Count Boysie
Producer. Ska
- Active
- 1950s-1960s
Count Boysie ran one of the Kingston sound systems of the late 1950s and early 1960s and, like the bigger operators, had records made of his own to play out.
Prince Buster, recalling how he launched his Voice of the People sound, counted Count Boysie and Count John among the sounds that "were afraid to challenge Duke Reid, so they come with a halfway sound." Boysie nonetheless commissioned exclusive recordings: the guitarist Jah Jerry, working through Drumbago, made an instrumental for him called "Count Boysie Special" before going on to play for Buster. When the teenage James Chambers arrived in Kingston, the boy who would become Jimmy Cliff had already cut records for Count Boysie and for Sir Cavaliers before he approached Leslie Kong.
A mento singer billed as Count Boysie recorded "That Naughty Little Flea" for Stanley Motta in the 1950s; the Rough Guide does not say whether he was the same man.
Last updated October 21, 2026
Connections
- Drumbago (band member)
- Jah Jerry (band member)
- Jimmy Cliff (artist)
- Stanley Motta (producer)
- Duke Reid (rival)
- Prince Buster (rival)
Notes
- Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 33. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 32-33.
- Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 33, quoting Buster.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 33, quoting Jah Jerry.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 32.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 9, which suggests the Maytals' "Little Flea" may trace back to that 78.
