Duke Reid Group

Group formed by Arthur "Duke" Reid as his own backing band who backed young singers like Derrick Morgan and Jiving Juniors.

Those 'groups', as it goes, were often drawn from the same nucleus of musicians, who would simply change their name according to which sound system man (or producer, as they were becoming known) they were working for that day. Trojan? Fine, we're Duke Reid's group. Clement "Coxsone" Dodd? Yeah, now we're Clue J. & The Blues Blasters. And so on. On dozens of those early records from Jamaican R&B's 1958 - 62 heyday, the band included permutations of sax men Roland Alphonso, Val Bennett and Stanley 'Ribs' Notice, trumpeters Raymond Harper and Oswald The Baba Brooks Band, trombonists Rico Rodriguez and Don Drummond, double-bassists Cluett Johnson and Lloyd Brevett, pianists Theophilus Beckford and Owen Gray, guitarists Ernest Ranglin and Dennis Sindrey (remarkably, an Australian), and drummers Arkland 'Drumbago's Orchestra' Parks and Lloyd Knibbs.