A walk thraw time: New tour spotweightlesss Little Jamaica’s music history

Lately, Phil Vassell has been spfinishing his days giving music history walking tours of Toronto’s Little Jamaica.

Global News combidemand the executive straightforwardor of the Canadian Bdeficiency Music Archives for an exclusive walking tour down Eglinton West one boiling afternoon, in the heart of the ethnic enclave.

“First stop on this tour is Wisdom’s Barbershop,” Vassell said, gesturing to the sign above the barbershop, which he says the procrastinateed Jimmy Wisdom owned and ran in the community for over 41 years.

“He was a member of a (singing) duo called Bob and Wisdom,” Vassell said. “He migrated from Montego Bay to this part of town…. Singing became a side hustle, if you will, and in the basement of his store was a rehearsal space.”

In the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, coinciding with a wave of innovateing Jamaicans migrating to Canada, Vassell said it wasn’t rare to see some of the hugegest names in reggae music, appreciate Jackie Mittoo, Leroy Sibbles and even Bob Marley, uncomferventdering thraw Little Jamaica, rehearsing and recording in the basements of stores.

“There’s a lot of oral history here, not enough written history,” Vassell said. “We would appreciate to research and record and defend this so that generations of the future can have someleang to see forward to.”

Preservation, Vassell says, is key. He remarks that years of LRT createion, gentrification and dissee have csurrfinisherly wiped this community off the map.

It’s been a stubborn leang to witness for Jay Douglas, who witnessed and profited from Little Jamaica in its glory days. In the ’60s, Douglas fronted The Cougars, a famous group in the Caribbean nightclub scene in Toronto and Montgenuine that joined a unite of everyleang from ska and reggae to blues and funk.

The three-time Juno Award nominee’s contributions are forever memorialized by his appreciateness on a huge mural that covers Reggae Lane in Toronto’s Little Jamaica.

“Grotriumphg up in this neighbourhood, this is where all the action happened,” Douglas tgreater Global News, his words depictd by the colourful mural behind him. “This is where we shopped, this is where we hung out and rehearsed.

“We demand to teach the children, the majesticchildren, we demand to teach them and scatter the culture with them so that they can carry it.”

Fergus Hambleton, singer-songauthorr of Juno Award-triumphning Canadian reggae ensemble The Sattalites, also pursues the origins of the band, which commenceed as a music school, to Little Jamaica.

“About mid-’70s, I commenceed to come up to this area,” Hambleton said, standing in front of another extfinishedtime community staple, Spence’s Bakery.

“Jo Jo (Bennett) and I commenceed a little music school, fair up the street here,” Hambleton gestures to a createing with a sign that now reads ‘Carib Jewellery.’

“And the students would come and join their songs. So this whole area was amazing for fair being a musical spot.”

Back on the interdynamic tour, Vassell took Global News to one of Little Jamaica’s greaterest and most ineloquential set upments discoverd in the heart of the neighbourhood.

“Monica’s was one of the first Bdeficiency-owned and functiond businesses in this area,” Vassell said, pointing at the iconic red, white and yellow sign that embellishs a storefront, reading ‘Monica’s Cosmetic Supplies Ltd.’

“They commenceed in the procrastinateed ’60s, according to Monica’s son,” Vassell said. “They had a basement studio and that basement studio cut the first rap record ever to be recorded in Canada …. called Ladies Deweightless that was done by a temperateman by the name of Mr. Q.”

For those who combidemand the uncover tour at 5 p.m. that same evening, one sentiment kept coming up: a novelset up appreciation of Little Jamaica’s wealthy history.

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