Hortense Ellis
Encyclopedia
Hortense Ellis was a reggae
musician
, and the younger sister
of fellow artist, Alton Ellis
.
Opportunity Hour, then Jamaica's foremost outlet for young undiscovered talent. Her version of Frankie Lymon
's "I'm Not Saying No At All" so impressed both audience and panel that she was invited back the following week. Ellis went on to enter many more competitions and showcases and she reached six semi-finals and four finals. In 1964 she was awarded a silver cup as Jamaica's Best Female Vocalist and went on to repeat this feat five years later.
During the 1960s, Ellis toured Jamaica with Byron Lee
and The Dragonaires and had begun recording with some of the island's top producers such as Ken Lack
("I Shall Sing", "Hell And Sorrow" and "Brown Girl In The Ring"), Coxsone Dodd
("Twelve Minutes To Go"), "Ill Come Softly") and Duke Reid
.
Alton Ellis was also recording with Dodd at this time and the family connection was exploited by Dodd who produced "female" adaptions of some of Alton's hits (for Hortense to record) including "Why Do Birds" and "I'm Just A Guy". Dodd also paired Alton and Hortense in a run of duets such as "I'm In Love" and "Easy Squeeze".
The siblings toured Canada
in 1970 but the following year, Ellis was back in Jamaica where she married Mikey "Junior" Saunders with whom she had five children in quick succession. Although her live performances suffered as a result, she remained busy in the studio. Recording under the name Mahalia Saunders for producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, she recorded several sides including "Right On The Tip Of My Tongue" and "Piece Of My Heart".
Ellis' success came in the late 1970s with a song recorded for Gussie Clarke
. "Unexpected Places" was a big hit in Jamaica and also in Britain where it appeared on the Hawkeye label
.
For producer Bunny "Striker" Lee
, Ellis became Queen Tiney for her "Down Town Ting" - an "answer" record to Althea and Donna's big hit "Uptown Top Ranking", which had itself been based on the rhythm of Alton's big hit "I'm Still In Love With You".
Around this time, Ellis recut many of her Coxsone/Studio One sides with Soul Syndicate
, The Aggrovators
and the up and coming team of Sly Dunbar
and Robbie Shakespeare. The rise of the Lovers Rock genre in the late seventies and early eighties led to Ellis cutting cover version of several popular soul
classics including "Down the Aisle" (Patti Labelle
) and "Young Hearts Run Free
" (Candi Staton
). Following her divorce from Mikey Saunders, Ellis spent much of the eighties living in New York
and Miami. On returning to Jamaica in 1989, she began suffering health problems, but managed to carry on with occasional local live performances. She recovered sufficiently to make a private visit to New York in the summer of 1999, and then to Miami the following year, where ill health finally caught up with her.
Despite a worsening condition and the pleadings of her daughter, Sandra Saunders, to seek immediate treatment there in Miami, Ellis insisted on returning to her beloved Jamaica where she was hospitalised almost immediately, seriously ill and in considerable pain.
Hortense Ellis died in her sleep in a Kingston hospital on 18 October 2000 from a stomach infection.
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, and the younger sister
Sibling
Siblings are people who share at least one parent. A male sibling is called a brother; and a female sibling is called a sister. In most societies throughout the world, siblings usually grow up together and spend a good deal of their childhood socializing with one another...
of fellow artist, Alton Ellis
Alton Ellis
Alton Nehemiah Ellis, OD, was a Jamaican musician best known as one of the innovators of rocksteady music and was often referred to as the "Godfather of Rocksteady". In 2006, he was inducted into the International Reggae And World Music Awards Hall Of Fame.-Biography:Ellis was born in 1938 and...
.
Biography
Her father worked on the railways while her mother ran a fruit stall. She was 18 years old when she appeared on the Vere JohnsVere Johns
Vere Everette Johns was a Jamaican journalist, impresario, radio personality, and actor, who helped to launch the careers of many Jamaican musicians through his popular talent contests.-Biography:...
Opportunity Hour, then Jamaica's foremost outlet for young undiscovered talent. Her version of Frankie Lymon
Frankie Lymon
Franklin Joseph "Frankie" Lymon was an American rock and roll/rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, best known as the boy soprano lead singer of a New York City-based early rock and roll group, The Teenagers. The group was composed of five boys, all in their early to mid teens...
's "I'm Not Saying No At All" so impressed both audience and panel that she was invited back the following week. Ellis went on to enter many more competitions and showcases and she reached six semi-finals and four finals. In 1964 she was awarded a silver cup as Jamaica's Best Female Vocalist and went on to repeat this feat five years later.
