Flashback Friday: Tenor Saw “Lots of Sign”

Tenor Saw Dies Tragically, Leaving Behind An Anthology of Dancehall Poetry

           Clive Bright aka Tenor Saw was a prominent Jamaican singer with an exceptional voice and a conscious, spiritual vibe to his music. Discovered at 19 years old by dancehall legend, Sugar Minott of YouthMan Promotions, who describes the first time hearing Tenor Saw’s voice as powerful. The late icon speaks about this magical moment and the excitement of cutting the Pumpkin Belly Dubplate which ended up on Vinyl:  More After The Jump…

Tenor Saw left Jamaica to tour internationally in the mid-1980’s.

In August 1988, at the age of 21, Tenor Saw was found dead with broken limbs in a deserted location in Texas. An autopsy report found that he died from pneumonia.  The cold case has never been solved; some say murder, some say motor vehicle accident, some say drugs. However,  in the United States, so many unarmed black males die to this day for just being black, leaving room for further speculation. In an interview conducted by Brian Bonitto for the  Jamaica Observer  in August 2013, his mother, Delores Prince, said profoundly “ They killed my son, but they can’t kill his voice!” Tenor Saw’s music continues to be admired by music fans, internationally. Whenever his music plays in a dance, the people have a ” Stop, Look and Listen” response to tunes like Roll Call, Golden Hen, Pumpkin Belly, Fever, Run Come Call Me, Who’s Gonna Help Me Praise, Ring the Alarm and many more hits.

For Flashback Friday, Boomshots Magazine features Tenor Saw- “Lots of Sign,” because of its loud message; “Life is one big road with a lots of sign.’ This timeless classic,  is a prayer on vinyl and a psalm etched in the minds of all who hear it.

Follow @CharStarImani @Boomshots