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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Don Carlos

Artist. Reggae

Active
1973-present
Sunrise
June 29, 1952, Kingston, Jamaica

Euvin Spencer, who records as Don Carlos, was an original member of Black Uhuru, which Derrick "Duckie" Simpson formed in Waterhouse in 1972 with him and Garth Dennis, sang on the group's earliest sessions, and was gone before it became famous. "I didn't really leave it," he said. "The group just automatically split up in a way that I think was premature."

He went solo in the late 1970s and recorded steadily through the following decade, mostly for small labels. Delroy Wilson was his model as a boy, and the Rough Guide places him among the singers of the declamatory style associated with Waterhouse, a sound he says the Jays first established; it adds that he suffered from overexposure. Suffering (1981), Just a Passing Glance (1984), and a long run of singles established a following.

He recorded and toured with the singer Gold as Don Carlos and Gold through the 1980s. In the early 1990s he and Garth Dennis reunited with Simpson in a version of Black Uhuru, which recorded Now and toured, before splitting again. He has continued as a solo act since and still tours.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide calls it "the group that Simpson founded," originally with "Rudolph 'Garth' Dennis (later of the Wailing Souls) and future solo star Don (Mc)Carlos." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 148. Wikipedia says the group formed in Waterhouse in 1972 as Uhuru, and gives his name as Euvin McCallus Spencer. "Black Uhuru," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Uhuru; "Don Carlos (musician)," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Carlos_(musician).
  2. Wikipedia says the trio's first releases, a cover of the Impressions' "Romancing to the Folk Song" and "Time Is on Our Side," made no impression, after which Carlos went solo. "Black Uhuru," Wikipedia.
  3. The Rough Guide says the group reached a wider audience with the later line-ups of Simpson, Errol Nelson, and Michael Rose, then Simpson, Rose, and Puma Jones with Sly & Robbie. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 148-49.
  4. Angus Taylor, "Interview: Don Carlos," United Reggae, June 23, 2010, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n407/062310/interview-don-carlos.
  5. The Rough Guide says he cut "strong records" for Henry "Junjo" Lawes in the early 1980s, and that Day to Day Living, his third album, "exposed his reliance on a limited number of melodic and lyrical ideas." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 268. It also notes his dancehall cut of Al Campbell's "Late Night Blues." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 253.
  6. Taylor, "Interview: Don Carlos"; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 268.
  7. Wikipedia lists Suffering (1981, Negus Roots) and Just a Passing Glance (1984, RAS). "Don Carlos (musician)," Wikipedia.
  8. Wikipedia lists several Don Carlos & Gold albums in his discography. "Don Carlos (musician)," Wikipedia.
  9. Wikipedia says Simpson, Carlos, and Dennis reunited after performing together at a 1990 awards show in California, that Now followed in 1991 and was nominated for a Grammy, and that the group split again in 1996. "Black Uhuru," Wikipedia.

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