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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Geoffrey Chung

Producer. Reggae

Active
1960s-1995
Sunrise
1950 or 1951, Kingston, Jamaica
Sunset
1995

Geoffrey Aloysius Chung was a keyboard player, engineer, and producer, who worked at every stage of a record, from the session floor to the mixdown.

He was born in Kingston into a Chinese Jamaican family. He and his brother Mikey Chung began at St. George's College in a school vocal group called the Minstrels, with the schoolmate Lennox Robinson, which auditioned and recorded at Studio One and then for Federal. Through the 1960s Geoffrey worked as a session keyboardist and guitarist with the Mighty Mystics, with Lee Perry's Upsetters, and with the Now Generation Band, the group he is most identified with.

Now Generation began as a road band and gave up live work in 1972 to concentrate on sessions, becoming the house band at Federal. Both Chungs played in it, with Val Douglas on bass, Robbie Lyn and Earl "Wya" Lindo on keyboards, and Martin Sinclair and Mikey "Boo" Richards on drums. They backed Dennis Brown on "Wichita Lineman" and "Silhouettes," Ernie Smith on "Life Is Just for Living" and "Duppy Gunman," the Abyssinians on "Y Mas Gan," Junior Byles on "Beat Down Babylon," Peter Tosh on "Mawga Dog," and Pablo Moses on "I Man a Grasshopper," and they played on Glen Brown's productions and on Herman Chin Loy's Aquarius Dub in 1973.

Chung moved into production in the 1970s, beginning with Sharon Forrester's debut album, and set up Edge Productions in 1974. He produced the Abyssinians, the Heptones, and Marcia Griffiths; played synthesizer, organ, and piano on Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus' Rastafari Dub (1975); and produced the recordings issued as Ijahman Levi's first two albums. His longest relationship was with Pablo Moses, as keyboard player and producer both, from "I Man a Grasshopper" through A Song (1980) and Pave the Way (1981), on which Clive Hunt joined him. Mikey Chung gave him the credit for all of it: "He took Pablo Moses and made him Pablo Moses."

