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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Earl "Chinna" Smith

Artist. Reggae, dub

Active
1972-present
Sunrise
August 6, 1955, Kingston, Jamaica

Earl Smith, known as Chinna, is the lead guitarist of a very large share of roots reggae. Angus Taylor credits him with giving Soul Syndicate's records "a distinctive serrated sound," and the Rough Guide singles out his "brilliant guitar workout" on "Bingo Kid" and the "Swiss music-box effects" of "The Harp Sound." In 2012 LargeUp ranked him second among reggae guitarists.

He was born in Kingston 13 and grew up within earshot of his father's sound system; he first saw a guitar at seven or eight, when a visitor brought one to the house. He learned by watching the Soul Syndicate's guitarist at rehearsals. He joined the band in the early 1970s as lead guitarist, and it became one of the most heavily booked session groups in Kingston, backing Burning Spear, the Wailing Souls, Jimmy Cliff, Big Youth, and Dennis Brown. He played on Burning Spear's Marcus Garvey and Man in the Hills. For Niney he built the guitar introductions to Dennis Brown's "Westbound Train," "Cassandra," and "No More Will I Roam," modeling them, he said, on the opening of Al Green's "Love and Happiness." His riff also stands out on Johnny Clarke's "None Shall Escape the Judgement."

Carlton Barrett brought him to the Wailers, and at Harry J's he recorded, by his count, more than twenty tracks for Rastaman Vibration, whose credits list him on lead and rhythm guitar; he is credited on lead and rhythm guitar on the 1976 concert issued as Live at the Roxy. By his own account he also wrote Junior Byles's "Fade Away." He also played on Peter Tosh records and for most of the producers working in the second half of the 1970s. He later formed the High Times Band and ran the High Times label.

Since the 1990s he has hosted acoustic sessions in his yard in St. Andrew, which became the Inna de Yard project: veteran singers performing their catalogs unplugged, with hand percussion and Smith's guitar. The recordings and the 2019 documentary that came out of it brought a number of older artists back into circulation. He continues to play.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Angus Taylor calls him a figure "connected in some way to almost everyone and everything" in Jamaican music, whose guitar gave Soul Syndicate's records "a distinctive serrated sound." Angus Taylor, "Interview with Earl Chinna Smith in Jamaica [Part I]," Reggaeville, December 6, 2013, https://www.reggaeville.com/artist-details/earl-chinna-smith/news/view/interview-with-earl-chinna-smith-in-jamaica-part-i/. LargeUp calls him "one of the hardest working guitarists from the days of ska to reggae." On "Bingo Kid" and "The Harp Sound," Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 179.
  2. LargeUp ranks him second and calls him Bob Marley's and the Riddim Twins' "preferred six-string partner." Jesse Serwer, Martei Korley, and Sherman Escoffery, "Toppa Top 10: The Best Reggae Guitarists," LargeUp, October 24, 2012, https://www.largeup.com/2012/10/24/toppa-top-10-the-best-reggae-guitarists/6/.
  3. Taylor describes him as "born in Kingston 13 and raised within earshot of not one but two family sound systems"; Smith: "My old man owned a sound system back in the late 50s, early 60s," and of his first sight of a guitar, "It was love at first sight." Taylor, "Earl Chinna Smith [Part I]."
  4. Smith: "I learned all the songs just by the image, the shapes and the movements." Taylor, "Earl Chinna Smith [Part I]."
  5. Smith told Taylor that George Fullwood formed Soul Syndicate, that he joined "later as a little youth," and that he was soon "like the bandleader"; Wikipedia says he joined after guitarist Cleon Douglas emigrated. Taylor, "Earl Chinna Smith [Part I]." "Earl 'Chinna' Smith," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_%22Chinna%22_Smith. The Rough Guide places the "young band from Greenwich Farm" with Keith Hudson in the early 1970s. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 118.
  6. The Rough Guide says Big Youth's self-produced records of 1973-76 usually featured "Earl 'Chinna' Smith's excellent Soul Syndicate band," and that Soul Syndicate played on Dennis Brown's "Westbound Train" for Niney. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 188, 196. Taylor says Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley sought out Smith's playing. Taylor, "Earl Chinna Smith [Part I]."
  7. Album credits list Smith on lead guitar on Marcus Garvey (1975) and on lead and rhythm guitar on Man in the Hills (1976). "Marcus Garvey (album)," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Garvey_(album); "Man in the Hills," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_in_the_Hills.
  8. Smith told Taylor that the guitar-led introductions to "Westbound Train," "Cassandra," and "No More Will I Roam" were built on the opening of Al Green's "Love and Happiness." Taylor, "Earl Chinna Smith [Part I]." The Rough Guide confirms Soul Syndicate on "Westbound Train." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 196.
  9. LargeUp: "You can hear his guitar riff stand out on 'None Shall Escape The Judgement.'" Serwer, Korley, and Escoffery, "Toppa Top 10."
  10. Smith recalls Barrett telling him, "Hey Chinna, you have to come play with the Wailers!" Stephen Cooper, "A Kingston Reasoning with Legendary Guitarist Earl 'Chinna' Smith (The Interview: Part 2)," CounterPunch, July 10, 2020, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/07/10/a-kingston-reasoning-with-legendary-guitarist-earl-chinna-smith-the-interview-part-2/. Of the album: "I went to Harry J and did Rastaman Vibration where they recorded me on about over 20 odd tracks." Taylor, "Earl Chinna Smith [Part I]." "Bob Marley and the Wailers: Rastaman Vibration," Discogs, accessed October 23, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/844464; "Bob Marley and the Wailers: Live at the Roxy," Discogs, accessed October 23, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/633409.
  11. Smith calls the song his own and recalls Santa Davis setting the tempo: "Santa [knew] the tempo already - and one lick from Santa!" Cooper, "Kingston Reasoning." The UK Jama issue of the single credits Junior Byles as writer. "Junior Byles: Fade Away," Discogs, accessed October 23, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/864153.
  12. Wikipedia credits him on Bob Marley's Rastaman Vibration, Live at the Roxy, Exodus, Survival, Uprising, and Confrontation. "Earl 'Chinna' Smith," Wikipedia. The Rough Guide lists him in Bunny Lee's Aggrovators, on Ras Michael's Rastafari with Peter Tosh, and with the Super Rockers; Bradley lists him among Lee Perry's Black Ark guitarists. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 153, 173, 193; Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 326.
  13. Smith told Taylor that he founded the High Times label with Bertram Brown and Teddy Reynolds; Wikipedia dates it to 1980. Taylor, "Earl Chinna Smith [Part I]." "Earl 'Chinna' Smith," Wikipedia. The Rough Guide notes the High Times Band backing Josey Wales. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 259.
  14. Taylor describes Inna De Yard as an acoustic roots movement that grew up around Smith "just by staying at home and playing the guitar" at his home in St. Andrew. Taylor, "Earl Chinna Smith [Part I]." Wikipedia dates the yard recordings, released by the French label Makasound, to the 2000s. "Earl 'Chinna' Smith," Wikipedia.
  15. Peter Webber's Inna de Yard: The Soul of Jamaica (2019) follows the recording of a new album in St. Andrew in 2017. "Inna de Yard: The Soul of Jamaica," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inna_de_Yard:_The_Soul_of_Jamaica.

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