Calling Toots Hibbert’s music old-school reggae would be an understatement.
He the inventor.

Toots and the Maytals 1968 song “Do the Reggay,” was the first time the word defining the style of music was used in a recording.

“I never copywrite it,” Toots said from his cell phone while waiting to board a California-bound airplane. “I was just the one who coined the word reggae. I don’t think I am great, but I appreciate me saying that.”

Considering the number of artists who have covered songs by Toots and the Maytals, plenty of people would say Toots is great.

“Pressure Drop” was covered by the Clash, and “Monkey Man” was most famously played by the Specials and imfamously by Amy Winehouse.

Toots and the Maytals have had 31 No. 1 songs in Jamaica, two of which were on one 45-rpm vinyl record — “Daddy” and “It’s You.”

Although he’s 63 years old, expect to hear more hits.

“I’m not slowing down,” Toots said. “I am working on a lot of albums. I just finished 14 songs, and I have 14 more and 14 more after that. ... Time is running out, so maybe I will (release) two albums a year.”

When he’s not in the studio, he is touring. He recently played in Europe and Australia and on Saturday, Nov. 28, will perform at the Tahoe Biltmore in Crystal Bay.

“The people can expect a good show,” he said. “A very important show that they’ve never seen before. It’s going to be reggae, ska, R&B and gospel.”

Frederick “Toots” Hibbert was born in Clarendon, Jamaica. He learned to sing in a church choir, and after moving to Kingston in 1961 at the age of 16 he met Henry “Raleigh” Gordon and Nathaniel “Jerry” McCarthy. The trio that would become Toots and the Maytals sang harmonies as a gospel group that developed a new sound when accompanied by the Studio One session band the Skatalites. Its recordings achieved more early success than another trio from the same studio, the Wailers (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer).

Toots’ career was curtailed by a 1966 arrest for marijuana possession. After his release, Toots wrote about his jail time in a hit single “54-46 Was My Number,” followed by “Pressure Drop” and “Monkey Man” and “Do the Reggay.”

“I always called it reggae, that’s spelled r-e-g-g-a-e,” Toots said. “People in Jamaica called it boogie beat. I came up with reggae with my two friends Raleigh Gordon and Jerry McCarthy. In Jamaica, girls who didn’t dress properly, we called them ‘shreggae.’ It was nothing good.”
Toots took a word with a negative connotation and made it a positive. He still uses the term shreggae.

“There’s a lot of hip-hop and they’re calling it reggae,” Toots said. “It’s not reggae. It’s shreggae. Shreggae means negative. Reggae means positive. (Music) is a dirty, dirty business where people can afford to pay people to do negative things.”

Toots said he is productive because of his positive attitude.

“It’s because I have so much to say and so many songs to sing, so many ideas and so many arrangements and I have my strength from a spiritual content,” he said. “I am a spiritual person and my talent is from the Lord, and he shows me what to do.

“Everything is positive. I do positive shows. That’s why people come to see my shows. I’ve never had a (negative) show yet, never. So people show me I must continue to do what I do. Rastafari.”