic.com - Artist biographies and discographies
United Reggae - Historical articles and artist features
Jamaica Observer - Contemporary news and cultural coverage
The Gleaner - Jamaica's historical newspaper archives
RiddimGuide.com - Comprehensive riddim and version database
Beth Lesser's photography and interview archives

Documentaries

Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae (2009) - Directed by Stascha Bader [IMDb]
Marley (2012) - Directed by Kevin Macdonald
Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes (2019) - Directed by Mark James
The Story of Jamaican Music (BBC, 2002) - Various directors
Deep Roots Music (1999) - Directed by Howard Johnson

Liner Notes & Album Documentation

Extensive liner notes from Trojan Records reissues
Blood and Fire Records historical compilations
VP Records archival releases
Heartbeat Records catalog documentation

Recent changes

Corrections and additions, newest first. To suggest one, use the link at the foot of any biography or write through Your Voice.

November 2026: the Third World biography now records the sunset of Stephen "Cat" Coore on January 18, 2026.
October 2026: the Sugar Minott biography now explains his part in the birth of dancehall and what made his singing distinctive, and credits Sly & Robbie with "Herbman Hustling" and "Rub a Dub Sound."
October 2026: added Agent Sasco (Assassin), with "Mix Up" among his songs.
October 2026: the Clarendonians biography now records the sunsets of Ernest Wilson in 2021 and Peter Austin in 2023.
October 2026: duo pages now name both people under the title, each with their own Sunrise and Sunset where known: King Edwards, Steely & Clevie, Dave & Ansel Collins, Michigan & Smiley, the Maytones, Keith & Tex, the Blues Busters, Althea & Donna, Mafia & Fluxy, Chaka Demus and Pliers, and the Clarendonians.
October 2026: the Derrick Harriott biography now covers the New York Jiving Juniors, his later records, his Legends of Ska appearance, his record store and his honors, and his page lists three more of his records. A note on the home page remembers him through October 31.
October 2026: Derrick Harriott's page now records his sunset at his home on October 24, 2026, aged eighty-seven.
October 2026: other names now lead to the right entry: searching for the Valentines finds the Silvertones, Bunny Livingston finds Bunny Wailer, and Sly & Robbie finds both. Pages list these as "Also recorded as," and Yabby You (Vivian Jackson) and King Jammy (Prince Jammy) carry both names on their portraits.
October 2026: thirty-six more drawn portraits, among them Joe Gibbs, Jack Ruby, Tommy McCook, Clancy Eccles, Junior Delgado, Steely & Clevie and Sister Mary Ignatius Davies, and a new portrait of Cedric Brooks.
October 2026: added Discogs links to more than a hundred entries that lacked them, each checked against Discogs.

Your Voice

I started this site as a way to learn more. Many of the people whose biographies appear here have already departed, and many are in their later years. If you are passionate about documenting and sharing the history of Jamaica's musical gifts to the world, please reach out.

Notes, stories, corrections, and questions are all welcome. If you knew or worked with anyone on this site, or have photographs or recollections to share, I would especially like to hear from you. Photos and files can be attached to your message.

Supporting Jamaican music and its communities

If this music has meant something to you, consider supporting the people and institutions that sustain it.

Alpha School of Music. Founded by the Sisters of Mercy in Kingston in 1880, Alpha trained many of the musicians who created ska and reggae, among them four founding members of the Skatalites. Its School of Music carries that tradition forward today.

GiveDirectly. Sends cash directly to families in the Jamaican communities hardest hit by Hurricane Melissa, which struck the island in October 2025.

American Friends of Jamaica: Disaster Relief Fund. Supporting Jamaican charities since 1982, AFJ funds rebuilding across the island after Hurricane Melissa. Donations are tax-deductible in the United States.

World of Jamaican Music is a noncommercial project, entirely self-funded. If you enjoy this site, and feel it is valuable, I would be grateful for any contributions to help keep it going:

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