Ansell Collins
Encyclopedia
Ansell Collins is a Jamaica
n keyboard player, producer, and occasional singer. Born 1949 in Kingston, Jamaica.
, Sly Dunbar
and Ranchie McLean. After working with Lee "Scratch" Perry, Collins was part of the duo Dave and Ansell Collins
along with Dave Barker
, with whom he had a number one hit in the United Kingdom
in 1971 with "Double Barrel
". His keyboard playing exemplified the Skinhead reggae style. Collins is also a producer
and has released solo records, including single sides "Cock Robin", "Atlantic One", "Stalag" and "Nuclear Weapon" between 1969 and 1971, as well as a handful of later albums. He was a member of 1970s Channel One
studio band The Revolutionaries
, as well as the Impact All Stars and Sugar Minott
's Black Roots Players, performing on many of the classic songs of the roots reggae
era (album 1979 Black Roots
). He was also part of Jimmy Cliff
's backing band, Oneness, in the 1970s. He continued to record during the 1980s, mainly as a session musician
, and released a solo album in 1986.
He also worked with backing bands such as Lynn Taitt and the Jets
(including the reggae producer Joe Gibbs
). In 1970's, he was the regular member of the backing band The Aggrovators
and the band Soul Syndicate
. In 1978 he was the member of the band The Gladiators
(1978 album Proverbial Reggae
). He played keyboards on the several albums of the various musicians: albums of the dub musician Scientist
Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires
and Scientist in the Kingdom of Dub
(1981), album of Rico Rodriguez
Man from Wareika
(1977), album of Lincoln Thompson
Natural Wild
(1980), album of Augustus Pablo
This Is Augustus Pablo
(1974), album of Black Uhuru
Sinsemilla
(1980), albums of Jimmy Cliff
Give Thanx
(1978), album of King Tubby
and Prince Jammy His Majesty's Dub
(1976), Cliff Hanger
(1985) and Humanitarian
(1999), album of The Royals
Pick Up the Pieces
(1977), album of Mighty Diamonds Right Time
(1976), album of Gregory Isaacs
Cool Ruler
(1978), album of Prince Far I
Health and Strength
(1998), but also on the albums of the musicians like Serge Gainsbourg
(Aux armes et cætera
, 1979). Mid-1970s, reggae Culture
began working with some of the premier musicians of the day including Ansel Collins, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar
, Cedric Brooks
and the ever-present percussionist Sticky. Collins worked with the guitarist Earl "Chinna" Smith and with the deejay Errol Scorcher
on a series off recordings including "Mosquitoes", which was also a hit.
Roots reggae
singer I Wayne
was raised by his aunt and her husband Ansell Collins.
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n keyboard player, producer, and occasional singer. Born 1949 in Kingston, Jamaica.
Biography
In the late 1960s, he performed with the Invincibles band (whose members also included Lloyd ParksLloyd Parks
Lloyd Parks is a reggae vocalist and bass player.-Biography:Parks' interest in music was fuelled by his uncle Dourie Bryan, who played in a calypso band, and Parks became the band's singer...
, Sly Dunbar
Sly Dunbar
Lowell "Sly" Fillmore Dunbar is a drummer.-Biography:Dunbar, whose nickname was reportedly given for his passion for Sly & the Family Stone, launched his musical career while still in his adolescence, playing with a local group, The Yardbrooms, at the age of fifteen...
and Ranchie McLean. After working with Lee "Scratch" Perry, Collins was part of the duo Dave and Ansell Collins
Dave and Ansell Collins
Dave and Ansell Collins were a Jamaican vocal/instrumental duo .-History:...
along with Dave Barker
Dave Barker
Dave Barker is a reggae and rocksteady singer who has made a string of solo albums along with recordings as a member of The Techniques and as half of the duo Dave and Ansell Collins.-Biography:...
, with whom he had a number one hit 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...
in 1971 with "Double Barrel
Double Barrel
Double Barrel is a popular reggae single by Dave and Ansell Collins.Written and produced by Ansell Collins, and featuring the vocals of Dave Barker, who had been recording in Jamaica for around five years, principally for Clement "Coxsone" Dodd and Lee Perry, it was released in 1971 by executive...
