World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

Remembering Derrick Harriott (1939-2026), rocksteady singer and producer. Read his story →

The Ethiopians

Band. Ska, rocksteady, reggae

Active
1966-present
Also recorded as
Jack Sparrow

The Ethiopians recorded across ska, rocksteady, and reggae, and the lyrics of Leonard Dillon carried social criticism into Jamaican popular music several years before the roots era made it standard.

Dillon (December 9, 1942 – September 28, 2011) was born in Port Antonio and came to Kingston looking for work, finding it in construction and masonry, which he continued long after he was having hits. He recorded first on his own as Jack Sparrow, cutting mento-inflected sides for Coxsone Dodd with the Wailers backing him on some, none of which sold. He formed the Ethiopians in 1966 with Stephen "Tough Cock" Taylor and Aston Morris, and the name reflected the Rastafarian identification of Ethiopia as the homeland.

Their Studio One sides, including "Owe Me No Pay Me," "Free Man," and "Live Good," sit exactly on the join between ska and rocksteady. Morris left at the end of 1966 and the group continued as a duo.

The earnings were not enough to live on. Dillon met Albert Griffiths, later of the Gladiators, on a building site, and the two persuaded their employer, the property speculator Leebert Robinson, to pay for a session. The result was "Train to Skaville," self-produced, cut at Dynamic and issued on the WIRL label in 1967. It sold heavily in Jamaica, scraped the British chart, and brought the group to Britain to tour in 1968. "The Whip" and "Cool It Amigo" followed, cut at Treasure Isle with Lynn Taitt and the Jets and issued on Sonia Pottinger's Gay Feet label in Jamaica and on Graeme Goodall's Doctor Bird label in Britain.

"Everything Crash" (1968), produced by J.J. Johnson, is the one that mattered most. Its catalog of strikes and breakdowns, fire brigade, water authority, telephone company, was a direct response to a year of water rationing, power cuts, and civil disorder in which police shot thirty-one people. It was, Bradley says, the third best-selling record in Jamaica that year. Prince Buster covered it.

Through the early 1970s Dillon and Taylor recorded for whoever would pay, which was a large number of people, J.J. Johnson above all, but also Lloyd Daley, Duke Reid, Derrick Harriott, Rupie Edwards, Alvin Ranglin, Prince Buster, Joe Gibbs, Bob Andy, and Lee Perry. The albums Reggae Power (1969) and Woman a Capture Man (1970) collect some of it. Dillon also helped build Perry's Black Ark in 1973 and 1974.

