Duke Reid

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About Duke Reid

One of the major producers of reggae music in the '60s along with rival Coxsone Dodd, Duke Reid's productions exemplified the rocksteady era at its absolute peak. After working 10 years as a Kingston policeman, Reid started his own sound system, Duke Reid's The Trojan, eventually taking up record production in 1962. He enjoyed a run of ska hits with Stranger Cole, the Techniques, and Alton Ellis and the Flames. By the mid '60s, ska was evolving into slower rocksteady rhythms and Reid led the way with records such as the Paragons’ "Ali Baba" and "Wear You to the Ball," Alton Ellis’s "Cry Tough" and "Rock Steady," and many others. In the '70s, Reid helped found the modern deejay era by dropping toaster U-Roy’s chatter over old rocksteady hits, giving birth to a new idiom in reggae music.

HOMETOWN
Portland, Jamaica
BORN
21 July 1915
GENRE
Reggae

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