{"id":3685,"date":"2022-06-20T08:07:22","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T08:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/?p=3685"},"modified":"2022-06-20T08:09:11","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T08:09:11","slug":"johnny-osbourne-among-acts-being-celebrated-in-canadian-docuseries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/?p=3685","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Osbourne Among Acts Being Celebrated in Canadian Docuseries"},"content":{"rendered":"

The life and career of singer Johnny Osbourne will be chronicled in a docuseries by Canadian director Graeme \u201cDJ Gramera\u201d Mathieson.<\/span><\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

The five-part documentary project, which showcases reggae acts who have lived in Canada, is currently in production.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mathieson, who was born in Toronto to a Jamaican mother from Buff Bay in Portland, said he grew up listening to Osbourne\u2019s work.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, he is absolutely one of the legends of reggae music but specifically for this series of documentary shorts that we are doing with the National Film Board of Canada, it\u2019s being able to showcase and celebrate the undeniable reggae legends that [have] called Toronto home. And having the opportunity to tell Johnny\u2019s story and his massive influence in reggae music while living in Toronto is something that is really under-celebrated here in Canada. Plus, my co-director Chris Flanagan and I are simply huge fans of his,\u201d Mathieson disclosed in an interview with the\u00a0Jamaica Observer<\/span><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHis talent and contribution are immeasurable but to be honest, the reason for this series is to tell and celebrate him and other Jamaicans who produced, recorded, performed and built the immensely rich reggae community [which is] so under-appreciated here in Canada. What many of these artistes created here needs to be recognized on par with other musical legends that we laud and celebrate in Canada,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile Osbourne, who is a past student at the legendary Alpha Boys\u2019 School (now Alpha Institute), has expressed delight and appreciation at being included as part of the docuseries.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an honour to be part of this historical documentary. I\u2019m being recognized as a major part of Canada\u2019s reggae heritage, since I was there at the beginning from 1969 along with some other great performers,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the late 1960s Osbourne was lead vocalist of The Wildcats, which recorded for producer Winston Riley. With The Wildcats he did his d\u00e9but single,\u00a0\u2018All I Have Is Love\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/b>.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

After success with\u00a0\u2018Come Back Darling\u2019<\/span><\/b><\/em>\u00a0(which has been covered by UB40), Osbourne migrated to Toronto. There, he became lead vocalist for the group Ishan People and recorded two albums with them.<\/span><\/p>\n

He rose to success in the late 1970s and 1980s with a number of hit songs including\u00a0\u2018Truths and Rights\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/b>, a cover of Earth, Wind and Fire\u2019s\u00a0\u2018Reasons\u2019<\/span><\/b><\/em>, \u2018Buddy Bye\u2019<\/b>, \u2018Yo-Yo\u2019<\/b>, \u2018Ice Cream Love\u2019<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/em>and\u00a0\u2018Water Pumping\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/b>.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In 2012 Osbourne\u2019s song\u00a0\u2018Mr Marshall\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/em>was sampled for Major Lazer\u2019s hit single,\u00a0\u2018Jah No Partial\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/b>.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pre-production on the series began two years ago, just before the onslaught of the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, and therefore had to be put it on hold.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, technically, we were set to start production just on the cusp of the pandemic, which ended up putting the whole production on hiatus. That was crushing as we were lined up to start filming one of the five stories on Roy and Yvonne Panton \u2014 ska originators who now call Toronto home. This year we have finally started production on it again and have interviewed three out of our five features so far: Roy and Yvonne; reggae producer and label owner Jerry Brown of Summer Records; and Nana McLean, arguably one of the queens of reggae and record shop owner in the Little Jamaica community of Eglinton Avenue in Toronto. Our fifth feature will be on Leroy Sibbles and it will be filmed later in the summer,\u201d Mathieson explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mathieson, who has been involved in film production for some time, has also worked in radio.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI have worked in video and documentary production for the past 15 years, and in 2018 \u2014 which was the precursor to this series \u2014 myself and co-director on this series, Chris Flanagan collaborated on a doc short on Stranger Cole called\u00a0Ruff & Tuff<\/span><\/b><\/em>:\u00a0Stranger Cole\u2019s Toronto Roots.<\/span><\/em>\u00a0It was selected for the 2018 Toronto Hot Docs Festival. I also hosted a 15-year-long radio show on one of Toronto\u2019s community radio stations,\u00a0CHRY 105.5FM,<\/span><\/em>\u00a0called\u00a0Stolen Souls<\/span><\/b><\/em>,<\/b> featuring early reggae and soul music,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The life and career of singer Johnny Osbourne will be chronicled in a docuseries by Canadian director Graeme \u201cDJ Gramera\u201d Mathieson. The five-part documentary project, which showcases reggae acts who have lived in Canada, is currently in production. Mathieson, who was born in Toronto to a Jamaican mother from Buff Bay in Portland, said he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":3684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-3685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","tag-breakingnews"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3686,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3685\/revisions\/3686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}