Jospeh Abraham Gordon, professionally known as Lord Tanamo, was born October 2nd, 1934, in Kingston, Jamaica. Tanamo’s interest in music began at a young age through an encounter with a local musician, Cecil Lawes, who was playing the rumba box (a marimba-like instrument). During his early teenage years, he performed with Lawes, while singing calypso during the day and ballads at night and began performing in hotels in the 1950’s.

Tanamo started recording music in 1956 for Kingston businessman Stanely Motta, and then went on to record for a backing band which featured artists like Theophilus Beckford and Ernest Ranglin. Tanamo transitioned to the Ska genre during the 1960’s and became a member of the Skatalites, where he went on to record the hits known as “Come Down” and “I’m in the Mood For Ska”. In 1965 Tanamo won the Festival Song Contest with the song “Come Down” and in 1970 recorded a cover of Tony Joe White’s “Rainy Night in Georgia”, which spent seven weeks at number one in Jamaica.

During the mid-1970’s Tanamo moved to Canada where he ended up marrying a local woman and opening a Record shop which sold Jamaican produced records. Although he now resided in Canada, he would still return to Jamaica to record music, and during one of his trips back he recorded the album Calypso Reggae. He also did performances in Toronto like the Legends of Ska concert which he participated in 2002, while also performing with the Skatalites into the 21st century. Unfortunately, in 2008 Tanamo had to stay in a nursing home in Canada after suffering a stroke which left him unable to speak. On April 15th, 2016, Lord Tanamo passed away, however his contribution to the calypso and ska genres continues to live on and will never be forgotten.

Awards

• In 1965 Tanamo won the ‘Festival Song Contest’ with the song “Come Down”