World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

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Alva "Reggie" Lewis

Artist. Rocksteady, reggae

Active
1968-2013
Sunrise
April 16, 1949, Manchester, Jamaica
Sunset
February 4, 2013, St. Andrew, Jamaica

Alva "Reggie" Lewis was a guitarist, a member of the Hippy Boys and of the lineup that toured Britain in 1969 as the Upsetters.

He was born in Manchester parish, moved to Kingston at sixteen, and joined the Greenwich Farm session scene of the late 1960s. With the organist Glen Adams and the brothers Aston and Carlton Barrett he played in the Hippy Boys, the band the singer Max Romeo said he had formed. They became Sonia Pottinger's house band and recorded for Bunny Lee and Joe Gibbs as well. The same players issued vocal sides as the Soul Mates and, by some accounts, the Reggae Boys, with Lewis and Adams singing on "Them a Laugh and a Ki Ki" and "Ba Ba," also known as "What Is This." The Rough Guide calls him an excellent session guitarist who showed he could also sing, on the Lynn Taitt-arranged "Return Home" for the Caltone label.

When "Return of Django" became a British hit late in 1969 and Lee Perry's original Upsetters could not make the tour, the Hippy Boys went in their place under that name. On their return Perry put them behind the Wailers for the sessions that produced "Duppy Conqueror," "Small Axe," and "Mr Brown." The Barretts then left to join the Wailers permanently, which ended the band. Lewis went on recording for Perry and for Augustus Pablo through the 1970s, including his own "Natty Natty," before dropping off the session circuit. He worked at Tuff Gong for years afterward and departed at his home in St Andrew on February 4, 2013, at sixty-three.

Last updated November 1, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Harry Hawks, "Alva 'Reggie' Lewis," ReggaeCollector.com, updated October 20, 2014, https://www.reggaecollector.com/en/feature/artist.php?artist_id=680, which says he was the youngest of ten children and moved to Kingston at sixteen to finish school. On the Hippy Boys as a Greenwich Farm band, Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 105.
  2. Romeo: "So I formed a band called the Hippy Boys.... That was the great Family Man and his brother Carlton Barrett - I brought them into the business - and Alva Lewis and Glen Adams": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 105; see also 128 ("Max Romeo's old band the Hippy Boys"). Other accounts differ. Sleeper credits Glen Adams with forming the band with Lewis and the Barretts: Mick Sleeper, "Tribute to Glen Adams," United Reggae, January 4, 2011, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n543/010411/tribute-to-glen-adams. Wikipedia says Lloyd Charmers formed it in 1968: "The Hippy Boys," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hippy_Boys. Hawks lists Charmers alongside Adams on keyboards: Hawks, "Alva 'Reggie' Lewis."
  3. Barrow and Dalton note that Pottinger's instrumentals were "often credited to the Hippy Boys" and that the band also recorded for Bunny Lee and Lloyd Daley: Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 105, 128. Bradley lists the Hippy Boys among Joe Gibbs's acts and calls them "more or less the nucleus of the Upsetters - the Barrett brothers, Glen Adams and Reggie Lewis": Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 226.
  4. Sleeper says the band "recorded as the Reggae Boys and the Soul Mates, with Adams and Lewis performing vocals" on these two songs: Sleeper, "Tribute to Glen Adams." Barrow and Dalton, however, describe the Reggae Boys heard on a Joe Gibbs compilation as "probably the Pioneers": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 102. Bradley lists the Soul Mates, the Reggay Boys, and the Hippy Boys as separate Gibbs acts and counts "Them a Laugh and a Kiki" among Gibbs's hits: Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 226.
  5. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 80.
  6. "Return of Django" stood at number 5 on the British chart of November 15, 1969: Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 242. On the original Upsetters being unavailable and Perry turning to the Hippy Boys, Sleeper, "Tribute to Glen Adams." Hawks dates the tour to November 1969 and names Lewis among the players Perry took: Hawks, "Alva 'Reggie' Lewis." Dave Barker recalled the tour as lasting "about four weeks": Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 340.
  7. Barrow and Dalton identify Perry's Upsetters of this period as "Max Romeo's old band the Hippy Boys": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 128; on the Wailers records, 130. See also Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 343; Sleeper, "Tribute to Glen Adams."
  8. Hawks writes that the Wailers left Perry in 1971 "taking the drum and bass, Aston and Carlton Barrett," and that Lewis "stayed with Scratch": Hawks, "Alva 'Reggie' Lewis."
  9. Hawks lists his solo records "Ethiopian Land" and "Natty Natty" on Perry's Black Art and Upsetter labels: Hawks, "Alva 'Reggie' Lewis."
  10. Hawks reports that Rita Marley gave Lewis "permanent employment as a gate man at Tuff Gong" and that he died at his St Andrew home after a long illness: Hawks, "Alva 'Reggie' Lewis." His death notice gives his age as 63 and his address as Tuff Gong, Bell Road: "Alva Lloyd Lewis (Reggie)," Obits Jamaica, accessed October 1, 2026, https://obitsjamaica.com/obituaries/view/3778.

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