A woman of Action
Today, the Jamaica Observer begins its ‘Reggae 50’ feature on people, organisation, and events that made impact on reggae over the past 50 years.
FORTY years in the music business is no mean feat, especially for women in reggae. For Nadine Sutherland, it all started as a pre-teen who captured hearts at Jamaica’s major talent contest.
Sutherland, who turns 51 in March, is still on the hunt for hit songs. Last week saw the release of It Takes One, her latest song which, interestingly, is part of Queens In The Arena—Kemet Riddim, an all-female compilation album produced by Chyna Nicole.
Forty years after she won the Tastee Talent Contest as an 11-year-old Sutherland has found renewed interest in making music. In 2018, she enjoyed measured success with the songs Star and Neva In Love.
In a recent interview with the Jamaica Observer, she admitted that, “At one point I wasn’t enjoying recordings at all.”
The creative process has changed significantly since Sutherland began her career. There were songwriters aplenty in the late 1970s like her former mentor, Anthony “Sangie” Davis; in the 1990s when she made overseas charts with songs like Anything for You and Action, musicians and producers, not beats and programmers, called the shots.
Sutherland is not sure what caused her lack of impetus to make music.
“I really can’t pinpoint why, probably I was over-thinking. Sometimes, when you are bombarded by thoughts of what you think the people want to hear, you can lose interest,” she said. “You start to create from an in-organic space, and as a creative person it robs you of spontaneity and joy. Usually, when I’m true to my craft, it resonates better.”
Her victory over singer Paul Blake and deejay Yellowman in ‘Tastee’ came as the roots-reggae uprising of the 1970s cooled. Yet, her first hits, A Young One Like Me and Starvation on The Land, were socially-conscious songs written by Davis for 56 Hope Road, a subsidiary of Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong Records.
Davis was head of A&R at Tuff Gong when he saw Sutherland performing Peter Tosh’s Buckingham Palace at the Tastee Talent Contest. He was impressed.
“She could dance and perform more than she could sing, that’s what I liked. She was a champion performer for her age!” he recalled. “Nadine has always been one a my favourite artiste.”
In 1980, Davis took Sutherland into the recording studio for the first time to record Starvation on The Land. He said Marley was in the studio when the song was mixed, making suggestions about its drum sound.
As ‘slackness’ and gun talk dominated dancehall during the 1980s, Sutherland’s career seemed to peak. But she returned to form in the 1990s when that genre became more commercial due to mainstream acceptance in the United States.
Her hits during that decade include Action (with Terror Fabulous), Anything for You (with Snow), Wicked Dickie (with Buju Banton) and Babyface, a solo cut for producer Philip “Fatis” Burrell.
The 1990s were also good times for the female artiste. Marcia Griffiths, Patra, Diana King, Tanya Stephens, Chevelle Franklyn and Lady Saw all enjoyed prominence in Jamaica, North America, Europe and Japan.
Still, Sutherland stated that women are not given equal treatment in an industry with its share of gender prejudice.
“Marcia Griffiths said it best, ‘praise without raise’. From my perspective, we need to be paid like our male counterparts for shows and appearances,” she said.
Though she was introduced to new fans 10 years ago as a co-host of Rising Stars, Sutherland also focused on academics, earning a Masters Degree in cultural studies from the University of the West Indies in 2015.
If there are plans to celebrate her 40th year as an artiste, Sutherland is keeping them close to home. As for her career, highlights include an achievement that not many in reggae can boast — working with the three most famous Wailers: Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer.
There have been hiccups along the way, but Nadine Sutherland insists if she were to do it all over again, there would be little change.
“I am satisfied with my career. As the years pass, value systems change. Now I’m thankful that I’m healthy in every capacity,” she said. “This business can be rough. I’ve experienced the highs and the lows and weathered them with grace, yet I still stand and sleep easily at nights. I wouldn’t change a thing. Every experience was necessary to help in the process of honing my character.”