Joe Higgs’ contributions as an artiste and mentor will be acknowledged today in ‘Joe Higgs: The Father of Reggae’, which takes place at St Andrew Park.

The event marks what would have been the artiste 86th birthday.

Joseph “Joe” Benjamin Higgs, a Trench Town stalwart who helped develop the careers of The Wailers and Jimmy Cliff, died in 1999 in California at age 59.

The event is staged by Higgs’ family in association with veteran guitarist Earl “Chinna” Smith, whose Inna De Yard band is one of the acts scheduled to perform.

Sangie Davis, Marlon Brown, Kai Wakeling, and Narado Williams are also scheduled to pay homage to Higgs, who rose to prominence during the early 1960s as a member of Higgs and Wilson.

That duo (which also included Roy Wilson) had a big hit in 1960 with Oh Manny Oh, produced by then future Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga. They also recorded There’s A Reward, a song written by Higgs that became his signature.

Wilson died in Florida in 2012.

In the 1970s, Higgs toured with Jimmy Cliff and The Wailers.

He settled in Southern California during the 1980s and became an influential member of that region’s growing reggae community.

In Bob Marley: One Love, the 2024 Paramount Pictures biopic about the reggae king, Higgs is played by Stephen-Rhae Johnson.

— Howard Campbell