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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Ernest Ranglin

Artist. Ska, rocksteady, reggae

Active
1958-present
Sunrise
June 19, 1932, Manchester, Jamaica

Ernest Ranglin is the guitarist credited, in his own account and Bradley's, with working out the rhythm figure that became ska. He arranged the first Jamaican record to sell internationally and then spent sixty years playing jazz. Chris Blackwell has called him the most important musician to come out of Jamaica.

Two uncles taught him the rudiments and gave him a ukulele at four. He worked from guitar books and from records by Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt, and Les Paul, and took some sight-reading lessons from the violinist Tommy Tomlins, but was otherwise self-taught. At fourteen he left school for Kingston, and at sixteen he joined the Val Bennett Orchestra, then the Eric Deans Orchestra, one of the leading Caribbean swing bands, touring the region as guitarist and arranger. He met Monty Alexander during this period and worked with him for the rest of both their careers.

Through the 1950s he played on mento and calypso sessions and in hotel bands at the Myrtle Bank and the Half Moon. Island Records' first release, in 1959, was "Lance Haywood at the Half Moon Hotel," with Ranglin on guitar.

Working as a session guitarist and musical director at Federal and at the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, he began pushing the offbeat guitar accent that separates ska from the American shuffle it grew out of: a shuffle like boogie-woogie, he described it, with extra emphasis on the second and fourth beats. "I invented the music, but not the word," he said. His playing on Clue J and His Blues Blasters' "Shuffling Jug" is among the earliest recorded examples. Around 1962 Coxsone Dodd hired him as arranger at Studio One, where he wrote the arrangements and played on the Wailers' "Simmer Down" and "It Hurts to Be Alone." He was a constant presence on Skatalites sessions without ever being a member of the band. In 1963 he and the bandleader Carlos Malcolm sued the producers of the first James Bond film, Dr. No, over their work on its music, Ranglin saying that he had been engaged to look after the arrangements.

In 1964 Blackwell brought him to London, where the manager of Ronnie Scott's took him on reluctantly and then kept him as house guitarist for nine months, backing visiting artists and playing with Scott's own quartet. Melody Maker readers voted him top guitarist in the paper's jazz poll that year. While he was there, Blackwell asked him to arrange a session for Millie Small. Ranglin picked "My Boy Lollipop" and taught a room of English session players to phrase the Jamaican shuffle; the only other Jamaican on the record was the trumpeter Pete Peterson. It reached number two in Britain and sold in the millions, and it is the record that put ska into international pop.

He was back in Jamaica late in 1964, when he and the pianist Granville Williams formed a big band. He resumed session work with Dodd and worked with Lee Perry and Clancy Eccles as reggae took shape. In the 1970s he was musical director and guitarist for Jimmy Cliff's touring band, and he recorded Caribbean jazz with Monty Alexander, including Rass! (1974).

