{"id":5900,"date":"2026-01-21T14:57:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/honoring-cat-coore\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T14:57:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:57:31","slug":"honoring-cat-coore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/honoring-cat-coore\/","title":{"rendered":"Honoring Cat Coore"},"content":{"rendered":"
Pioneering, GRAMMY Award-winning British roots reggae band Steel Pulse paid tribute to Third World co-founder Stephen \u201cCat\u201d Coore, who died suddenly on Sunday, Jan. 18, at age 69.
\nBorn April 6, 1956, in Kingston, Jamaica, Coore spent over five decades as Third World\u2019s guitarist and cellist.<\/div>\n
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Steel Pulse expressed their condolences, stating on social media: “To wake up and learn that Stephen Cat Coore has just made the transition is a bitter pill to swallow. No more chance meetings at the lounges at Miami Airport. No more sharing the same billing at festivals; no more guest appearances at events in the Caribbean; no more time together at the GRAMMYS; no more kind words or calls from him out of the blue.”<\/div>\n
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\u201cSo many things about Cat Coore that leave me an everlasting impression and memory of him, but this is one that touched me most of all,\u201d Steel Pulse added. \u201cHe came to see us perform in London when Steel Pulse was still a nobody, not even a household name. It left an overwhelming impression on me that an extremely talented star from out of Jamaica took time out to come listen to a band that could barely string three chords together.<\/div>\n
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\u201cHe wasn\u2019t about profiling. He was for real. Wow! \u2026 and losing him on Dr. Martin Luther King Day, too,\u201d it continued. \u201cThis has rocked the reggae genre to the core (believe me, no pun intended). With Bunny, Ibo, Carrot, Willie, Rupert, and Richie, all out of the picture, this man tried his hardest to keep the flame of Third World burning.<\/div>\n
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\u201cSuch a unique approach to guitar playing that only a guitar player that\u2019s searching for his own personal identity when it comes to style would understand,\u201d Steel Pulse said. \u201cFlawless, night after night. \u00a0And I will say it again, Third World is one of the best bands ever to have come out of Jamaica, and will forever remain number 1 in our books for crossing over our genre of music to the world\u2019s international music industry.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\"Members

Members of the British reggae band Steel Pulse.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Steele Pulse went on: \u201cTony Ruption, AJ, Norris, Richard, and co., Steel Pulse is begging you to keep the flame burning. \u00a0Our heart goes out to Shiah, Donna, Richie Daley, and Willie Stewart. Wow! The Legends are leaving us.\u201d
\nIn November 2023, the Caribbean American Heritage Awards (CAHA) in Washington, D.C., honored Coore with its Luminary Award.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Award noted Coore\u2019s father, David Hilton Coore, was a Jamaican scholar, Deputy Prime Minister (1972-1976), and served under three ministries.<\/div>\n
His mother, Rita Angela Innis Coore, Trinidadian by birth, studied music and broadcasting at McGill University in Montreal and later at the Royal College of London, CAHA said.<\/div>\n
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It said Angela was taught by Lloyd Webber, whose son, Andrew Lloyd Webber, became one of the most famous Broadway writers of all time.<\/div>\n
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The Award said that, from a very early age, Cat\u2019s mother noticed that, when she played music in the house, that it had an impact on the young Stephen; and, when he was 4, she began to teach him a few simple things on the piano.
\n\u201cRita at the time had become one of Jamaica\u2019s most respected music teachers and a favorite adopted daughter of Jamaica,\u201d the Award said. \u201cHowever, Cat did not show a great deal of love for the piano but would walk in circles every time she played her Pablo Casals records, since Casals was probably the greatest cellist ever she thought.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThis proved to be the right move as Cat immediately took to the instrument and thus started his love for string instruments,\u201d the Award said.
