Jamaican Musican Mikey ‘Mao’ Chung Dead At 71

Legendary Jamaican musician Mikey “Mao” Chung, a member of the Now Generation, died on Tuesday at the University Hospital of the West Indies. He was 71, and is survived by a daughter and three brothers.

He was the second member of the band to pass away following the death of his colleague, drummer Mikey “Boo” Richards.

Chung also played in Peter Tosh’s Word Sound And Power band.

Chung was the guitarist for the Mighty Mystics, The Virtues (1967–69), Generation Gap, and the Federal Studios house band the Now Generation Band, before playing with artists such as Jacob Miller and Inner Circle in the 1970s.

A versatile musician, he was equally adept at playing guitar, bass and keyboards. Mikey Chung was the older of the two musical siblings whose careers started in the 1960s while they were students at St George’s College.

They first came to prominence with ‘Now Gen’, whose line-up also included bass player Val Douglas and keyboardist Earl “Wya” Lindo.

The band became in-demand session musicians, backing artistes like Dennis Brown (Wichita Lineman, Silhouettes), Ernie Smith (Life is Just For Living, Duppy Gunman), The Abyssinians ( Y Mas Gan) and Pablo Moses (I Man A Grasshopper) and Tosh (Mawga Dog).

As a member of Word, Sound and Power from 1978, along with Sly & Robbie, he backed Peter Tosh on Mystic Man, Wanted Dread and Alive, and Bush Doctor, playing guitar and synthesizer. He played for Lee Perry’s band The Upsetters and the Compass Point All Stars (Island Records). He often accompanied Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare on their recordings and played guitar for Black Uhuru on their albums Red and Chill Out.

The older Chung played on most of the projects his brother produced which included albums by Pablo Moses and Maxi Priest. He also recorded and toured with Tosh and Black Uhuru.

In 2014, Mikey Chung was honoured by the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association (JaRIA) for outstanding contribution to the country’s music.