During the 1960s, Ellis toured Jamaica with Byron Lee
Byron Lee
Byron Lee OD, OJ was a musician, record producer, and entrepreneur, best known for his work as leader of Byron Lee and the Dragonaires.-Biography:Lee was born in Christiana in Manchester Parish to an Afro-Jamaican mother and a Chinese father Byron Lee OD, OJ (born Byron Aloysius St. Elmo Lee, 27...
and The Dragonaires and had begun recording with some of the island's top producers such as Ken Lack
Ken Lack
Ken Lack was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae record producer active in the latter half of the 1960s, who also ran the Caltone and JonTom record labels.-Career:...
("I Shall Sing", "Hell And Sorrow" and "Brown Girl In The Ring"), Coxsone Dodd
Coxsone Dodd
Clement Seymour "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, CD was a Jamaican record producer who was influential in the development of ska and reggae in the 1950s, 1960s and beyond...
("Twelve Minutes To Go"), "Ill Come Softly") and Duke Reid
Duke Reid
Treasure Isle re-directs here. For the game, see Treasure Isle .Arthur "Duke" Reid, CD was a Jamaican record producer, DJ and label owner....
.
Alton Ellis was also recording with Dodd at this time and the family connection was exploited by Dodd who produced "female" adaptions of some of Alton's hits (for Hortense to record) including "Why Do Birds" and "I'm Just A Guy". Dodd also paired Alton and Hortense in a run of duets such as "I'm In Love" and "Easy Squeeze".
The siblings toured Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1970 but the following year, Ellis was back in Jamaica where she married Mikey "Junior" Saunders with whom she had five children in quick succession. Although her live performances suffered as a result, she remained busy in the studio. Recording under the name Mahalia Saunders for producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, she recorded several sides including "Right On The Tip Of My Tongue" and "Piece Of My Heart".
Ellis' success came in the late 1970s with a song recorded for Gussie Clarke
Gussie Clarke
Augustus "Gussie" Clarke , is a reggae producer who worked with some of the top Jamaican reggae artists in the 1970s and later set up his own Music Works studio.-Career:...
. "Unexpected Places" was a big hit in Jamaica and also in Britain where it appeared on the Hawkeye label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
.
For producer Bunny "Striker" Lee
Bunny Lee
Edward O'Sullivan Lee, better known as Bunny "Striker" Lee is a prominent, prolific and successful record producer best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...
, Ellis became Queen Tiney for her "Down Town Ting" - an "answer" record to Althea and Donna's big hit "Uptown Top Ranking", which had itself been based on the rhythm of Alton's big hit "I'm Still In Love With You".
Around this time, Ellis recut many of her Coxsone/Studio One sides with Soul Syndicate
Soul Syndicate
Soul Syndicate, originally called the Rhythm Raiders, were one of the top reggae session bands in Jamaica from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s.-History:...
, The Aggrovators
The Aggrovators
The Aggrovators were a dub/reggae backing band in the 1970s & 1980s, and one of the main session bands of producer, Bunny Lee. The line-up varied, with Lee using the name for whichever set of musicians he was using at any time. The band's name derived from the record shop that Lee had run in the...
and the up and coming team of Sly Dunbar
Sly Dunbar
Lowell "Sly" Fillmore Dunbar is a drummer.-Biography:Dunbar, whose nickname was reportedly given for his passion for Sly & the Family Stone, launched his musical career while still in his adolescence, playing with a local group, The Yardbrooms, at the age of fifteen...
and Robbie Shakespeare. The rise of the Lovers Rock genre in the late seventies and early eighties led to Ellis cutting cover version of several popular soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
classics including "Down the Aisle" (Patti Labelle
Patti LaBelle
Patricia Louise Holte-Edwards , better known under the stage name, Patti LaBelle, is a Grammy Award winning American singer, author and actress who has spent over 50 years in the music industry...
) and "Young Hearts Run Free
Young Hearts Run Free
"Young Hearts Run Free" is a disco song by American soul singer Candi Staton. Released in 1976 from the album of the same title, it spent a week at number one on the Hot Soul Singles chart. It also peaked at number twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Along with the tracks: "Run To Me"...
" (Candi Staton
Candi Staton
Candi Staton is an American soul and gospel singer, best known for her 1970 remake of Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" and her 1976 disco hit "Young Hearts Run Free". In 2007, Staton was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame.-Early years:...
). Following her divorce from Mikey Saunders, Ellis spent much of the eighties living in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Miami. On returning to Jamaica in 1989, she began suffering health problems, but managed to carry on with occasional local live performances. She recovered sufficiently to make a private visit to New York in the summer of 1999, and then to Miami the following year, where ill health finally caught up with her.
Despite a worsening condition and the pleadings of her daughter, Sandra Saunders, to seek immediate treatment there in Miami, Ellis insisted on returning to her beloved Jamaica where she was hospitalised almost immediately, seriously ill and in considerable pain.
Hortense Ellis died in her sleep in a Kingston hospital on 18 October 2000 from a stomach infection.