\nIt said he studied with Noel Foster Davis, whom Cat credits for the rest of his musical background. He performed on many stages with the cello.<\/div>\n
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The Award said two of the more memorable ones were when he played the piece, \u201cThe Swan,\u201d for Princess Anne at Kings House and winning a silver medal in the Jamaica festival at 10, when all other contestants were much older.
\nAccording to CAHA, when Cat turned 12 in 1968, he fell in love with Ska and Pop music, and later Rocksteady and Reggae.
\nIt said he loved the Beatles and asked his mom for a guitar, and she obliged, \u201cand this started a love like no other.
\n\u201cHe progressed so fast that he joined the Inner Circle when he was 13 as lead guitarist,\u201d CAHA said.<\/div>\n
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It said he stayed with Inner Circle for four years and performed throughout Jamaica and the Caribbean, and did one or two shows in North America.
\nIn 1971, CAHA said Cat played on the top festival song, \u201cCherry O Baby,\u201d which went on to win the Jamaica Festival Song Competition, as was his first commercial recording credit.
\nCAHA said he received JA$10.<\/div>\n
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At 17 and longing to do something different, it said Cat started a group with his friend Colin Leslie and, shortly thereafter, was joined by his lifelong friend Ibo Cooper.
\nCAHA said this was the genesis of Third World.<\/div>\n
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Cat had been the guitarist and cellist for 50-plus years with Third World, during which there were great successes, top-charted hits, nine GRAMMY nominations, the United Nations Medal of Peace, and various other awards both globally and in Jamaica.<\/div>\n
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CAHA said Cat was awarded the National Honors with the Order of Distinction of Jamaica in 2005.
\nIt said Cat had also received several awards and accolades including the Key to the Cities of Key West, FL; Brooklyn, NY\u2019 Atlantic City, NJ; Hollywood, FL and Hartford, CT; The National Black Arts Awards by the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; The JaRia Instrumentalist of the Year; Lifetime Achievement Awards by Jamaica Jazz and Blues and Reggae Sumfest; Island Records; and IRAWMA\u2019s, among others.<\/div>\n
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CAHA said Cat was the ambassador for the Alligator Head Foundation in Port Antonio, Jamaica, as well as the Goodwill Ambassador for the Issa Trust Foundation in Jamaica.
\nCat\u2019s main musical inspirations were Pablo Casals, Jacqueline du Pr\u00e9, Bob Marley, and Carlos Santana. Besides his passion for music.<\/div>\n
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The Jamaica Gleaner said on Monday, Jan. 19, that Cat was \u201ca founding member and musical director of Third World, whose pioneering fusion of reggae, soul, funk, pop, and rock helped shape the reggae-fusion sound and propel Jamaican music onto the global stage.<\/div>\n
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\u201cUnder his musical leadership, Third World achieved international acclaim with enduring classics such as Now That We\u2019 ve Found Love, 96 Degrees in the Shade, and Try Jah Love, becoming one of Jamaica\u2019s longest-running and most successful bands,\u201d the publication said.<\/div>\n
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\u201cCelebrated for his exceptional musicianship, compositional brilliance, and deep musical knowledge, Coore was widely regarded as a cultural ambassador who elevated reggae music and inspired generations of artists at home and abroad,\u201d it added.<\/div>\n
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\u201cIn recognition of his outstanding contribution to Jamaican culture and the creative arts, Coore was awarded membership in the Order of Distinction (OD) by the Government of Jamaica, honoring his decades of service to music and his role in promoting Jamaica\u2019s cultural legacy worldwide,\u201d the Gleaner continued.<\/div>\n
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Pioneering, GRAMMY Award-winning British roots reggae band Steel Pulse paid tribute to Third World co-founder Stephen \u201cCat\u201d Coore, who died suddenly on Sunday, Jan. 18, at age 69. Born April 6, 1956, in Kingston, Jamaica, Coore spent over five decades as Third World\u2019s guitarist and cellist. Steel Pulse expressed their condolences, stating on social media: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}