". His keyboard playing exemplified the Skinhead reggae style. Collins is also a producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and has released solo records, including single sides "Cock Robin", "Atlantic One", "Stalag" and "Nuclear Weapon" between 1969 and 1971, as well as a handful of later albums. He was a member of 1970s Channel One
Channel One Studios
Channel One is a recording studio in Maxfield Avenue, West Kingston, Jamaica. The studio was built by the Hoo Kim brothers in 1972, and has had a profound influence on the development of reggae music....
studio band The Revolutionaries
The Revolutionaries
The Revolutionaries is a Jamaican reggae band.-Career:Set up in 1975 as the house band of the Channel One Studios owned by Joseph Hoo Kim, The Revolutionaries with Sly Dunbar on drums and Robbie Shakespeare on bass, created the new "rockers" style that would change the whole Jamaican sound The...
, as well as the Impact All Stars and Sugar Minott
Sugar Minott
Lincoln Barrington "Sugar" Minott was a Jamaican reggae singer, producer and sound-system operator.-Biography:...
's Black Roots Players, performing on many of the classic songs of the roots reggae
Roots reggae
Roots reggae is a subgenre of reggae that deals with the everyday lives and aspirations of the artists concerned, including the spiritual side of Rastafari and with the honoring of God, called Jah by rastafarians. It also is identified with the life of the ghetto sufferer, and the rural poor...
era (album 1979 Black Roots
Black Roots (album)
Black Roots is a 1979 album by Sugar Minott. It was the first to appear on Minott's Black Roots label, and was described in the book Reggae: 100 Essential CDs - The Rough Guide as a "classic, which catches the singer on the cusp of the roots and dancehall phases, and with total control over his...
). He was also part of 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...
's backing band, Oneness, in the 1970s. He continued to record during the 1980s, mainly as a session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
, and released a solo album in 1986.
He also worked with backing bands such as Lynn Taitt and the Jets
Lynn Taitt
Lynn Taitt was a reggae guitarist born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, closely associated with Jamaican rocksteady music.-Biography:...
(including the reggae producer Joe Gibbs
Joe Gibbs (record producer)
Joe Gibbs born Joel A. Gibson was a Jamaican reggae producer.-Biography:Joe Gibbs worked as an electronics engineer in the United States before his career in music started. Gibbs eventually returned to Kingston, Jamaica and opened an electrical repair shop with television repairs and sales as its...
). In 1970's, he was the regular member of the backing band The Aggrovators
The Aggrovators
The Aggrovators were a dub/reggae backing band in the 1970s & 1980s, and one of the main session bands of producer, Bunny Lee. The line-up varied, with Lee using the name for whichever set of musicians he was using at any time. The band's name derived from the record shop that Lee had run in the...
and the band Soul Syndicate
Soul Syndicate
Soul Syndicate, originally called the Rhythm Raiders, were one of the top reggae session bands in Jamaica from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s.-History:...
. In 1978 he was the member of the band The Gladiators
The Gladiators (band)
The Gladiators are a Jamaican roots reggae band, most popular during the 1970s. The core was Albert Griffiths , Clinton Fearon and Dallimore Sutherland bass guitar and singer. The two most famous albums are Trenchtown Mix Up and Proverbial Reggae with songs as "Hearsay", "Jah Works", "Dreadlocks...
(1978 album Proverbial Reggae
Proverbial Reggae
Proverbial Reggae was the second album by Jamaican Roots Reggae band The Gladiators, recorded and released in 1978 on Virgin Records' Front Line imprint...
). He played keyboards on the several albums of the various musicians: albums of the dub musician Scientist
Scientist (musician)
Scientist, born Hopeton Brown in Kingston, Jamaica, 1960 , was a protégé of King Tubby , one of the originators of dub music.-Biography:...
Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires
Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires
Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires is an album by the dub musician Scientist. It was originally released in 1981. A digitally remastered version was released by Greensleeves Records as the twenty-fifth of their Reggae Classics series in 2001.-Album information:The album was...
and Scientist in the Kingdom of Dub
Scientist in the Kingdom of Dub
Scientist in the Kingdom of Dub is an album recorded and released in 1981 by the dub musician Scientist. Recorded at Channel One Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, the album was produced by Roy Cousins...
(1981), album of Rico Rodriguez
Rico Rodriguez
Rico Rodriguez MBE , also known as Reco or El Reco, is a ska and reggae trombonist. He has recorded with many producers, including Karl Pitterson, Prince Buster, and Lloyd 'Matador' Daley...
