Gussie Clark

Biography

Augustus Clarke, c.1953, Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies. Clarke started in the reggae business by cutting dub plates. He grew up alongside reggae DJ Big Youth, and Clarke was an early pioneer of the new DJ style. His first production was U-Roy’s ‘The Higher The Mountain’ in 1972, which became an instant classic. His initial album productions, Big Youth’s Screaming Target and I. Roy’s Presenting, are among the best DJ albums of all time. Clarke was not one to push his own name at the expense of his acts, however, and unlike many of his contemporaries, he preferred a low-key, crafted approach, reflected in the name of his ‘house band’, Simplicity People. During the 70s he recorded many of the greatest names in reggae, including Augustus Pablo, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs and Leroy Smart, and his Gussie and Puppy labels became synonymous with high-quality reggae. Clarke kept production almost as a sideline to his main business of...

Read the Full Biography of Gussie Clark