Byron Lee & the Dragonaires
Encyclopedia
Byron Lee and the Dragonaires (known as Byron Lee's Dragonaires since Lee's death) are a Jamaican ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...

, calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...

 and soca
Soca music
Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music....

 band. The band played a crucial pioneering role in bringing Caribbean music to the world
World
World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....

. Byron Lee died on 4 November 2008, after a long battle with cancer.

History

The band was originally formed around 1950 by Byron Lee
Byron Lee
Byron Lee OD, OJ was a musician, record producer, and entrepreneur, best known for his work as leader of Byron Lee and the Dragonaires.-Biography:Lee was born in Christiana in Manchester Parish to an Afro-Jamaican mother and a Chinese father Byron Lee OD, OJ (born Byron Aloysius St. Elmo Lee, 27...

 and his friend Carl Brady, taking its name from the St. George's College
St. George's College, Jamaica
St. George's College is a Roman Catholic high school in Kingston, Jamaica.-History:The school was founded on September 2, 1850 by a group of 21 Spanish Jesuits who had been expelled from Colombia because of their religious faith. The Colombian Government gave them approximately 9 hours to leave the...

 football team that they played for. The band originally played mento
Mento
Mento is a style of Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. It has its roots in calypso and other Jamaican folk music. Mento typically features acoustic instruments, such as acoustic guitar, banjo, hand drums, and the rhumba box — a large mbira in the...

, and performed their first shows in the college common room to celebrate the team's victories. After a few years of playing at parties, birthdays and weddings, Lee decided to turn professional. By 1956, the Dragonaires had become a fixture on Jamaica's hotel circuit, playing under their own name and also providing backing to visiting American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 stars including Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...

, Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...

, The Drifters
The Drifters
The Drifters are a long-lived American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group with a peak in popularity from 1953 to 1963, though several splinter Drifters continue to perform today. They were originally formed to serve as Clyde McPhatter's backing group in 1953...

, Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...

, and Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....

. The Dragonaires prided themselves on being able to play any style of music, their repertoire including covers of American pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 and R&B hits, and they soon adapted to include ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...

 when that became popular.

The band recorded their debut single, "Dumplin's", in 1959 at the WIRL studios owned by future Prime Minister Edward Seaga
Edward Seaga
Edward Philip George Seaga ON PC was the fifth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1980 to 1989 and Leader of the Jamaica Labour Party from 1974 to 2005. He served as leader of the opposition from 1974 to 1980 and again from 1989 until January 2005...

, who would also become the band's manager. The single was released on the Dragonaire's own Dragon's Breath label in Jamaica, and was the second release on the Blue Beat
Blue Beat
Blue Beat Records was a record label that released Jamaican rhythm and blues and ska music in the United Kingdom in the 1960s. It led to the creation of the term bluebeat as a generic term to describe all styles of early Jamaican music from R&B to Ska, Rocksteady and early Reggae, including music...

 label http://www.johnnyspencer.info/imagetexts12/dumplinsBL.htm in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, and was unusual for a Jamaican single as it featured an electric organ and a Fender bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 which Lee had purchased during a visit to the United States - the first such instruments ever seen on the island. Lee and Seaga both realised that ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...

 was the music to provide Jamaica with a musical identity that could break the domination of American R&B, and the Dragonaires became one of the major ska bands of the early 1960s, releasing singles such as "Fireflies", "Mash! Mr Lee", "Joy Ride", and a ska version of "Over the Rainbow
Over the Rainbow
"Over the Rainbow" is a classic Academy Award-winning ballad song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg. It was written for the movie The Wizard of Oz, and was sung by Judy Garland in the movie...

", both under their own name, and as The Ska Kings. In 1961, the band received a huge break when they were cast as the hotel band in the first James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 film, Dr. No
Dr. No (film)
Dr. No is a 1962 spy film, starring Sean Connery; it is the first James Bond film. Based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather and was directed by Terence Young. The film was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R...

. The band performed several songs in the film, although the recordings were actually made by guitarist Ernest Ranglin
Ernest Ranglin
Ernest Ranglin O.D. is a Jamaican guitarist and composer. Best known for his session work at the famed Studio One, Ranglin helped give birth to the ska genre in the late 1950s...

.

The band received another major boost when they were selected by Seaga, then the island's head of Social Welfare and Economic Development, in 1964 to travel to the New York World's Fair
1964 New York World's Fair
The 1964/1965 New York World's Fair was the third major world's fair to be held in New York City. Hailing itself as a "universal and international" exposition, the fair's theme was "Peace Through Understanding," dedicated to "Man's Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe";...

 and perform as a backing band for a showcase of Jamaican talent, including Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff, OM is a Jamaican musician, singer and actor. He is the only currently living musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievement in the arts and sciences...

