RESPECTED HISTORIAN AND MUSICOLOGIST GARTH “G WHITE” WHITE, DIES AT 77!

Respected historian and musicologist Garth “G White” White died on September 4 at the University Hospital of the West Indies.

He was 77 years old.

He said White had been ill in recent years, losing his right leg to diabetes in 2018.

“He was very affable, soft-spoken, had a wide knowledge base. He was always willing to share his knowledge from he was a boy and, because of that, people gravitate around him,” said Small.

He won a place to Jamaica College (JC) in 1958 as a Code Scholar (a student who was first in their parish pre-Common Entrance Exams) and made his mark in eight years at that institution. While there he was a member of the Manning Cup football team, a hurdler at Boys’ Championships, a member of the choir, and leader of the Cadet Corps. He notably led the band that welcomed Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I to JC in April 1966.

“He was the first person to write about the rude bwoy phenomenon and ska music culture. Garth had a deep understanding of people outside the working class,” said Small.

White wrote voluminously about Jamaican music, including the 1982 book, The Development of Jamaican Popular Music With Special Reference to the Music of Bob Marley: A Bibliography.

In the 1970s he was a member of the Ethiopian World Federation, which became the Twelve Tribes of Israel; and the Workers Liberation League, a precursor to the Workers Party of Jamaica.

Minister of Culture and Entertainment Olivia Grange, in expressing regret at his passing, said White was “like an encyclopedia that I could always consult on matters related to Jamaican music; he was so knowledgeable”.