ORANGE COUNTY PREVIEW : Mentor of Reggae Legends Seeks Long-Delayed Fame

There is too much affirmation, warmth and spirituality in Joe Higgs’ reggae music to warrant mentioning him in the same sentence as Ebenezer Scrooge.

However, the Jamaican singer and the Dickensian grinch do have one problem in common: a hard time shaking free from Marley’s ghost.

In “A Christmas Carol,” Jacob Marley’s baleful spirit returns to help teach Scrooge the error of his coldhearted ways. In reggae lore, the story is much sunnier: Joe Higgs was the musician who taught the basics of singing, songwriting and harmony to a teen-age Bob Marley and the other founding members of the Wailers.

But Higgs said he has come to be known mainly as a footnote to Marley’s chapter in reggae history, and it’s almost enough to make him utter a “Bah! Humbug!”

In a recent phone interview from his home in Los Angeles, Higgs made it clear that he wants to be recognized as a significant recording artist and performer in his own right. Spinning tales of how he coached the fledgling Wailers at his home in Kingston’s Trench Town is obviously not a favorite pastime for Higgs, who plays tonight at Club Postnuclear in Laguna Beach.

“What I’ve contributed in the music business is not recognized (apart from) Marley,” Higgs said. “Most Jamaicans know it’s not so. I was a name and an entity on my own before the Wailers.”

Working his way up through amateur talent shows, Higgs established himself as a Jamaican hit-maker in the late 1950s--which is why Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston, the original Wailers, were eager to have his tutelage in the early ‘60s.

Higgs said a mutual friend suggested that Marley would be worth his attention.

“They didn’t have a lot of (ability)” at the start, Higgs said. “It took more than 1 year to develop the sound I wanted to get from them. If I wanted to be a Wailer, I would have originally been one. I taught them to play music, and I left them when I thought they were good enough.”

The Wailers went on to lead reggae’s breakout from Jamaica, starting with the release of their first Island Records album in 1973. Jimmy Cliff, Toots & the Maytals and others soon followed.

But Higgs played only a supporting role in that wave, joining the Wailers on their first U.S. tour when Livingston suddenly left the band, and also forming a touring band to support Cliff.

Higgs, now in his late 40s, said he had an informal, handshake agreement during the early 1970s to record for Island Records. But, he said, “I was put on hold during that period. I was on salary and would have to wait” until Marley became established.

“I didn’t want to wait for that,” Higgs said.

Instead, Higgs released two albums on his own, and it wasn’t until 1985 that he emerged with his first album for a U.S. record company, the excellent “Triumph!” on Alligator, the small Chicago label devoted mainly to blues. He followed it last year with “Family,” on Shanachie, another small, independent label.

However belatedly, Higgs’ two U.S. albums show that he belongs in the front rank of reggae talent. They showcase a voice that is husky but supple and a singer confident enough to reach for inventive vocal colorings in the manner of the great U.S. soul singers.

There is a sense of authentic feeling and a double-edged emotional quality to Higgs’ songs that lend them depth: The love songs may lilt, but there is a melancholy cast to his voice; his social commentaries may speak of dire conditions of poverty and racism, but they surge steadily forward with a tone of affirmation.

“There is always hope in my songs,” Higgs said. “I don’t write songs that are about being defeated. I write about facing the problem and the consequences at the same time. I believe there is going to be a better tomorrow. If not, why live?”

Higgs said the two albums have “made some inroads” in establishing him as something more than the man who taught the Wailers, “but in terms of success, it’s a mild one.”

He did not tour heavily last year after the release of “Family.” A tour had been set up, Higgs said, but it would have involved playing too many shows in too short a time. He said he is not willing to pursue success at all costs.

“I don’t want to think that I am required (to tour) because I am a commodity and I am looked on as a price tag,” he said. “The only thing about this commodity--I don’t have to accept.”

Higgs said he plays concerts every few weeks with his six-member band. He is also at work on another album--with support from a re-formed remnant of the Wailers. Higgs did not have a lot to say about that liaison, which seems likely to bind his career even more tightly to the Marley legacy.

“My producer thought it would be a good idea, and the record company likes it,” Higgs said. “We’re sort of playing (it) by ear.”

If it brings wider notice for Higgs’ worthy talent, a Wailers-backed album probably is a good idea--even if it means having to keep living his professional life with Marley’s ghost close at hand.

Joe Higgs plays tonight at Club Postnuclear, 775 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Eyes of the World opens at 9 p.m. Admission: $10. Information: (714) 494-1432.