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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Carlos Malcolm

Artist. Ska

Active
1958-2026
Sunrise
November 10, 1934, Colón, Panama
Sunset
May 6, 2026
Also known as
Carlos Antonio Malcolm, Carlos Malcolm and His Afro-Jamaican Rhythms, Afro-Jamaican Rhythms

Carlos Malcolm was a trombonist, percussionist, arranger and bandleader whose Afro-Jamaican Rhythms played their own Latin-tinged version of ska and had a hit with "Bonanza Ska."

Born in Colón, Panama, to Jamaican parents, he learned the trombone from his father, a trombonist himself, and grew up in Kingston and worked as a photojournalist for the West Indian Review alongside his music. As head arranger in the variety department of the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation he wrote some of the first formal arrangements of ska, and he wrote much of the incidental music for the first James Bond film, Dr. No. His first gigs, in the late 1950s, were with the Vivian Hall All Stars, where he and Don Drummond became close friends and often practiced together. He said he wrote fifty-three scores for Dr. No and earned nothing beyond his fee: "I signed away my life." It took him two years to watch the film.

In 1963, inspired by Machito and Mongo Santamaria, he formed the Afro-Jamaican Rhythms, with Karl Bryan on saxophone, Larry McDonald on congas, Winston "Sparrow" Martin on drums, and Boris Gardiner, Lascelles Perkins and Joe Higgs among the singers; alongside ska they played Malcolm's arrangements of Jamaican folk and mento. The band blended jazz, mento, calypso, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms, and it could work a jazz club, a hotel ballroom, or a backing job for a major vocalist; Olivia Grange said his arrangements gave Jamaican music "a new elegance." "Rukumbine" (1963) was a hit, and their version of the Bonanza theme was a big one in 1964. He spent time in New York in the mid-1960s, was an artist in residence in San Diego in 1999, moved to Florida in the 2000s, and departed in 2026, at ninety-one.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 46.
  2. "Carlos Malcolm," Wikipedia, accessed October 21, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Malcolm, citing a Dignity Memorial obituary and the Jamaica Observer (2008). On Dr. No: Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 46.
  3. "Carlos Malcolm 'a Gift to Jamaica and the World': Renowned Trombonist and Bandleader Dies at 91," Jamaica Gleaner, June 4, 2026, https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20260604/carlos-malcolm-gift-jamaica-and-world-renowned-trombonist-and.
  4. "Veteran Musician Carlos Malcolm Regrets His Deal with James Bond's 'Dr. No'!," Clinton Lindsay, April 2, 2014, https://clintonlindsay.com/2014/04/02/veteran-musician-carlos-malcolm-regrets-his-deal-with-james-bonds-dr-no.
  5. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 8, 46. On Higgs and the year: "Carlos Malcolm."
  6. "Carlos Malcolm 'a Gift to Jamaica and the World.'"
  7. "Carlos Malcolm." The Rough Guide calls "Bonanza" the band's "best-remembered hit." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 46.
  8. "Carlos Malcolm."

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