The Jamaica Observer’s Entertainment Desk continues with the 23rd of its biweekly feature looking at seminal moments that have helped shape Jamaica over the past 60 years.

JAMAICA’S musical history would be incomplete without mention of Vere Johns. This unsung hero helped launch the careers of many Jamaican giants.

Through his talent concerts, Vere Johns Opportunity Hour and Opportunity Knocks, held at the Ambassador Theatre in Trench Town and Palace and Majestic theatres in downtown Kingston, he provided an avenue for fledgling acts to receive much-needed exposure.

“He was an impresario par excellence. He, single-handedly, is the one responsible for the birth of Jamaican music through the exposure he gave the artistes on his shows. He was great man,” musicologist Kingsley Goodison told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

“That man has not gotten a national honour. Now Jamaican music is playing all of the world and the man who started it is virtually an unknown,” Goodison continued.

Johns’ concert series — which he organised and financed — helped launch the careers of many of Jamaica’s top-flight acts, including Bunny and Skully, Millie Small, The Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, John Holt, Bob Andy, Desmond Dekker, Jackie Edwards, Dobby Dobson, Boris Gardiner, Alton Ellis, Hortense Ellis, Lloyd Charmers, The Blues Busters, Derrick Morgan, Lascelles Perkins, Higgs and Wilson, Laurel Aitken, Jimmy Tucker, Girl Satchmo, Roy Richards, Charlie Organaire, and Rico Rodriguez.

According to Goodison, jitterbug dancers Sparkie and Pluggie and Pam Pam and Fay, also got national exposure through Johns’ concerts.

Producers such as Clement “Coxson” Dodd and Arthur “Duke” Reid scouted for talent at the Vere Johns shows.

British author Lloyd Bradley, in his book This is Reggae Music, described Johns as “the most influential man in Jamaican music in the second half of the 1950s”, a period in which indigenous Jamaican styles were coming to the fore.

Born Vere Everette Johns in Mandeville in November 1893, he was a journalist, radio personality, and actor.

The Vere Johns Opportunity Hour and Opportunity Knocks talent concerts started in the 1950s and ended a decade later. The Vere Johns Award was part of singer/producer Clancy Eccles’ annual awards show.

As an actor, Johns had a role in the 1955 movie Man Fish, which also featured Eric Coverley (husband of folklorist Louise “Miss Lou” Bennett). He was also cast in the 26-minute documentary, It Can Happen To You, one year later.

Johns died in 1966 at age 72. In 2008, he was posthumously inducted into the Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes and Affiliates Hall of Fame.