Edna Manley College honour for Dean Fraser

Saxophonist Dean Fraser and producer Stephen Stewart were among the seven persons honoured at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts' graduation exercise on the weekend.

Both were awarded the Bachelor of Music in Performance, Contemporary Music Studies, Honoris Causa, for their continued contribution to Jamaica's cultural development in music and for producing a body of work that creates a fertile soil for scholarship, research and development.

Fraser, who is also a composer, arranger and producer, was cited as a mentor artiste whose responsible attitude has made him one of the most respected and professional practitioners in the local and foreign music industry.

Stewart, a musician, producer, engineer, songwriter, arranger, and audio engineering tutor, was lauded as one of Jamaica's finest engineers. He has received several awards and recognition throughout his career, including the 1992 and 2021 Grammy Awards. The award in 1992 was for the Third World album Committed. Stewart wrote and produced the title song. The second Grammy was for the Toots and the Maytals' album, Got to Be Tough.

Stewart was recently invited to serve as a voting member of the Recording Academy for the Grammy Awards.

College orator Dr Amina Blackwood Meeks, who read the citations, noted that Fraser exhaustively criss-crosses the world as a cultural ambassador.

"Along the way to a long productive, respectable career, Dean's presence enriches thousands of recordings, including Lauryn Hill's The Miss Educating of Lauryn Hill, and Luciano's New Day, both Grammy-nominated and played on the first 16 Jamaican Grammy albums."

A very emotional Stewart, who replied on behalf of the honourees, lauded his mother, the late Bishop Carmen Stewart, who, although serving in a denomination which at the time might have frowned upon the arts as diabolical and unviable as a career, allowed him the freedom to pursue his dream and aspiration.

Lifetime Achievement Awards were also presented to present and past members of the Edna Manley College, Barbara Requa, Hope Brooks, Kingsley Ibo Cooper, Eugene Williams and Derrick Stewart.