, Prince Buster
Prince Buster
Cecil Bustamente Campbell, O.D. , better known as Prince Buster, and also known by his Muslim name Muhammed Yusef Ali, is a musician from Kingston, Jamaica. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of ska and rocksteady music...

, and Millie Small. The trip was not a great success, with the Dragonaires' "uptown" musicians not fitting in with the other "downtown" artists. Realising that their appeal to ska crowds was diminishing, Lee took the band in a new direction, incorporating calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...

 and touring Trinidad & Tobago in 1963 and 1964. Lee's relationship with Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

 (he acted as head of distribution for the US company in Jamaica) led to the label releasing Dragonaires records in the US, including two albums timed to capitalise on interest generated from the World's Fair performances, Jump Up and Jamaican Ska (on which the Dragonaires backed the likes of The Blues Busters
The Blues Busters
The Blues Busters were a Jamaican vocal duo formed in 1960, comprising Philip James and Lloyd Campbell. The Blues Busters were the most consistently popular Jamaican male duo of the early 1960s, and were part of the Jamaican party that performed at the 1964 New York World's Fair...

, The Charmers, The Maytals
Toots & the Maytals
Toots and the Maytals, originally called simply The Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group and one of the best known ska and reggae vocal groups. According to Sandra Brennan at Allmusic, "The Maytals were key figures in reggae music...

, Stranger Cole
Stranger Cole
Stranger Cole, also known as StrangeJah Cole is a Jamaican singer whose long recording career dates from the early days of ska in 1962 through to the 2000s.-Biography:...

, Ken Boothe
Ken Boothe
Ken Boothe OD is a Jamaican recording artist.-Biography:Ken Boothe was born in the Denham Town area of Kingston in 1948, the youngest of seven children, and began singing in school...

, and Patsy Todd). The band also targeted the international rocksteady
Rocksteady
Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor to ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was performed by Jamaican vocal harmony groups such as The Gaylads, The Maytals and The Paragons. The term rocksteady comes from a dance style that was mentioned in the Alton...

 market with albums of mainly cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

s such as Rock Steady Beat and Rock Steady '67. Further, Atlantic Records tried to push the album Jamaican Ska by using house producer and sound engineer Tom Dowd, who produced all of Aretha Franklin's greatest singles, to produce the album. In addition, the Dragonaires were renamed as "The Ska Kings" on the album. Unfortunately, despite Atlantic's best efforts, Jamaican Ska failed to take off in the United States.

Lee bought the WIRL studios from Seaga and turned into Dynamic Sounds Recording Co., where the Dragonaires naturally recorded, using the superior facilities to record a string of well-produced albums during the late 1960s and early 1970s, often containing cover versions aimed at tourists, and they went on to record a series of "Reggay"-titled albums in the early 1970s.

The WIRL name had remained with its division in Barbados and had remained the ever-popular brand of Bajan music until 1995, when it changed its name to E.A. Best Music Ltd, and eventually to its current name, Caribbean Records - still the major record company and distributor of Barbados. Back in Jamaica, Dynamic had become a bigger force than ever before, investing in presenting more of Jamaica's talent to vinyl, including Toots & the Maytals
Toots & the Maytals
Toots and the Maytals, originally called simply The Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group and one of the best known ska and reggae vocal groups. According to Sandra Brennan at Allmusic, "The Maytals were key figures in reggae music...

, Eric Donaldson
Eric Donaldson
Eric Donaldson is a Jamaican reggae singer-songwriter.-Biography:Donaldson has won the Jamaican Festival Song Competition six times, in 1971, 1977, 1978, 1984, 1993 and 1997. His winning 1971 entry, "Cherry Oh Baby", launched him into the limelight, although he had been composing and recording...

, John Holt
John Holt
-People:* John Holt , English author* John Holt , trader and businessman* John Holt , West Indian cricketer* John Holt , American teacher and author...

, Barry Biggs
Barry Biggs
Barry Biggs is a reggae singer, best known in the UK for his cover of the Blue Magic song, "Sideshow", which got to #3 in the UK Singles Chart in 1976.-Career:...

, Freddie McKay
Freddie McKay
Freddie McKay was a Jamaican singer, whose career spanned the rocksteady and reggae eras.-Biography:...

, Tommy McCook
Tommy McCook
Tommy McCook was a Jamaican saxophonist. A founding member of The Skatalites, he also directed The Supersonics for Duke Reid, and backed many sessions for Bunny Lee or with The Revolutionaries at Channel One Studios in the 1970s.-Biography:McCook was born in Havana, Cuba, and moved to Jamaica in...

