Biography

One of reggae's most enduring cult figures, Bim Sherman was also among the most highly regarded singers of his generation, with his sweet, wistful, and unmistakable voice acclaimed by scholars as one of the purest ever to emerge from the Jamaican music scene. Born in 1950, he first attracted notice with his 1974 debut single, "One Hundred Years in Babylon"; the Kingston studio circuit soon beckoned, but Sherman instead went his own way, refusing to perform any material except songs that he wrote himself. As a result, he remained under-recorded throughout his career, a predicament rare in the annals of reggae history; by 1976 he was even forced to form his own labels, Scorpio and Red Sea, selling his singles on the streets of Kingston. Self-released efforts like "Golden Locks" and "My Whole World" earned Sherman a small but devoted following, and in 1978 the British label Tribesman Records compiled his early work on the LP Love Forever (later remastered and reissued as Love Forever: The Classic Jamaican Recordings). He relocated to England in the 1980s, there joining the On-U Sound stable headed by producer Adrian Sherwood; with Sherwood at the helm, in 1982 Sherman recorded the acclaimed Across the Red Sea before forming another self-owned label, Century, to release an LP of the same name. Albums including Crazy World and Haunting Ground followed, but he did not break through to international audiences until the release of his 1996 LP Miracle, an acoustic reunion with Sherwood that also included contributions from drum'n'bass guru Talvin Singh. Among the most renowned reggae releases of the year, it inspired 1997's It Must Be a Dream, a collection of remixes. Rub-A-Dub followed in the spring of 2000. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi