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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Tenor Saw

Artist. Dancehall

Active
1984-1988
Sunrise
December 2, 1966, Kingston, Jamaica
Sunset
August 13, 1988, Houston, Texas

Clive Bright, who recorded as Tenor Saw, had a career of four years and left "Ring the Alarm," whose lyric, the Rough Guide says, "was to set the standard for all the soundboy burial tunes to follow."

He was born at Victoria Jubilee Hospital in Kingston, the fourth of six children, grew up in Payne Land, Maverley and Olympic Gardens, and sang in a Seventh-day Adventist choir. Howard Campbell heard "a singer with a rare sound," and Maral Amiri a "nasal twang and sweet voice, mid-singing & mid-deejaying" that shaped Nitty Gritty and King Kong. Producers turned him down until George Phang gave him a session; his first single, "Roll Call" (1984), was cut for Phang's Powerhouse label over the Techniques' "Queen Majesty" riddim.

With his friend Nitty Gritty he moved to Sugar Minott's Youth Promotion sound and Black Roots label, where "Lots of Sign," "Run Come Call Me" and "Fever" were hits. "Ring the Alarm," voiced for Winston Riley's Techniques label over Riley's "Stalag" riddim in 1985, is the record that lasted. Its hook has been quoted, sampled and versioned continuously since, and the record did as much as any other to carry the Stalag riddim into the digital era.

Its success took him to King Jammy, where he cut "Pumpkin Belly" on the "Sleng Teng" riddim, and to Uptempo for "Golden Hen" in 1986. Minott issued his album Fever the same year.

He departed in Houston in August 1988; the official finding was a hit and run, and rumors of a killing have never gone away, helped by the Gleaner's report two months later that he had been shot in New York. Nitty Gritty recorded "Who Killed Tenor Saw" and King Kong "He Was a Friend" the following year, and Super Cat's "Nuff Man a Dead" is in part about him. He was twenty-one.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide says the lyric of "Ring the Alarm" "was to set the standard for all the soundboy burial tunes to follow," and calls it a "classic soundboy boast." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 89, 296.
  2. The details of his birth and upbringing are from Wikipedia. "Tenor Saw," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenor_Saw.
  3. Howard Campbell, "Tenor Saw: Dancehall's Unique Voice," reposted by Clinton Lindsay, June 16, 2017, https://clintonlindsay.com/2017/06/16/tenor-saw-dancehalls-unique-voice. Maral Amiri, "Tenor Saw: A Dancehall Tenor," United Reggae, October 25, 2007, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n62/102507/tenor-saw-a-dancehall-tenor.
  4. "Tenor Saw." The Rough Guide lists the song as "Roll Is Called." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 296.
  5. The Rough Guide says he came to prominence on Sugar Minott's Youth Promotion sound, "where he had been first recorded on dubplate by the selector for the set, Jah Stitch," and that his "Lots Of Sign" was one of the label's best sellers. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 274, 296.
  6. The Rough Guide: "The rhythm for Tenor Saw's contemporary dancehall vocal 'Ring the Alarm' (for Winston Riley) was an overdubbed cut of 'Stalag 17,' Ansel Collins's 1973 organ instrumental," and dates the record to 1985. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 89, 296.
  7. The Rough Guide lists Tenor Saw among those for whom the "Stalag 17" rhythm provided hits, and notes Buju Banton's later deejay version over Tenor Saw's vocal. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 117, 296.
  8. "Tenor Saw." The Rough Guide lists "Pumpkin Belly" among the hits on the Minott-produced Fever album. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 296.
  9. The Rough Guide calls Fever "a Sugar Minott-produced debut set." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 296. Wikipedia dates it, and "Golden Hen" on Uptempo, to 1986. "Tenor Saw."
  10. Wikipedia says he was injured in a hit and run in Houston on July 31, 1988, died at Ben Taub General Hospital on August 13, and that the Gleaner reported on October 26, 1988, that he had been shot in New York. "Tenor Saw." The Rough Guide gives his death as "1988, Texas" and says he "was killed in 1988." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 296. The Gleaner and the Observer say his body was found by a roadside in Houston. Sacha Walters, "Tenor Saw Still on Dancehall's Roll Call," Jamaica Gleaner, August 31, 2008, https://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080831/ent/ent1.html. Brian Bonitto, "Tenor Saw Lives On," Jamaica Observer, August 9, 2013, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2013/08/08/tenor-saw-lives-on/.
  11. "Tenor Saw."

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