Duke Reid the Trojan

Arthur Reid's sound system, named for the Trojan truck it travelled on, and Coxsone Downbeat's great rival through the late 1950s. Reid was a former policeman who ran the sound with a well-documented showmanship, and like Dodd he moved into producing to supply it — the path that led to Treasure Isle and the rocksteady catalogue.

As late as 1963 Reid was still an R&B loyalist, contemptuous of the new ska beat as a passing fad, and preferred running imported American records to paying for further sessions; attendance at his dances thinned during that stretch, which is credited with pushing him to finally commit to the style. Once he did, he produced some of ska's strongest work behind the Skatalites and singers including Slim Smith, Justin Hinds, Alton Ellis and Stranger Cole, and was the ska producer most inclined toward Jamaica's older mento tradition.