Jacob Miller

JACOB Miller was sitting pretty, on top of the world at the dawn of 1980. The previous year he had had a rush of hit songs as a solo act and Inner Circle, the band he fronted, was preparing to start work on a third album for Chris Blackwell's Island Records.



To mark the opening of the company's new offices in Brazil, Blackwell, Miller and Island's star signing, Bob Marley, went to the South American country for promotional appearances in mid-March. Miller returned to Jamaica on March 21; two days later, he was killed when his car crashed into a stop light at the intersection of Hope and Waterloo roads.



One of reggae's brightest stars, who many considered a rival to Marley as the music's king, was gone; he was only 25 years old.



The day before his death, Miller, along with the Third World band and singer Sharon Forrester, had performed at the Tower Street Correctional Facility. The following day he was supposed to appear at the opening of Third World's Zinc Fence studio on Dumfries Road in Kingston.



"He was there and left to buy some cane and when he was coming back he crashed into the stop light," Third World's Ibo Cooper told Legacy. "I never heard 'bout it till I reached Zinc Fence and 'Cat' (Third World guitarist, Stephen Coore) told mi what happen," Cooper added. "Wi went on without him, wi tried not to be sad but dat was very difficult."



In Nassau, where Miller's colleagues in Inner Circle were waiting for Miller to record their latest album, news of his death was numbing. "Is about six years before wi play a next note," said Ian Lewis, the band's bass player.



Jacob Miller covered a lot of ground in his 25 years. The chunky vocalist was as versatile as they come; he was adept at being rootsy (False Rasta), tongue-in-cheek (Standing Firm) or soulful (Delilah), this captured and expressed with a rich, vibrant, expansive tenor voice. On stage, his energetic moves defied his heavyweight frame.