, and Max Romeo
Max Romeo
Max Romeo is a reggae and roots reggae recording artist who has achieved chart success in his home country, and in the UK. Romeo was responsible for launching an entirely new sub-genre of reggae, whose overtly suggestive lyrics caused an outcry but took a massive hold of the music scene regardless...

, issued on imprints such as Jaguar, Panther, Afrik, and Dragon.

In 1974, the band played at Trinidad & Tobago's carnival for the first of many times, and the same year they released the Carnival in Trinidad album. They would release both reggae and carnival-oriented albums throughout the 1970s, and in 1975 took in another genre with the Disco Reggae album, released on Mercury Records in the US.

The band played at the Reggae Sunsplash
Reggae Sunsplash
Reggae Sunsplash is a reggae music festival first staged in 1978 in the northern part of Jamaica. In 1985 it expanded with the addition of an international touring festival...

 festival in both 1978 and 1979, and were one one of the main backing bands in 1982. They would also appear in 1984 and 1990.

From 1979, the Dragonaires output was heavily concentrated on calypso, soca
Soca music
Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music....

, and mas, regularly performing at Trinidad & Tobago's carnival, and also touring the Caribbean and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. Throughout the 1990s they were also regulars at Jamaica's carnival, and their "Dance Hall Soca" hit (recorded with Admiral Bailey
Admiral Bailey
Admiral Bailey is a Jamaican dancehall deejay who enjoyed his greatest success between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s. He has been described as "the hottest dancehall star of the late 1980s".-Career:...

) was credited with starting the ragga-soca craze of the late 1990s.

The band continue to tour, recently performing with Kevin Lyttle
Kevin Lyttle
Kevin Lyttle is a soca artist hailing from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, who had a worldwide hit with the interpellative soca ballad "Turn Me On", which was recorded by Lyttle and the dancehall artist Spragga Benz.-Career:Previously, Lyttle had subsisted on day jobs, such as customs officer...

 at the Cricket World Cup 2007 opening ceremony.

Byron Lee died on 4 November 2008, aged 73, from cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

.

The band has continued since Lee's death, with the name slightly altered to Byron Lee's Dragonaires.

Albums

  • Come Fly With Lee (1962)
  • The Sound of Jamaica (1963)
  • First Class With Lee (1964)
  • Caribbean Joyride (1964)
  • Jump Up (1964)
  • Christmas Party Time (1966)
  • Rock Steady '67 (1967)
  • Rock Steady Beat (1967)
  • People Get Ready, This is Rock Steady (1967)
  • Rock Steady Intensified (1968)
  • Reggay With Byron Lee (1968)
  • The Many Moods of Lee (1968)
  • Reggay Blast Off (1969)
  • Reggay Eyes (1969)
  • Tighten Up (1969)
  • Goin' Places (1970)
  • Reggay Splash Down (1971)
  • Reggay Hot Cool and Easy (1972)
  • Reggay Roun' The World (1973)
  • Reggae Fever (1974)
  • Dancing Is Forever (1974)
  • Carnival in Trinidad (1974)
  • The Midas Touch (1974)
  • Carnival 75 (1975)
  • Disco Reggae (1975)
  • Reggay International (1976)
  • Six Million Dollar Man (1976)
  • This Is Carnival (1976)
  • Art of Mas (1977)
  • Jamaica's Golden Hits (1977)
  • More Carnival (1978)

  • Reggae Hits (1978)
  • Carnival Experience (1979)
  • Soca Carnival (1980)
  • Carnival 81 (1981)
  • Byron 1982 (1982)
  • Soft Lee Vol 1 (1983)
  • Soul Ska (1983)
  • Carnival City 83 (1983)
  • Original Rock Steady Hits (1984)
  • Jamaica's Golden Hits Vol 2 (1984)
  • Heat in De Place (1984)
  • Christmas In the Tropics (1984)
  • Wine Miss Tiny (1985)
  • Soca Girl (1986)
  • De Music Hot Mama (1988)
  • Soca Bacchannal In The City (1989)
  • Wine Down (1992)
  • Soca Thunder (1992)
  • Soca Butterfly (1994)
  • Soca Tatie (1995)
  • Soca Engine (1996)
  • Soca Greatest Hits (1997)
  • Trinidad Tobago Carnival City (1997)
  • Socarobics (1997)
  • Soca Frenzy (1998)
  • Soca Tremor (1999)
  • Soca Fire Inna Jamdown Stylee
  • Jump and Wave For Jesus (1999)
  • Soca Thriller (2000)
  • Jamaica Ska & Other Jamaican Party Anthems (2004)


External links

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