Stephen Taylor departed in September 1975, after he was struck by a van while crossing a road near the petrol station where he was working. Dillon stopped for a period, then assembled a new Ethiopians and recorded Slave Call with Niney the Observer in 1977. He worked increasingly as a solo act under the name the Ethiopian, and recut "Everything Crash" for Studio One in 1980. He continued performing until shortly before his sunset in 2011.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Katz gives these dates, says Dillon was born in Boundbrook on the outskirts of Port Antonio and moved to Kingston at eighteen, and says he died of cancer at sixty-eight. David Katz, "Leonard Dillon Obituary," Guardian, October 16, 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/oct/16/leonard-dillon-obituary.
  2. The Rough Guide says Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston sang backing harmonies on "a couple of excellent titles" Dillon made as Jack Sparrow at Studio One after Bob Marley left for Delaware in February 1966. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 38. Katz says the session yielded four songs, three backed by the Wailers, including "Ice Water," and a fourth, "Woman Wine and Money," harmonized by Delroy Wilson. Katz, "Leonard Dillon Obituary." Bradley says Coxsone Dodd also used Bunny Wailer and Tosh to add "low-profile extra scope" to the Ethiopians' own harmonies. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 170. Wikipedia says sales of the Jack Sparrow singles were "not particularly high." "The Ethiopians," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ethiopians.
  3. Katz spells the third member's name Aston Morrison, says Dillon met him and Taylor while working as a mason, and says Dodd "christened the group the Ethiopians." Katz, "Leonard Dillon Obituary." Wikipedia says the trio had been debating between the Heartaches and the Ethiopians until Dodd chose the latter as more distinctive and more fitting for a spiritually minded group. "The Ethiopians."
  4. The Rough Guide places "Owe Me No Pay Me" among the records of the rudeboy and rocksteady period and names "I'm Gonna Take Over Now" as the group's first 45 for Coxsone. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 57, 58. Wikipedia lists the first Studio One songs as "Live Good," "Why You Gonna Leave Me Now," and "Owe Me No Pay Me," with "I Am Free" among the later ones. "The Ethiopians."
  5. Katz says Morrison quit for lack of ready finance after the trio's first four Studio One songs, but gives no date. Katz, "Leonard Dillon Obituary."
  6. Doumerc says Dillon and Griffiths became friends as masons on building sites and "convinced their employer, one Leebert Robinson," to finance a recording; Griffiths's "You Are The Girl" became the flip side of "Train to Skaville." Eric Doumerc, "The Gladiators: Roots Reggae Endures," Perfect Sound Forever, June 2020, https://www.furious.com/perfect/gladiators.html. Katz calls Robinson a "building contractor." Katz, "Leonard Dillon Obituary."
  7. Bradley says the record "was cut at the back end of 1966" and is "a textbook example of rocksteady" despite its title. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 109-10. The Rough Guide lists it among the Ethiopians' rocksteady discs on the WIRL imprint, over rhythms from Tommy McCook's Supersonics, and says Ronnie Nasrullah had built a new WIRL studio in the mid-1960s; the studio later became Byron Lee's Dynamic Sounds. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 82; Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 108. The Jamaican single credits "The Ethiopians with the Supersonics." The Ethiopians, "Train to Skaville" / "You Are the Girl," WIRL WL.152, Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/4510657.
  8. The single peaked at number 40 in a six-week chart run in 1967. "Train to Skaville," Ethiopians, Official Charts, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.officialcharts.com/search/singles/train%20to%20skaville/. Katz says it "inched into the top 40" and that the duo toured the UK the following year. Katz, "Leonard Dillon Obituary."
  9. The Rough Guide lists the Ethiopians' "much-versioned 'The Whip'" among the hits Pottinger recorded at Treasure Isle, all with rhythms from Lynn Taitt and the Jets. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 80-81. Bradley places "The Whip" on Pottinger's Gay Feet label. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 171. The Jamaican Gay Feet single (S 132) credits Lynn Taitt and the Jets, and Doctor Bird issued the coupling in Britain as DB-1096. The Ethiopians, "The Whip" / "Cool It Omego," Gay Feet S 132, Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/6255901; The Etheopians, "The Whip" / "Cool It Amigo," Doctor Bird DB-1096, Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/1727571. Other accounts differ: Katz calls "The Whip" and "Cool It Amigo" self-produced, with Robinson's backing, and Wikipedia says they were recorded at the WIRL studio with Lynford Anderson engineering and licensed to Pottinger. Katz, "Leonard Dillon Obituary." "The Ethiopians." Katz instead calls "Train to Skaville," "The Whip" and "Cool It Amigo" the duo's "self-produced singles," financed by Leebert Robinson. Katz, "Leonard Dillon Obituary." The bio gives the studio, band and label, on which the sources agree.
  10. Bradley says the song "chronicles the strikes of the time," was "most likely written and recorded before the Rodney incident" of October 1968, and became "the third best selling record in Jamaica in 1968." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 265. The Rough Guide credits the production to J.J. Johnson, and Katz says it was recorded with the session band the Caribbeats. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 110; Katz, "Leonard Dillon Obituary."
  11. The Rough Guide notes an "interesting" version of the song by Lord Creator. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 46.
  12. The Rough Guide notes Ethiopians tunes for Duke Reid in the early 1970s and the duo's "two biggest hits for Derrick Harriott." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 98, 102-3, 111. Bradley says Rupie Edwards "cut hits for" the Ethiopians and that they recorded for Perry's Upsetter label. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 227, 331. Wikipedia names a title for each producer, from Daley ("Satan Gal") to Perry ("Life Is A Funny Thing"). "The Ethiopians." Their most sustained partnership, the Rough Guide and Katz agree, was with J.J. Johnson. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 110-11; Katz, "Leonard Dillon Obituary."
  13. Wikipedia dates the albums 1969 and 1970 and says both were issued by Trojan in Britain. "The Ethiopians."
  14. Katz says Dillon helped to construct the Black Ark in 1973. Katz, "Leonard Dillon Obituary." Wikipedia gives 1973-74, citing Katz's biography of Perry. "The Ethiopians."
  15. Katz says Taylor died in a road accident in 1975. Katz, "Leonard Dillon Obituary."
  16. The album was issued in 1977, produced and arranged by Winston "Niney" Holness. The Ethiopians, Slave Call, Third World, Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/4432326.
  17. The 1980 Studio One album Everything Crash, credited to the Ethiopian and produced by Dodd, includes the title song. The Ethiopian, Everything Crash, Studio One, Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/696176. Bradley notes Jack Ruby's work with "original Ethiopian Leonard Dillon, who continued to work the group's name by himself." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 366.

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