Prince Jazzbo
Artist. Reggae
- Active
- 1972-2004
- Sunrise
- September 3, 1951, Clarendon, Jamaica
- Sunset
- September 11, 2013, Homestead, St. Catherine, Jamaica (lung cancer)
- Also known as
- Jazzbo
Linval Roy Carter, who deejayed as Prince Jazzbo, established the gruff, worn-sounding delivery that later writers call the rockstone style, and ran the Ujama label for more than thirty years.
He was born in Clarendon and raised in Kingston, and started on sound systems, among them the Whip in Spanish Town. He auditioned at Studio One until Coxsone Dodd gave way, and his first hit, in 1972, was "Crabwalking," a deejay cut of Horace Andy's "Skylarking." Eighteen months at Studio One produced "Crime Don't Pay," "Pepper Rock," "School," "Fool for Love," and "Imperial I." Dodd held back most of it, and the material was not collected until much later, as Choice of Version. He went on to record for Glen Brown and Bunny Lee.
In early 1974 he voiced "Penny Reel" and "Good Things" for Lee Perry at the newly built Black Ark, and the relationship produced the 1976 album issued in Britain as Natty Passing Thru and in America as Ital Corner. Its riddims are Perry's: the title track reworks Max Romeo's "One Step Forward," and "Natty Pass Thru Rome" is a cut of "Concrete Castle King." "Croaking Lizard" is not an album of his but his toast on Perry's Super Ape (1976), over Max Romeo's "Chase the Devil," and it is the performance most people know him by.
The feud with I-Roy in 1975 was produced by Bunny Lee and, by David Katz's account, instigated by the owner of Monica's Records, a shop and label in Toronto; it began with I-Roy's "Straight to Jazzbo's Head." Jazzbo answered with "Straight to I-Roy's Head" and "Gal Boy I-Roy." Both men described it afterward as a sound system duel conducted on record rather than a quarrel, and the British compilation Step Forward Youth collected the exchange alongside other work by the two of them.
He spent an extended period in England and returned to concentrate on Ujama, which he had started in 1977 and which carried Frankie Paul, U-Roy, I-Roy, Big Youth, Eric Donaldson, Zebra, and Horace Ferguson. His last record, "All Haffi Bow," was voiced on September 6, 2013. He departed five days later, at sixty-two; the cause was lung cancer.
Last updated November 5, 2026
Connections
- Glen Brown (producer)
- Super Cat (collaborator)
- I-Roy (rival)
Notes
- "It was Prince Jazzbo more than anyone who established the 'rockstone' tradition of gruff deejay delivery." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 127.
- Katz calls Ujama his "flagship" label. David Katz, "If Deejay Was Your Trade: In Memory of Prince Jazzbo," Red Bull Music Academy Daily, September 16, 2013, https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2013/09/prince-jazzbo-feature/. The Rough Guide names his earlier labels as Count 123, Brisco and Mr Funny. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 190.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 190 ("a 'lickle three-box sound' named the Whip, in Spanish Town"); on Clarendon and Kingston, "Obituary: Prince Jazzbo," Independent, September 29, 2013, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-prince-jazzbo-8847602.html.
- Katz says he "bluffed his way into Studio One" in 1972 and cut it in a single take. Katz, "If Deejay Was Your Trade." See also "Obituary: Prince Jazzbo."
- Katz, "If Deejay Was Your Trade." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 127. No source was read for "Pepper Rock."
- The Rough Guide says Dodd "kept it back for nearly a quarter of a century." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 127. Katz says the album "did not surface until the mid-'80s." Katz, "If Deejay Was Your Trade."
- On Glen Brown, Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 304, and Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 120; on Bunny Lee, Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 153-54. See also Katz, "If Deejay Was Your Trade."
- Katz dates the Black Ark session to early 1974. Katz, "If Deejay Was Your Trade." The album came out in Britain on Black Wax and in the United States on Clocktower. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 177; see also Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 304.
- Katz, "If Deejay Was Your Trade.", which calls "Ital Corner" "a great mutation of Max Romeo's 'One Step Forward'."
- Katz, "If Deejay Was Your Trade." See also Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 328.
- The Rough Guide says the series of 1975 singles "began with the former's 'Straight To Jazzbo's Head'." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 154. Katz says the feud was "instigated by the owner of Monica's Records, a shop and label run by a Jamaican expatriate in Toronto." Katz, "If Deejay Was Your Trade."
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 154.
- The Rough Guide says "the two rivals apparently remained friends away from the mike." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 154. On "Step Forward Youth," Katz, "If Deejay Was Your Trade." The feud singles were later collected as "Once Upon a Time at King Tubby's." Angus Taylor, "Once Upon a Time at King Tubby's," United Reggae, March 6, 2009, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n280/030609/once-upon-a-time-at-king-tubby-s.
- Katz names Frankie Paul and Horace Ferguson, along with I-Roy, U-Roy, Johnny Osbourne, Johnny Clarke and Horace Andy, and speaks of "an extended period in England." Katz, "If Deejay Was Your Trade." Peace & Rhythm says he created Ujama "in '77" and that its roster "featured Frankie Paul, U-Roy, I-Roy, Big Youth, Zebra, Eric Donaldson and more." "Prince Jazzbo / Sept 3, 1951 - Sept 11, 2013," Peace & Rhythm, accessed November 5, 2026, https://www.peaceandrhythm.com/blogs/news/prince-jazzbo-sept-3-1951-sept-11-2013.
- "All Haffi Bow" and its date are reported in "Prince Jazzbo," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Jazzbo. Katz names a different last project, "Tribulation," cut at his home studio to pay for his medical care. Katz, "If Deejay Was Your Trade." On his death, "Obituary: Prince Jazzbo."
