Morgan - File

SKA GIANT Derrick Morgan is the focus of a documentary by American disc jockey Generoso Fierro. The Massachusetts-based Fierro told the Boston Globe newspaper last week that the film may be released in 2009.

Fierro said he has been a big fan of ska since he was 12 years old and has already done a similar film on Trinidadian guitarist Lynn Taitt, a key figure in ska and rocksteady.

He has also developed a reputation as an authority on popular performers in Jamaica from the 1960s, such as the Barbadian singer Jackie Opel.

'Preserving history'

"The goal is preserving history," said the 39-year-old Fierro. "It's probably the only chance I'll ever get to see these guys again."

Fierro said he flew Morgan to Cambride, Massachusetts, in June to perform at the Middle East Club before hundreds of diehard ska fans.

The performance was filmed and will be made into the documentary.

Fierro said he has plans to submit the finished product to film festivals and will offer Morgan the option to sell it himself.

The Clarendon-born Morgan was one of the first stars of Jamaican popular music. Partially blind, he made a series of hit songs that included Lover Boy, Don't Call Me Daddy, Blazing Fire and Be Still.

Parts of the recording

Morgan also recorded the patriotic Forward March which celebrated Jamaica's Independence from Great Britain in 1962.

He ran out of hit records when rocksteady and reggae took over the scene in the mid and late 1960s, but Morgan maintained a strong following among British Skinheads and toured Europe regularly throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

In the 1990s when there was a local resurgence in music from the 1960s, Morgan became a regular on oldies shows like Heineken Startime.

The Morgan musical heritage continues through his daughter, cultural singer Queen Ifrica who has had hit songs with Below The Waist and Daddy Don't Touch Me.