Edward Seaga

Before his later career in the record business and in politics, Edward Seaga carried out field recording in Jamaica between roughly 1953 and 1956, producing Folk Music of Jamaica for Folkways in 1956 — the first commercial anthology of Jamaican folk and religious music, covering Pukkumina, Kumina and Zion — and the study Revival Cults in Jamaica.

Separately from his folklore fieldwork, Seaga held the Jamaican import and distribution franchise for Columbia Records in the pre-independence years, alongside Ken Khouri's RCA franchise and Byron Lee's Atlantic franchise, giving him direct commercial control over American-record airplay before Jamaican-made records could compete for radio time.

He personally produced Byron Lee's first record, "Dumplin's", in 1959 and encouraged Lee to take up ska, and later, as head of Jamaica's Social Welfare and Economic Development portfolio, organised the country's ska delegation to the 1964 New York World's Fair.