{"id":2,"date":"2017-06-08T20:42:17","date_gmt":"2017-06-08T20:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/normafraser.com\/\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2021-06-17T18:47:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T18:47:21","slug":"bio","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/normafraser.net\/index.php\/bio\/","title":{"rendered":"Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Legend – Norma Fraser<\/h3>\n

Being introduced by Rita Marley to her son Ziggy as a \u201clegend\u201d is akin to knighthood, sainthood, a coronation. But it is completely comprehensible that such a singer should receive such an honor when it was she, Norma Fraser, who taught Rita Marley how to sing in the first place, counseled her to marry Bob, and went on to lead the life of not only a virtuoso vocalist, but a centered, spiritual, strong woman as well.<\/p>\n

Norma Fraser was born in St. Andrews in Jamaica and attended Merle Grove High School. Although she loved music as a child, she never realized she had any talent, nor aspired to. \u201cMy father could sight read. He could look at a musical piece and just sing the notes, but I had no musical talent at all. None. But I loved music. I grew up in St. Andrews in the suburbs of Kingston and we used to have a lot of American artists who would come do concerts and my parents would give me money to go to matinees because kids would go to matinees at the Carib Theatre, Ward Theatre. I was there all the time, just to see them because I love music and I would meet a lot of them too\u2014Sam Cooke and his wife, Paul Anka. I loved all types of music and we just go to listen. I had no aspirations really of becoming a singer,\u201d she says. In fact, like the rest of her family, Norma first became a school teacher. But she realized it wasn\u2019t her calling as she turned to her passion, music.<\/p>\n

Norma remembers the days of the sound systems, although she says they typically attracted a bit of a rougher crowd for a young girl and so she favored attending the theater and club shows instead, but still the sound systems influenced her. \u201cThe sound systems were huge. Everywhere you went you heard what was coming out of these studios. My parents were sophisticated. In my family there were three girls and two boys and I\u2019m the fourth one. My mom and dad are educators, which is why education in our family was so paramount. Oh yes, god yes, great educators. The Frasers are teachers. So I wasn\u2019t allowed to go to the sound systems but my brother had a dance once at one of our homes and he had one of the best sound systems come to play. He knew nothing about the downtown language or the money or anything and here I am, I wasn\u2019t even singing then, and I said, \u2018Let me stand by the gate,\u2019 and he didn\u2019t want me to stand at the gate and I had a feeling they would steal from him because here\u2019s this educated buy but he knows nothing about that kind of life. So I stay at the gate but they still rip him off and took all the money and he didn\u2019t do it again. But I learned a lot about the sound system because they play some good music at my brother\u2019s dance. The sound system brought all the records and the top records. And the sound system that had the best records, he\u2019s the one that had the best following,\u201d says Fraser.<\/p>\n

