Earlier today (Monday November 24), it was announced that reggae, ska and rocksteady singer and Jamaican cultural icon Jimmy Cliff has died aged 81.
“It’s with profound sadness that I share that my husband, Jimmy Cliff, has crossed over," confirmed his wife Latifa Chambers. "I am thankful for his family, friends, fellow artists and coworkers who have shared his journey with him. To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career. Jimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace."
Jamaica's first true international breakout artist, Jimmy Cliff came to worldwide attention with the release of 1972 film The Harder They Come, in which Cliff starred as infamous Jamaican criminal Ivanhoe 'Ivan' Martin. The film's soundtrack, including songs by Cliff, is widely credited as having put reggae on the world stage, and the singer remained a hugely influential and respected figure, named-checked by the likes of Bob Dylan, Keith Richards and Eric Claption and influencing everyone from Bob Marley to The Clash.
It was a modern punk icon, however, who helped Jimmy Cliff deliver what many consider his last truly great artistic statement. In 2011, Cliff - who hadn't released a studio album in almost eight years - decamped to The Sound Factory in LA with none other than Tim Armstrong, frontman of Rancid and punk rock supergroup The Transplants.
"I started looking around to make this new album," Cliff told Rolling Stone. "My management threw out the name of Tim Armstrong. I said, 'Oh yeah, I know about Tim! That could be great.' And so we started talking over the phone, and the vibes just flowed. By the time we got into the studio, the vibe flowed just the same way.
"He threw out one idea, I threw out another idea, we came together," he added. "Things really flowed. There was a chapter in my career that was unfinished, and so now I'm happy that I met Tim; I can complete that chapter in a good and proper way."
Cliff was no stranger to working with punk rock heavyweights: one of Joe Strummer's final contributions to the music world before his death in 2002 was a collaboration with the reggae legend on the song Over The Border.
Tim Armstrong, meanwhile, like so many punks of his generation, was enamoured with the OG Jamaican reggae scene, and was over the moon to be producing Cliff's new output.
“It’s a thrill to work with a real legend," Armstrong told Consequence while working on the material. “But he’s also a real great person and just a cool human being. When I met him, he had a guitar in his hand, and we started playing right away.”
“We invited a full band to back him up,” he continued. “And we’re really just trying to help him to do him. I love the role of a producer with his guidance. And all of us are focused on the fundamentals of playing live rock and roll. We’re all really in the pocket, really locked-in and focused.”
The collaboration initially yielded an EP, Sacred Fire, released in late 2011 and featuring covers of both Rancid hit Ruby Soho and Clash classic Guns Of Brixton - a song whose lyrics directly referenced The Harder They Come.
"I chose to do Guns Of Brixton because The Clash were on that side of the Atlantic and Rancid were on this side of the Atlantic," Cliff told The Quietus. "Since reggae had influenced punk, I thought it would be good to show that the whole link was there by doing two different songs from the strongest artists who were representing reggae influenced music."
The following April, the duo played a memorable pair of sets at the 2012 edition of Coachella in California, Armstrong playing guitar in Cliff's backing band as they rattled through some of the singer's greatest hits - and that aforementioned Ruby Soho cover.
That summer, the fruits of the pair's labour were revealed in full. Cliff's aptly titled Rebirth album was released on July 16, 2012, boasting some of the EP material plus a further selection of rootsy, first wave reggae bangers. Fronted by powerful lead single One More, the album garnered some of the most widespread critical acclaim Cliff had received in decades.
Rolling Stone described it as "the sound of history circling in wondrous ways", placing it in their top 20 albums of 2012, while the BBC called Rebirth "the sound of a great artist fully re-engaged with his muse."
The record won Cliff his first Grammy in over 25 years for Best Reggae Album in 2013, cementing a late career peak for an artist that had been active for five decades at that point.
"It's evident that it is a rebirth of my career," Cliff observed to The Current Morning Show in the wake of his Grammys win, adding with a touch of confidence: "I foresaw it."
Jimmy Cliff would release one more record before his passing: 2022's Refugees, an LP mixing positive calls to action with defiant rebel anthems under a sea of shimmering reggae and soul. It serves as a robust swansong for a legend of the game, but really it was with Rebirth that Cliff gave us his last true classic, and a warm full-circle moment for reggae and punk rock's decades-long love-in.
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