Keys behind the riddim

The Wailers Band formed in 1981 from surviving Bob Marley & the Wailers instrumentalists led by Aston "Family Man" Barrett and Junior Marvin, continuing to tour and record - including 1989's I.D. - after drummer Carlton Barrett's 1987 death, with keyboardist Keith Sterling among its later lineup.

Keith Sterling (born Keith Sterling-McLeod, January 1952, Kingston) is a Jamaican piano and keyboard player who passed through The Upsetters, The Aggrovators, Soul Syndicate, Word, Sound and Power and We The People Band, playing on every Peter Tosh album from Bush Doctor onward and later joining The Wailers Band.

Organist whose tone is stamped on the rocksteady-to-reggae turn: Treasure Isle's keyboard chair, the swirling lead on the Harry J All Stars' "Liquidator" (1969), and decades of session work at Dynamic. With Jackie Mittoo, one of the two organ voices every Jamaican keyboardist learned from.

Handel Tucker (born 24 October 1957) is a Jamaican keyboardist, songwriter and record producer whose writing and production credits include Maxi Priest's "Just a Little Bit Longer" (1991) and work with Diana King, Buju Banton and Ini Kamoze.

Franklyn "Bubbler" Waul entered Kingston's studios as a teenager and became a core keyboardist of Joe Gibbs' house band The Professionals, playing on Dennis Brown's "Money in My Pocket", Culture's "Two Sevens Clash" and Althea & Donna's "Uptown Top Ranking", and later worked with We The People Band and Sly & Robbie's Taxi Gang.

Jackie Mittoo (born Donat Roy Mittoo, 1948-1990) was a Jamaican keyboardist, composer and arranger who served as musical director and house-band leader at Coxsone Dodd's Studio One, where he played on and arranged a vast body of ska, rocksteady and early reggae recordings. A founding member of the Skatalites in 1964, he composed enduring organ-driven instrumentals and riddims such as "Darker Shade of Black" and helped shape Studio One classics like the Cables' "Baby Why." He emigrated to Toronto in the late 1960s, remaining active in Canada and briefly rejoining the Skatalites before his death from cancer in 1990.

Gladstone "Gladdy" Anderson (1934-2015) was a Jamaican pianist, keyboardist and session leader who played on hundreds of ska, rocksteady and reggae recordings and led Gladdy's All Stars. He is popularly credited with coining the term "rock steady" while describing Hopeton Lewis's "Take It Easy," a session he played on.

Ansel (Ansell) Collins is a Jamaican keyboardist best known as half of the duo Dave and Ansell Collins, whose Winston Riley-produced single "Double Barrel" topped the UK singles chart in 1971 and reached the US Billboard Hot 100. Collins played the Hammond organ on the track, on which a young Sly Dunbar made one of his earliest recorded drum appearances. He remained an active session and touring musician within Jamaican reggae.

Robert "Robbie" Lyn is a Jamaican session pianist, keyboardist and synthesiser player who worked through backing bands including Now Generation, Sound Dimension and Word, Sound and Power, and freelanced extensively for Sly and Robbie's Taxi productions while touring with Burning Spear, Peter Tosh and Third World.

Taxi Gang is the expanded studio and touring band built around producer-musicians Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare following their 1978-79 launch of the Taxi label, drawing on session players including Robbie Lyn, Franklyn "Bubbler" Waul and Ronald "Nambo" Robinson to anchor the 1980s "rockers" and rub-a-dub sound on productions for Black Uhuru and others.