\"\"But Norma\u2019s involvement in music went from spectator to participant when she realized that the music was not just up there on the stages of the theaters, but it was within her as well. She says, \u201cOne day I was in the shower and I said, \u2018Well, let\u2019s see if I can sing,\u2019 and I just opened my mouth and something came out and I said, \u2018Wow man! I can sing! I can sing!\u2019 Just like that. It was weird!\u201d So Norma formed a band, a small group of fellow artists, and they began to practice and perform to cut their chops. \u201cWe had this little group. There were three of us, Dwight Pinkney who was a great guitar player and another guy and they called him Weedy Head. That was like a nickname,\u201d she says. Pinkney went on to become a successful guitar player with his bands The Sharks, Zap Pow, and Roots Radics. He performed backup for The Wailers on their song \u201cPut It On\u201d and artists such as Culture, Gregory Isaacs, Yellowman, Bunny Wailer, and the Itals. Weedy Head\u2019s real identity is not known. \u201cWe were Catholics and we went to the CYO, the Catholic Youth Organization and we formed our group. So we came up with this song, \u2018Money Can\u2019t Buy Love,\u2019 and so we were all singing, practicing, and Dwight said, \u2018Let\u2019s go and audition with Roland Alphonso,\u2019 and Roland Alphonso took me and said, \u2018I want her, she has good ears. You guys need to go plant yam or something, enough for you,\u2019 and I think Dwight took it to heart and he practice, practice, practice so much he became an accomplished musician. I started to sing with Roland\u2019s group. It was a trio. That\u2019s the way it started,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"\"The first song that Norma Fraser recorded was a tune called \u201cWe\u2019ll Be Lovers,\u201d a duet with Lord Creator, in 1961. The song was an instant hit and stayed on the Jamaican charts for over a year. She also recorded a tune with Lord Creator called \u201cCome On Baby,\u201d and both songs were recorded for Vincent Chin on the Randy\u2019s label. But all of Norma Fraser\u2019s subsequent songs were recorded at Studio One for Coxsone Dodd. It is extremely unusual during the early 1960s for an artist to record so exclusively for only one producer. Typically musicians and vocalists would move from studio to studio to seek work\u2014Coxsone Dodd, Duke Reid, Prince Buster, Leslie Kong, Justin Yap, Vincent Chin\u2014most artists made the rounds. There were no contracts, and if there were, they were never honored. But Norma Fraser recorded only for Coxsone Dodd and she says he was good for her career. \u201cCoxsone Dodd was extremely powerful, but he was very unassuming. But I think that was a ploy so you would think he is in your corner, he is going to take care of you. \u2018I\u2019m here for you, you don\u2019t have to ask me for money now, you know I\u2019ll take care of you, just come and do a recording now and I\u2019ll take care of you.\u2019 He didn\u2019t act very authoritative, not at all. He had a very easy way about him. He would use the word \u2018Jackson.\u201d He call everybody \u2018Jackson.\u2019 If he say Jackson he would disarm you. \u2018Oh man, how you doing Jackson?\u2019 He\u2019d call you and say come on in to the studio and do some work and after you finish he\u2019d say, \u2018Why don\u2019t you do two more?\u2019 and he\u2019s so pleasing that you just go in and do two more. He sees \u2018ching-a-ling!\u2019 I was very selective and loyal, I\u2019m that kind of person. The only person I recorded for outside of Coxsone was Randy\u2019s with Lord Creator and then I went to Coxsone. I didn\u2019t go all over the place like a lot of these artists. Very loyal. Super loyal. A lot of these guys, even girls, record for everybody, and they got nothing,\u201d says Fraser.<\/p>\n

Studio One was the epicenter of the music industry during the 1960s and it was here that she first met Bob Marley and Rita Anderson becoming close friends to them both. In an interview with journalist Vanessa Salvia of the Eugene Weekly, Fraser told her memories of teaching Rita to sing. \u201cRita was not a singer but would show up at the studio grounds often. She asked me to teach her how to sing and I did. She then latched on to Bob Marley and would do some backup ooohs behind them,\u201d she said. Fraser also told a reporter about a time that Rita consoled her about marrying Bob. \u201cRita Marley asked me if she should marry Bob and I told her \u2018Yes, yes.\u2019 Rita and myself were friends before I met Bob. She would always hang out at Studio One hoping to get a break but she could not sing at the time. I taught Rita how to sing. She now refers to me as the \u2018legend.\u2019\u201d She and Rita and Bob continued a strong relationship over the decades.<\/p>\n

At Studio One, Norma composed many of her own songs. The process of creation was most important to Norma, not the music industry, but she quickly learned the na\u00efve can suffer for their art, and she grew wise through experience. \u201cI wrote when I was with Studio One. It was natural for me. I didn\u2019t really understand that music was a business. Ernest Ranglin arranged some songs for me, I wrote them and he took them to England, they made money. I didn\u2019t even know anything about that, I just wrote them. I didn\u2019t understand that side, that music was a business. You\u2019re not just a performer, you need to be cognizant that there\u2019s a business side to this, or economics,\u201d Fraser says.<\/p>\n

