Junior Braithwaite

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Junior Braithwaite (born April 4, 1949 in Kingston ; † June 2, 1999 ibid; actually Franklin Delano Alexander Braithwaite ) was a Jamaican singer. It got its name from US President Franklin D. Roosevelt .

Braithwaite grew up in the Kingston ghettos . There he met Bob Marley , Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer . With the help of Roy Wilson , Braithwaite's step-brother, and Joe Higgs , he was able to audition for Jamaican producer Coxsone Dodd , where he co- produced their first hit, Simmer Down , with Marley, Tosh, Wailer, Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith as The Wailing Wailers . Braithwaite was only 13 years old at the time and took over the role of first tenor. As a result, Braithwaite sang the main part in the song It Hurts To Be Alone and a few other songs and did some concerts with the Wailers in Jamaica.

In 1965 he emigrated with his family from Jamaica to the USA , whereby he also left the Wailers , who subsequently became world famous through Tosh, Wailer and especially Marley. In America, Braithwaite continued his education in a Catholic high school and then went to the University of Chicago for a medical degree . He continued to sing in smaller local reggae formations in the 1970s when Marley achieved international success with the Wailers.

In 1981, Braithwaite flew back to Jamaica when Marley invited him to a meeting of the "Ur-Wailers". He tried to get support for his music career from Marley. Marley was terminally ill at the time and wanted to make music with the “Ur-Wailers” in the Tuff Gong studios before he died . When Marley died in Miami on the return flight from Germany , Braithwaite stayed with Bunny Wailer and Alvin Patterson, the percussionists of the Wailers at the time , for a while before returning to Chicago. In 1984 Bunny Wailer tried through the "Never Ending Wailers" project to bring the "Ur-Wailers" back together and invited Tosh, Braithwaite, Kelso and Smith to join them; an album was produced, but the reunification never manifested itself, also because Tosh was on tour at the time and became increasingly successful as a solo artist through his collaboration with the Rolling Stones .

Braithwaite tried a few times to start a career as a musician, but failed despite his musical diversity (he could also play guitar , electric bass and keyboard ) because of lack of money. In August 1984 he appeared with Bunny Wailer and Beverley Kelso at Madison Square Garden as a surprise guest. Most recently in 1997 he tried to start his solo career again in Jamaica.

Braithwaite was a believer in Rastafarian teachings. He was shot dead by three men in Kingston in 1999.