Man from Wareika
Man From Wareika
Man From Wareika was the first album recording for Rico Rodriguez led by his own artistic imagination, and his first recording created for album release...
(1977), album of Lincoln Thompson
Lincoln Thompson
Prince Lincoln Thompson, known as Sax, was a Jamaican singer, musician and songwriter with the reggae band the Royal Rasses, and a member of the Rastafari movement...
Natural Wild
Natural Wild
Natural Wild is a reggae album by Jamaican artist Lincoln Thompson and the Rasses released in 1980 and recorded in the United Kingdom. Joe Jackson collaborated on the album whose central theme was the promotion of the culture and morality of the Rastafari movement...
(1980), album of Augustus Pablo
Augustus Pablo
Horace Swaby , known as Augustus Pablo, was a Jamaican roots reggae and dub record producer, melodica player and keyboardist, active from the 1970s onwards. He popularized the use of the melodica in reggae music...
This Is Augustus Pablo
This Is Augustus Pablo
This Is...Augustus Pablo is an album by Augustus Pablo originally released in 1974 and co-written and produced by Pablo's childhood friend and critically acclaimed reggae producer Clive Chin. The album boasts an impressive list of session musicians including Ansel Collins on keyboards and Lloyd...
(1974), album of Black Uhuru
Black Uhuru
Black Uhuru are a Jamaican reggae group formed in 1972, initially as Uhuru . The group has undergone several line-up changes over the years, with Duckie Simpson always maintaining group control and ownership...
Sinsemilla
Sinsemilla (album)
Sinsemilla is the third album by Jamaican Reggae band Black Uhuru, released in on the Island Records subsidiary Mango.-Track listing:-Personnel:*Michael Rose - lead vocals*Derrick "Duckie" Simpson - harmony vocals*Puma Jones - harmony vocals...
(1980), albums of 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...
Give Thanx
Give Thanx
-Track listing:All tracks written by Jimmy Cliff; except where indicated#"Bongo Man" — 5:03#"Stand Up and Fight Back" — 3:16 #"She Is a Woman" — 4:08#"You Left Me Standing by the Door" — 3:21#"Footprints" — 3:57#"Meeting in Afrika" 3:37...
(1978), album of King Tubby
King Tubby
King Tubby was a Jamaican electronics and sound engineer, known primarily for his influence on the development of dub in the 1960s and 1970s...
and Prince Jammy His Majesty's Dub
His Majesty's Dub
His Majesty's Dub is a 1976 dub album by King Tubby and Prince Jammy, sometimes credited to Prince Jammy v King Tubbys. It features Carlton Barrett and Sly Dunbar on drums, Robbie Shakespeare and Aston Barrett on bass guitar, and Ansel Collins on keyboards, among other personnel...
(1976), Cliff Hanger
Cliff Hanger (album)
Cliff Hanger is an album by Jimmy Cliff, released in 1985 through CBS Records. In 1986, the album won Cliff the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Recording.-Reception:-Track listing:All songs by Jimmy Cliff, unless noted otherwise....
(1985) and Humanitarian
Humanitarian (album)
-Track listing:All tracks composed by Jimmy Cliff; except where indicated#"Humanitarian" — 4:17#"Rise Up" — 3:54#"Giants" 4:43#"Come up to My Love" 3:58#"How Long" 3:59#"Let's Jam" 4:37#"Keep the Family" 4:07#"Drifters" 4:14#"The Hill" 4:59...
(1999), album of The Royals
The Royals (group)
The Royals were a Jamaican roots reggae vocal group formed in 1964 by Roy Cousins. They continued to record, with a varying line-up until the mid-1980s.-History:...
Pick Up the Pieces
Pick Up the Pieces (album)
Pick Up the Pieces is the debut album from Jamaican roots reggae group The Royals, collecting recordings made between 1973 and 1977, and produced by Royals lead vocalist and only constant member Roy Cousins. Musicians on the album include members of The Wailers, Soul Syndicate, The In Crowd, and...
(1977), album of Mighty Diamonds Right Time
Right Time
Right Time is the 1976 studio album debut of influential reggae band the Mighty Diamonds. The album, released by Virgin Records after they signed the Mighty Diamonds following a search for talent in Jamaica, is critically regarded as a reggae classic, a landmark in the roots reggae subgenre...
