A 90-minute musical tribute, Toots – Farewell to A Cultural Icon, is scheduled for November 15.

The occasion – organised by the Minstry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sports – will be televised/streamed on the day Frederick “Toots” Hibbert is slated to be interred in the National Heroes’ Park in central Kingston.

“I’m very happy daddy will be getting the send-off that he deserves and the family and fans will be able to have proper closure. We’re feeling good about it and looking forward to it with a sense of pride because of who he was and what he has accomplished,” Jenieve Bailey, Hibbert’s daughter, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

“Other musicians and singers will be giving their tributes because the music fraternity worldwide wants to lend their voices and talents in recognition to the great man that has passed. The fraternity will be coming to give their tributes.”

Due to COVID-19 protocols, several of the tributes will be pre-taped. Bailey was unwilling to reveal the acts on the bill.

“Viewers are to expect high-quality tributes. They are to expect the honourable Frederick Nathaniel Hibbert to be honoured in the way he should. The musical fraternity – both locally and internationally –will be present in their tributes as well as government officials so they can expect something that they can be proud of,” said Bailey.

Members of the public have an opportunity to pay their respects at two viewings. The first will be held on November 11 at the Anglican Church Hall, May Pen, Clarendon; the second, on November 13, is at the National Arena in Kingston. The viewings will run from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm.

“Miss Grange is the head of this… It is her call… To put something like this together takes a lot of planning and she has done this before so she knows what she is doing. I have to respect those that work with her to put this thing together so that everyone will be pleased,” said Bailey.

Miss Grange is Olivia “Babsy” Grange, minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sports.

Hibbert, 77, died of complications due to COVID-19 in the University Hospital of the West Indies on September 11.

The leader of The Maytals, who hailed from Treadlight district in Clarendon, was slated to be interred at Dovecot Memorial Park & Crematorium in Spanish Town, St Catherine, on October 15. However, his family were unable to locate the burial order, a requirement for interment. His body was subsequently returned to Perry’s Funeral Home in Spanish Town, where a thanksgiving service was held earlier that day.

Formed in the 1960s, Toots and The Maytals helped popularise reggae with songs like Bam Bam, Pressure Drop, Monkey Man and Funky Kingston.

The group’s 1968 single, Do The Reggay, was the first song to use the word ‘reggae’ which gave the genre its name.

In August, he was one of 10 finalists in the Jamaica Festival Song Competition — a contest he won on three occasions with Bam Bam (1966), Sweet And Dandy (1969), and Pomps And Pride (1972).

Toots released his latest album, Got To Be Tough, on August 28.

In 2005, he and The Maytals won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album with True Love. Seven years later, Hibbert was awarded an Order of Jamaica for his contribution to Jamaica’s music industry.

Last December, he received a Jamaica Observer Entertainment Award for helping to take reggae to a global audience.