Byron Lee - A Profile

In the years before reggae or even ska was known outside of the Caribbean, Byron Lee was the first band leader to achieve an international following playing Jamaican music, and played a vital role in popularizing it around the world. Lee was 20 years old when he formed his band the Dragonaires in 1956. They began making a name for themselves almost immediately, as a kind of big-band equivalent to the solo Calypso singing that Harry Belafonte (and Sir Lancelot before him) brought to enormous popularity in the late 1950's. Touring behind Belafonte, they became internationally famous, with their brand of Calypso and ska. Their musicianship was impeccable in any style, with a trumpet and sax section that was up there with any big band, and Lee's bass playing which in itself was extraordinarily distinctive. With Lee leading and manager Ronnie Nasralla co-producing and handling the business arrangements, the Dragonaires were always ahead of the game.
Their big break came in the first James Bond film Dr. No, where they appeared as the band in the scene at Pussfeller's club and played a number of tunes on the soundtrack. As one of the first ska bands, the Dragonaires-a 14-piece outfit whose line-up was always changing (and sometimes worked under the name the Ska Kings), toured throughout the Caribbean and into North America, spreading the ska sound. They also caused a stir at the New York World's Fair in 1964. Where they played their own set and backed Prince Buster, Eric Morris, and Peter Tosh. They were all a sensation at the fair, and even managed to work in some major gigs at some of Manhattan's best nightclubs, which did wonders in helping boost Jamaica's tourism.
In 1965, Lee and Nasralla along with Victor Sampson created Lee Enterprises a booking and promotions agency, which over a period of time brought to Jamaica some top American mega stars such as Sam Cooke, The Drifters, Jerry Butler, Chuck Berry, Billy Stewart, King Curtis, Sammy Davis, James Brown and Al Green. These acts would appear at the Carib and Regal Theatres with local Jamaican acts opening the proceedings.In 1968 he bought West Indies Records Limited (WIRL), from prominent Jamaican political figure Edward Sega, and renamed it Dynamic Sounds. Indeed is Sega who has arranged for Lee to appear at the World's Trade Fair. The company became a pioneer in the field of distributing foreign records for the major North American and European labels as Lee established a relationship with Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records, which also resulted in Lee's first release on an American label, the multi-artist compilation Jamaican Ska, and its follow-up, Jump Up, with both records featuring Lee and his band. This then led to him having the distribution rights to Atlantic's very popular R&B releases in the Caribbean.
With all these business activities going on , Lee still maintained a full performing and recording schedule, and was cutting singles of his own or covers of other artists' ska hits of the period. Lee also was managing releasing an album at least once a year after the mid-1960's (Check out the review of "This Is Rocksteady '67" posted in September last year).
By the end of the 60's, Lee's Dynamic Sounds was considered one of, if not the best recording studio in Kingston, and had become the most popular recording venue in the entire Caribbean. By the early 1970's, major main stream American and English acts were discovering its appeal, including the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon and Eric Clapton. Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion," in particular, became a showcase for Lee's studio. For Lee as well these were changing times musically and he and his band, being very skilled and versatile musicians, continued making their own music, and could keep pace and adapt and evolve from the ska craze to rocksteady and then morphing in to reggae and even by the late 1970s, turning their hand to the soca style.
In 1990, Lee saw his long time dream become a reality with the launching of Jamaica Carnival. In 1989 Byron Lee, along with a small band of believers, came together to plan what has since grown to become the biggest event in Jamaica. Byron explained in an interview, “This is a dream I have nurtured for years and the right time is now. I wouldn’t be a Jamaican if I didn’t try to bring to my country, some of that happiness I see Carnival brings to other people". In Trinidad during Carnival 2001, Byron was honoured by the Caribbean Brass Festival Organization for his contribution to the music industry.
Lee has been extremely successful, throughout his career and business dealings which has perhaps brought about at times the wrath of writers and other musicians who regarded his dance band as a pale, watered down version of ska, compared to outfits like the Skatalites, the Maytals, or the Wailers. Perhaps it also has something to do with the fact that he was not born in the ghettos of Kingston or in a shack in the Blue Mountains or even that he is of mixed parentage (His mother was of African descent while his father was Chinese) so he was never really down with the sufferahs. The thing is this, what ever your stance you can't deny that Lee and his band, did most probably more to popularize ska and Jamaican music than any performer of the 1960's, especially coupled with the success in 1964 of Millie Small's Island Records single "My Boy Lollipop," which sold upwards of six million copies worldwide, it was he who helped open the booming musical era for Jamaican music.

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