LONDON – Veteran Jamaican musician, Sonny Bradshaw, died in London Saturday night (Oct. 10) from the effects of a stroke which he suffered in August.
Jamaican High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Burchell Whiteman said Mr. Bradshaw’s death will leave a significant gap in the Jamaican music landscape.
“It is almost impossible to imagine modern Jamaican music without the presence of Sonny Bradshaw. He was a true musical pioneer who dedicated more than six decades of his life to ensuring that Jamaican music and especially Jazz was always kept in the forefront and was accessible to all ,” Mr. Whiteman said.
“I would like to offer sincere condolence to his wife and long-standing devoted professional partner, Myrna, his children, relatives and his many friends and supporters, Jamaicans at home and abroad will remember him with gratitude and with pride,” he added.
In recent years Sonny Bradshaw and Jamaica’s fist lady of jazz, Myrna Hague, have participated in many major musical shows in the United Kingdom. They have also given generously of their time to the Jamaican High Commission and to Jamaican charities based in the U.K.
Sonny Bradshaw
Mr. Bradshaw who was born in 1926, was a skilled trumpeter who also played piano, clarinet, trombone, and the saxophone. He was as a musician, bandleader, composer, producer, and promoter as well as a journalist, teacher, and broadcaster.
In recent years he became the founder and driving force behind the Ocho Rios Jazz festival. He formed the Sonny Bradshaw Seven in the 1950s, which was a training ground for many Jamaican musicians.
He served for many years as the president of the Jamaican Federation of Musicians, and he was also instrumental in popularising indigenous Jamaican music, through his Teenage Dance Party radio show, which aired in the 1970s on what was then Jamaica Broadcasting Commission radio.