Jamaica awarded him the Order of Distinction in 1973 and later the Order of Jamaica, and the University of the West Indies gave him an honorary doctorate in 2002. He moved to Florida in the late 1970s and returned to jazz festivals and to his own records, including Below the Bassline (1996) and In Search of the Lost Riddim (1998), the latter made in Senegal with Baaba Maal's musicians. He announced his retirement from touring in 2016 with a series of farewell concerts.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. In Bradley's account, Coxsone Dodd called Ranglin and Cluett Johnson to a meeting and "decided on the beat," moving the stress to the afterbeat, after which "the guitar came in to stress it even more"; Ranglin then took the musicians to JBC and cut soft waxes to his own arrangements, the best of which became "Easy Snappin'." Bradley calls him the song's co-conceptualizer and arranger. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 52-55. Bradley also reports the story that Dodd coined "ska" while telling Ranglin to stress the off-beat. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 49. Other accounts differ: Katz credits Theophilus Beckford's piano with moving the stress to the afterbeat, and Prince Buster claimed the ska beat as his own. David Katz, "Theophilus Beckford," Guardian, March 19, 2001, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/mar/19/guardianobituaries1; Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 57-58. Augustyn notes "many versions of the birth of ska." Heather Augustyn, "Drumbago," SkaBook (blog), March 14, 2014, https://skabook.com/2014/03/14/drumbago/.
  2. Alan di Perna calls him the "first-call session guitarist and arranger" for Dodd, Prince Buster, Lee Perry, and Chris Blackwell. Alan di Perna, "The Life and Times of Jamaican Guitar Legend Ernest Ranglin," Guitar World, July 5, 2021, https://www.guitarworld.com/features/life-and-times-of-ernest-ranglin.
  3. Wikipedia says two uncles who played guitar introduced him to the instrument and that the violinist Tommy Tomlins taught him sight-reading. "Ernest Ranglin," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Ranglin. Ranglin told di Perna he "didn't really start to study the instrument professionally until I was 14." di Perna, "Life and Times of Ernest Ranglin."
  4. Wikipedia says he joined the Val Bennett Orchestra at fifteen; Ranglin told di Perna he began playing in big bands at "about 15." "Ernest Ranglin," Wikipedia. di Perna, "Life and Times of Ernest Ranglin." The Rough Guide says he brought the merengue back to Jamaica after the Eric Deans band toured the Dominican Republic in 1953, and that he also played in the Bahamas with Harold McNair and in Baba Motta's band. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 30, 49.
  5. The Rough Guide describes Monty Alexander and Ranglin playing "the same local circuit" in the 1950s and their later records together. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 49-51.
  6. Wikipedia says the album was Island's first release, in 1959, with Ranglin on guitar on side two. "Lance Hayward at the Half Moon Hotel," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Hayward_at_the_Half_Moon_Hotel. Di Perna says Island's second release, in 1960, was Ranglin's own Guitar in Ernest. di Perna, "Life and Times of Ernest Ranglin."
  7. Ranglin told Bradley that Dodd moved the R&B shuffle's stress "to the afterbeat," and that "people used to call the very early ska 'upside down R&B'." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 53. "Rhythm and Roots: The Influence of Jazz on Ska and Early Reggae," All About Jazz, accessed November 5, 2026, https://www.allaboutjazz.com/rhythm-and-roots-the-influence-of-jazz-on-ska-and-early-reggae.
  8. Di Perna says Ranglin, as Studio One's house arranger, "anchored" the session on "Simmer Down" and played "lyrical guitar embellishments" on "It Hurts to Be Alone." di Perna, "Life and Times of Ernest Ranglin."
  9. Di Perna says that when Ranglin went to London in 1964 he left his seat in the Skatalites to his guitar student Jah Jerry Hines. di Perna, "Life and Times of Ernest Ranglin." The Rough Guide lists him among the band's guitarists. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 42.
  10. Augustyn quotes the Gleaner's report of the suit: Malcolm said "he was engaged to compose and write musical scores and supervise the recordings, while Mr. Ranglin claims he was engaged to look after the arrangements." She found no record of the outcome. Heather Augustyn, "Spies, Gun Slingers, and Gumshoes. American Film in Jamaican Ska.," SkaBook (blog), September 24, 2013, https://skabook.com/2013/09/24/spies-gun-slingers-gumshoes-american-film-jamaican-ska/.
  11. Wikipedia says he spent nine months as resident guitarist at Ronnie Scott's and that Melody Maker's readers voted him top guitarist in their 1964 jazz poll; di Perna says he spent ten months in London. "Ernest Ranglin," Wikipedia. di Perna, "Life and Times of Ernest Ranglin."
  12. Ranglin told di Perna that "the only Jamaican musician on that recording, apart from myself, was a trumpeter named Pete Peterson." di Perna, "Life and Times of Ernest Ranglin."
  13. Bradley says the record, "produced by Chris Blackwell, but arranged by Ernie Ranglin using a local band," sold over six million, reached number 2 in Britain, and was top five in the United States. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 151. The Rough Guide calls it the record that made ska "the first Jamaican music to make a world impact." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 26.
  14. Augustyn quotes the Star of November 19, 1964, on the Granville Williams Orchestra, a fourteen-piece band that Williams formed with Ranglin and that made its debut on October 30, 1964, when "Ernest Ranglin had just returned from England." Heather Augustyn, "Granville Williams," SkaBook (blog), February 27, 2015, https://skabook.com/2015/02/27/g/. Di Perna names Jimmy Cliff, the Gladiators, and the Congos among his reggae collaborators of the 1970s. di Perna, "Life and Times of Ernest Ranglin." The Rough Guide dates Raas! to 1974, at Dynamic. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 49.
  15. Wikipedia gives the Order of Distinction in 1973, the honorary doctorate from UWI in 2002, and the Order of Jamaica in 2021. "Ernest Ranglin," Wikipedia. The Rough Guide says he moved to Florida "in the late 1970s" and that Below the Bassline launched Blackwell's Jamaica Jazz label. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 50-51.
  16. Di Perna says he announced his retirement in 2016 and led a farewell tour with players from Nigeria, Senegal, England, and the US. di Perna, "Life and Times of Ernest Ranglin."

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