\"\"She performed at the Carib Theatre, Ward Theatre, State Theatre, Majestic Theatre, the Copa, the Ocean View Club in Montego Bay and she worked with such artists as Ken Boothe, Derrick Harriott, Hortense Ellis, Hopeton Lewis, Desmond Dekker, Delroy Wilson, The Claredonians, The Soul Brothers, Roland Alphonso and another member of the future Skatalites, Jackie Mittoo, who was known for auditioning musicians. She says, \u201cJackie Mittoo was really the motivating factor, the driving force, and I would just come in and he\u2019d say \u2018Sing,\u2019 and he would just arrange at the same time. Awesome. Just genius, just arranging. We didn\u2019t do no rehearsals, those guys were just pros.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says that the musicians in the studio were more than just professional\u2014they were polite to her and never made her feel uncomfortable. They treated her like a professional as well. \u201cAll the musicians were respectful to me because of the way I carried myself and they know that I\u2019m from uptown. I\u2019m educated, I\u2019m respected. With the other girls they wouldn\u2019t do that. But with me they didn\u2019t dare. Around me they didn\u2019t even curse. Class is embedded in that culture. I remember when I had shows and Roland would pick me up and when he took me home he\u2019d say, \u2018We need to go because I told Mrs. Fraser I\u2019d have you home at a certain time,\u2019 and he\u2019d take me back home,\u201d Fraser says.<\/p>\n

\"\"Spending time with downtown artists in the downtown studios may have ruffled a few feathers in Norma\u2019s family, but she stayed true to herself because she not only had a passion for the music, but for the culture and the people. \u201cJamaica, they\u2019re so classist. If you\u2019re from this family you have to behave a certain way and you better not deviate from that norm. If you live uptown you\u2019re educated but I was the one who would bring people home from down in the streets because I\u2019ve always loved the underdog, always,\u201d she says. These themes of life and hope made it into Norma\u2019s songs that she wrote. \u201cHope and love and the human condition. These are things out there that may pose a challenge to us, for us, but together we can solve it together, as a group, the people who are all together on this planet here. We are all one. We are all here to solve problems and if we don\u2019t, we die together. You against me, me against you? No, no, no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norma Fraser took these messages of love and hope and unity to the stages where she performed and the studios where she recorded. Sure she recorded her takes on a number of other people\u2019s compositions, like Aretha Franklin\u2019s Respect, and Cat Steven\u2019s The First Cut is the Deepest, but she also performed her own compositions around the island with performers of every ilk. \u201cJohnson\u2019s Drive-In was big. I performed there a bit. I was with a bund of bands. I was with The Cavaliers, The Sheiks, and when I was with The Cavaliers it was a line-up of all of The Skatalites\u2014Jackie Mittoo, Lloyd Spence, Lyn Taitt, Lloyd Knibb, Lester Sterling, Headley Bennett, Bobby Gaynair, the best, the best, and here I am in the front. And we performed in the best clubs, like Club Havana, Jamaica\u2019s Latin Quarter, and I perform with Desmond Dekker. I did a song with Lloyd Brynner called Malika, a duet. He was a very very close friend from Trinidad. He would come to Jamaica and go to the studio and we would perform in Montego Bay. I was huge at one time. Big productions,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"\"When Fraser went to Montego Bay she secured a residency at one of the most prestigious clubs in the tourist hot spot, Club 35. This club opened in Montego Bay on December 21, 1963 and was a membership club that also patronized tourists. It was a supper club (a dining establishment with a social club) that also featured other types of entertainment including magicians. Lord Brynner frequently produced calypso shows at Club 35. Fraser says she enjoyed her time at Club 35 and was fortunate to get the work. \u201cI got a fantastic gig there when I was very young. I was the featured vocalist. It was a very prestigious clubs. They were mostly tourist, suit and tie,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Fraser was never satisfied being relegated to the back of the band when singing, but that was a tough gig to find in those days. \u201cThere weren\u2019t too many women,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t realize it at the time, didn\u2019t categorized it like that or label it that way. There were just a lot of men really.\u201d A Daily Gleaner Merry-Go-Round article dated September 15, 1967 notes Fraser\u2019s success against the backdrop of the male-dominated industry.<\/p>\n

