Byron Lee and the Dragonaires

The band Byron Lee (1935-2008) formed in Kingston in 1950 and led for more than half a century. Uptown, professional and sharply dressed where most ska came from downtown studios, the Dragonaires appeared in Dr. No in 1962, played the Independence celebrations that year, and were sent to the 1964 New York World's Fair to present ska abroad.

Lee bought the WIRL plant and rebuilt it as Dynamic Sounds, and from the 1970s turned the band increasingly towards carnival and soca. Edward Seaga produced the band's first record, "Dumplin's" (1959), and steered Lee toward ska. To coincide with the 1964 New York World's Fair, Atlantic Records released a Dragonaires album in the United States titled "Jamaica Ska", sleeve-credited to "The Ska Kings" and overseen by the noted Atlantic engineer Tom Dowd; it sold poorly and did not open a lasting American market for ska.

In late 1959 or 1960 Lee bought the first electric (solid-body Fender) bass and bass amplifier, plus an electric organ, brought into the Caribbean, purchased in the United States so his eight-to-ten-piece band could tour by truck without hauling an upright bass and piano; it let the Dragonaires carry amplified sound to villages that had never heard it live, and the band worked as backing musicians for Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley and the Wailers, and Ken Boothe.