Alton Ellis Joins The Ancestors

[XXPANTHAXX]

LONDON (AP) — Reggae music pioneer Alton Ellis, who enjoyed a career revival in recent years after a string of hits in the 1960s, Passed Away. He was 70.

Ellis died peacefully, officials at Hammersmith hospital said, adding that his family did not wish to release details. He had been hospitalized for several weeks.

In a tribute to Ellis on its Web site, Trojan Records on Saturday said that it mourned "the passing of a reggae legend" and that Ellis had lymphatic cancer. He collapsed during a performance in London in August, the record company said.

Ellis was known as "the Godfather of rocksteady" and enjoyed a string of hits in Jamaica during the early days of reggae.

At the beginning of his career, he had several hits while fronting the vocal group The Flames, including "Dance Crasher," "I'm Just a Guy" and "Sunday Coming."

He began his career in the late 1950s, before Jamaican music earned a worldwide following, and recorded for many local producers before launching his own All-tone label.

Ellis moved to Canada and then to England in the 1970s as his career declined, but he returned to popularity in the past 15 years because of a rocksteady trend in Jamaica and Europe.

[Sourakhata]

RIP Alton Ellis..!

[G.O.D.F.A.T.H.A.]

Alton Ellis will be sorely missed. He was a great artist indeed. R.I.U. Alton Ellis.

[Jalili]

R.i.p........

[I_ziz]

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Ellis never reaped financial rewards from his chart success. Ellis said he was living in a Trench Town slum in 1969 when he went to Canada where he lived for nearly three years, before moving permanently to Britain.
"It was pure hit tune an' Alton live inna a one room inna Trench Town same way," an angry Ellis told The Gleaner in November, 2006. "Mi all start fi think 'bout pick pocket like dem bwoy pon the bridge 'cause dem have pretty bicycle an' look clean every day."
He clashed with Dodd over royalties from his songs including I'm Still in Love. They were at odds over money from the Sean Paul/Sasha song at the time of the producer's death from a heart attack in 2004.
Ellis made his reputation as a balladeer through songs like Girl I've Got a Date and I'm Just a Guy. Yet, he touched social issues by chastising rowdy rudeboys on Dancecrasher and tackled inner-city poverty in the Lloyd Matador Daley-produced Lord Deliver Us.
It made him, Goodison said, a 'rounded performer'.

"He never had formal training but he was very articulate. Alton Ellis was really a student of the streets," Goodison said.

Ellis is survived by wife Judith and over 20 children.

From the Daily Gleaner