Female vocalists are now quite scarce on the local pop scene. Ever since it became fashionable for men to sing falsetto accompaniment to pop tunes, the girls have practically disappeared from the show scene. When you do find a girl as part of a group, she’s usually just making one more of the many \u2018ooh\u2019 and \u2018baybee\u2019 sounds which seem necessary for most tunes. For this reason it has been interesting to find a new record out which features a Jamaican girl. She\u2019s Norma Fraser. . . . Norma sings everything \u2014 jazz, pop, ballads and even calypsos. But she finds the field for women vocalists in Jamaica is very limited. On the pop scene, it is group stuff which the fans are buying and the successful groups are mainly all-male. But, according to Norma, she’s not disheartened. In her travels, she has established contacts which should bring return engagements in various places. For the home scene, she would like to link up with a good band. She thinks show business, with all its uncertainty, beats school teaching any day.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"When the ska and rocksteady era changed over to reggae, Norma sang for some of the artists who have now become legendary. But it wasn\u2019t her performances that she remembers from this time as much as the friendships she made which are still a critical part of her spirit. In 1966 she performed with The Wailers in 1967 on \u201cI Stand Predominant,\u201d on Peter Tosh\u2019s \u201cRasta Shake Them Up.\u201d But the end of the \u201860s signaled an end to Norma\u2019s musical career in Jamaica as she left the country, disenfranchised with the direction of the industry. Even though Bob Marley asked her to join his group, she declined. She moved to the United States in 1970 and virtually left the entertainment business altogether, except for performing for Bella Abzug, a congresswoman from New York, during her campaign for election. Abzug was instrumental in the support of gay rights and while in Congress she introduced the very first national gay rights bill, the Equality Act of 1974. She co-authored the bill with fellow congressman Ed Koch who went on to become mayor of New York. Abzug once said, \u201cI’ve been described as a tough and noisy woman, a prizefighter, a man-hater, you name it. They call me Battling Bella.\u201d<\/p>\n

As much as Fraser may have been an instrument of social equality herself, standing tall among the men of her day, she is not a fighter, not one to battle in that sense of the word. Instead she is a collaborator, a comrade, a friend. She is still friends with Rita Marley today and remembers Bob Marley fondly. \u201cBob and I were alike, very giving and sharing. We\u2019d give you the shirt off our back. If you want it, you can have it. He was a good person. There are two things I value, and that\u2019s honesty and integrity, no matter who you are. You have those two things and you\u2019re my friend for life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In America, Norma returned to her roots in more than one way. First, she got her master degree in gerontology and psychotherapy. Education was always important to the Fraser family. Second, after two decades away, she came back to music. In the 1990s she supported Inner Circle and Yellowman on their tours and she went on a solo tour to Colorado and Texas. She still regularly performs on the west coast and she resides in Oregon. She has released a number of solo albums in recent years including \u201cGet Up Stand Up,\u201d \u201cOne More Chance,\u201d \u201cC\u2019mon Baby,\u201d and \u201cHot Again\u201d on her own label, Gyftt Records. She says, \u201cI’m getting back to my music now because over the past years, so many people have come up to me to tell me how the music has bettered their lives. They’ve encouraged me to come back. I\u2019m more mature now and truly understand how music can bring joy to people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Legend – Norma Fraser Being introduced by Rita Marley to her son Ziggy as a \u201clegend\u201d is akin to knighthood, sainthood, a coronation. But it is completely comprehensible that such a singer should receive such an honor when it was she, Norma Fraser, who taught Rita Marley how to\u2026<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/normafraser.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/normafraser.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/normafraser.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/normafraser.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/normafraser.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/normafraser.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":505,"href":"https:\/\/normafraser.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/normafraser.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}