Boy From Pt Antonio Strode The World’s Stage
The community of Norwich and the wider Port Antonio as well as the music fraternity across the island are mourning the death of Lenford Richards, popularly known as Brutus.
He died Wednesday, May 24, after a brief illness at the age of 67.
Richards a Titchfield High past student was one of the few remaining players of the banjo and was an accomplished guitarist who played on the world stage. Yet he did many gigs in Jamaica and his native Portland.
Many people know him as a member of the Jolly Boys but he played with several bands before that, including Jah Postles of which he was a founding member.
He spoke proudly about working with Burning Spear, going back as far as the late 1970s. In an interview last year, he said he started touring with the legendary Burning Spear from 1983 to 1996. “I worked on the album ‘Resistance’ and others after. I worked on tracks like ‘Mek we dweet’ (do it) and ‘Fit of the fittest’. I worked on the live album ‘Live in Paris’ 1988 at the Zenith,” he told an interviewer as he recalled some high moments.
He told many stories of big-name artistes who used to work at the Axe studio in Norwich, Portland, his hometown.
-Joel Moo Young was one of those paying tribute to Brutus. He said: “I worked with him many times and learned a lot about music, live sound, monitor mixing, and recording.” He said Brutus was a real Portlander and Titchfield man.
“I’m remembering us together recording an ad for CC Bakery Holey Bulla with Briggy. [I remember] Also recording a Johnny Osbourne album with him at Channel One studio,” Moo Young said.
Marlon ‘Marley B’ Minott, musician and producer and son of the late Albert Minott of Jolly Boys, said: “We have lost a stalwart, a man with a long musical history for many, many years a very skilled musician.” He lamented the loss especially of the skills of Brutus on the banjo, noting that few people can play that instrument.
Harold ‘Jah T’ Dawkins, a former Jolly Boys member who played guitar with the Jolly Boys and taught Lenford ‘Brutus’ Richards how to play the instrument, is saddened by his passing. He said many times the young Richards’ parents had to come to his (Dawkins’) house and remove Lenford who had skipped school to learn to play the guitar
The funeral service will be on Wednesday, June 28 at the Open Bible Church Folly Road.
Brutus playing at Bush Bar GeeJam in San San, Port Antonio
