Singer Dennis Malcolm, a fixture on the north coast cabaret scene for many years, died on January 15 at age 71.

His wife Rosalee told the Jamaica Observer that he died at home in Brown’s Town, St Ann.

She said Malcolm had been in ill health for some time after suffering two strokes, but continued to perform sporadically at events and weddings.

Malcolm was born in Kingston and attended Calabar and Excelsior high schools. While working as an insurance salesman during the mid-1970s he began singing in venues such as The Bohemia Club in Kingston, as well as hotels in St Ann and Montego Bay.

By the 1980s Malcolm was a leading artiste in major hotels. His contemporaries on the tourism scene included fellow singers A J Brown and E T Webster.

While working in Montego Bay, he befriended a teenaged bass player named Benjy Myaz.

“I have known Dennis since I was 17 years old and always knew he was one of our greatest vocalists and always a dynamic performer,” said Benjy Myaz in an interview with the Observer. “Dennis discovered my abilities as an arranger and instantly believed I would be good to make his next record.”

That record was a 1985 cover of Brook Benton’s
So Many Ways, which Myaz produced and played bass. It was Malcolm’s best known song.

Malcolm is survived by his wife, six children, five grandchildren, two sisters, and three brothers.