TWO veteran musicians are among the eight Jamaicans to be awarded Musgrave medals at a ceremony planned for the Institute of Jamaica’s (IOJ) located in downtown Kingston on October 16.
Producer/musician Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and guitarist Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith will be presented the Gold and Silver Musgrave medals, respectively.
  Top: Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith Bottom: Lee “Scratch” Perry
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The Musgrave Award is one of the oldest awards of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. Awarded for the first time in 1897, the Musgrave Medal was introduced as a memorial to Sir Anthony Musgrave, who in his tenure as governor of Jamaica founded the Institute of Jamaica in 1879.
According to a release from the IOJ, a total of eight medals will be presented to the 2013 awardees for their achievements in the literary, scientific, and artistic fields. The awards comprise two gold, four silver and two bronze.
Perry, 77, is arguably reggae’s greatest producer. He is responsible for directing the music’s top artists on some of their biggest hit songs.
They include The Wailers (Mr Brown, Small Axe), Junior Murvin (Police And Thieves), Max Romeo (War Ina Babylon) and Junior Byles (Curly Locks, Beat Down Babylon).
He also worked with a number of European and American bands including The Clash and the Beastie Boys.
Guitarist Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith, best known for his work with the Soul Syndicate band, has played an integral role in reggae music since its embryonic stages in the early 1970s. He remains in demand even as Jamaican popular music made the digital transition, leaving some of his contemporaries by the wayside.
Other recipients are social historian Prof Franklin Knight (gold); author Marlon James, author/painter Franklin Bernal, and climate change expert Prof Michael Taylor (silver); and poet/writer Dr Pamela Mordecai and natural products researcher Dr Trevor Yee will be presented with Bronze Musgrave Medals.