(1976), album of Gregory Isaacs
Gregory Isaacs
Gregory Anthony Isaacs was a Jamaican reggae musician. Milo Miles, writing in the New York Times, described Isaacs as "the most exquisite vocalist in reggae". His nicknames include Cool Ruler and Lonely Lover....
Cool Ruler
Cool Ruler
Cool Ruler is a 1978 album by Gregory Isaacs, his first released on the Virgin Records subsidiary Front Line. The Jamaican release was on Isaacs' African Museum imprint. The album was produced by Isaacs and mixed by Lancelot "Maxie" McKenzie at Channel One Studios in Kingston, Jamaica. Of the...
(1978), album of Prince Far I
Prince Far I
Prince Far I was a Jamaican reggae deejay, producer and a Rastafarian. He was known for his gruff voice and critical assessment of the Jamaican government. His track "Heavy Manners" used lyrics against measures initiated towards violent crime.-Biography:He was born Michael James Williams in...
Health and Strength
Health and Strength
Health and Strength is an album by Prince Far I recorded in the late 1970s but not released until 1998.-Recording:It was recorded for Virgin Records' Front Line label between 1978 and 1979 but the master tapes were lost en route to Virgin's offices...
(1998), but also on the albums of the musicians like Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...
(Aux armes et cætera
Aux armes et cætera (album)
Produced by Philippe Lerichomme, Aux Armes et cætera is the thirteenth album by Serge Gainsbourg, released in the early spring of 1979. It was recorded in Kingston, Jamaica, with some of the island's best reggae musicians as well as members of the I Threes, Bob Marley's backup chorus which includes...
, 1979). Mid-1970s, reggae Culture
Culture (band)
Culture was a Jamaican roots reggae group founded in 1976. Originally they were known as the African Disciples.The members of the trio were Joseph Hill , Albert Walker and Kenneth Dayes ....
began working with some of the premier musicians of the day including Ansel Collins, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar
Sly Dunbar
Lowell "Sly" Fillmore Dunbar is a drummer.-Biography:Dunbar, whose nickname was reportedly given for his passion for Sly & the Family Stone, launched his musical career while still in his adolescence, playing with a local group, The Yardbrooms, at the age of fifteen...
, Cedric Brooks
Cedric Brooks
Cedric "Im" Brooks, is a Jamaican saxophonist and flautist known for his solo recordings and as a member of The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, The Light of Saba, and The Skatalites.-Biography:...
and the ever-present percussionist Sticky. Collins worked with the guitarist Earl "Chinna" Smith and with the deejay Errol Scorcher
Errol Scorcher
Errol Scorcher is a reggae deejay.-Biography:Scorcher worked as a deejay on several sound systems from the early 1970s. Although his first single, "Leggo Mi Hand Babylon" was not a commercial success, he had several hits in the mid-1970s with tracks such as "Jolly Bus-Ting" and "Engineers Affair"...
on a series off recordings including "Mosquitoes", which was also a hit.
Roots reggae
Roots reggae
Roots reggae is a subgenre of reggae that deals with the everyday lives and aspirations of the artists concerned, including the spiritual side of Rastafari and with the honoring of God, called Jah by rastafarians. It also is identified with the life of the ghetto sufferer, and the rural poor...
singer I Wayne
I Wayne
I Wayne , is a roots reggae singer. He is known for his hit singles "Living In Love" and "Can't Satisfy Her" from his debut album, Lava Ground.-Biography:...
was raised by his aunt and her husband Ansell Collins.
Albums
- Double Barrel (1971) TrojanTrojan RecordsTrojan Records is a British record label founded in 1968. It specialises in ska, rocksteady, reggae and dub music. The label currently operates under the Sanctuary Records Group. The name Trojan comes from the Croydon-built Trojan truck that was used as Duke Reid's sound system in Jamaica...
(Dave and Ansell Collins) - Riding High (1977) Shelly Power
- So Long (1978)
- Ansel Collins (1986) HeartbeatHeartbeat RecordsHeartbeat Records is an independent record label based in Burlington , Massachusetts. The label specializes in Jamaican music. Founded by reggae music enthusiasts Bill Nowlin and Duncan Brown, the label's first release was a vinyl LP reissue of Linton Kwesi Johnson's Dread Beat an' Blood...
- Jamaican Gold (2002) Moll Selekta (Ansell Collins/Sly & Robbie)