In the early 1980s he was resident engineer at Dynamic Sounds, where he mixed several Peter Tosh albums, and he co-produced early Frankie Paul records. Mikey said that "any engineer of any worth in Jamaica" would have great things to say about him. He moved to Miami late in the decade and built a studio of his own there, producing and engineering Maxi Priest's Best of Me in 1991. He departed in 1995.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Discogs credits him across more than seven hundred releases as performer, producer, engineer, and mixer. "Geoffrey Chung," Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/artist/224548-Geoffrey-Chung. The Observer calls him a "musician, songwriter, engineer, and producer." Herbie Miller, "Mikey Chung Remained in the Background," Jamaica Observer, March 20, 2022, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2022/03/19/mikey-chung-remained-in-the-background/.
  2. Mikey Chung told Angus Taylor that the Minstrels "did two tunes for Coxsone" and "two for Federal which they put on the Merritone label." Angus Taylor, "Interview: Mikey Chung in Kingston (Part 1)," United Reggae, December 12, 2018, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n2435/121218/interview-mikey-chung-in-kingston-part-1. The Observer says the brothers were drawn to music as students at St. George's College. Miller, "Mikey Chung Remained in the Background." Ibo Cooper, by contrast, recalled meeting them as students at Knox College in Manchester. Howard Campbell, "Well Played, Mikey," Jamaica Observer, March 3, 2022, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2022/03/03/well-played-mikey/.
  3. Mikey Chung said the Mighty Mystics, formed by students from St. George's and Kingston College, "became the Now Generation," and that Geoffrey, then studying at the university, "used to come around and fool around sometimes." Taylor, "Interview: Mikey Chung." Bradley names Geoffrey Chung among the guitarists in Lee Perry's 1970s session crew. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 326. His earliest credits on Discogs date from 1970 and 1971. "Geoffrey Chung," Discogs.
  4. Wikipedia says the band "quit road work to concentrate on studio work" in 1972. "Now Generation Band," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_Generation_Band. Mikey Chung said "the studio work became so hectic" that the band gave up the dance circuit, and that its early sessions were at Joe Gibbs's Duhaney Park studio and for Duke Reid. Taylor, "Interview: Mikey Chung." The Observer says the band worked freelance at Federal, backing Ernie Smith, Pluto Shervington, and Bob Andy. Miller, "Mikey Chung Remained in the Background."
  5. Wikipedia gives this lineup, citing Colin Larkin's Guinness Who's Who of Reggae. "Now Generation Band." The Observer names Largie Martin as the band's first drummer. Miller, "Mikey Chung Remained in the Background."
  6. Wikipedia credits the band with Tosh's "Maga Dog," Byles's "Beat Down Babylon," Smith's "Life Is Just for Living," the Abyssinians' "Y Mas Gan," and work for Glen Brown and on Aquarius Dub. "Now Generation Band." Mikey Chung named "Maga Dog" as one of the first two tunes the band played for Joe Gibbs. Taylor, "Interview: Mikey Chung." The Rough Guide says Pablo Moses's "I Man A Grasshopper" was "recorded at Perry's Black Ark studio by Geoffrey Chung." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 208.
  7. Wikipedia gives Sharon Forrester's debut as his first production and dates Edge Productions to 1974. "Geoffrey Chung," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Chung. Discogs dates Forrester's album Sharon to 1974 and credits him with productions from 1971 on. "Geoffrey Chung," Discogs.
  8. Discogs credits him as producer of Heptones singles in 1973, Marcia Griffiths singles in 1974 and 1975, and the Abyssinians' "Tenayistillin Wandimae" (1975). "Geoffrey Chung," Discogs.
  9. Discogs credits him on keyboards on Rastafari in Dub, with Tommy Cowan as producer. Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus, Rastafari in Dub, Top Ranking, Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/7130568. The Rough Guide lists the players on the parent album Rastafari (1975) without him, and says the next album, Kibir-Am-Lak, "simply" added "Geoffrey Chung on keyboards." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 173.
  10. The Gleaner says Ijahman recorded eleven songs in Jamaica, "demanded the tape from producer Geoffrey Chung and flew back to England with what eventually became his first two albums." "The Big Flop and the Big 'Buss'," Jamaica Gleaner, April 22, 2007, https://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070422/ent/ent5.html. Discogs credits Ijahman himself as producer of Haile I Hymn (1978), with Chung on organ and guitar and as brass arranger, and credits Chung as producer of Are We a Warrior (1979). Ijahman Levi, Haile I Hymn (Chapter 1), Island, Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/608162; "Geoffrey Chung," Discogs.
  11. The Rough Guide says Moses's first album, Revolutionary Dream, was produced by Chung, and calls A Song and Pave the Way "Geoffrey Chung productions." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 208-9. Discogs credits Chung as producer, arranger, engineer, and mixer of Pave the Way, with Clive Hunt on horn arrangements. Pablo Moses, Pave the Way, Mango, Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/1461941.
  12. Angus Taylor, "Interview: Mikey Chung in Kingston (Part 2)," United Reggae, January 18, 2019, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n2436/011819/interview-mikey-chung-in-kingston-part-2.
  13. Wikipedia says he was resident engineer at Dynamic in the early 1980s and mixed several Tosh albums. "Geoffrey Chung." Discogs credits him with mixing Mystic Man (1979) and Wanted Dread & Alive (1981). "Geoffrey Chung," Discogs.
  14. Taylor, "Mikey Chung in Kingston (Part 2)."
  15. Wikipedia says he moved to Miami in the late 1980s and set up a studio there. "Geoffrey Chung." Best of Me is a 1991 Maxi Priest compilation; Discogs credits Chung as a producer on Priest's Bonafide (1990), the source of "Close to You," and on Best of Me. "Geoffrey Chung," Discogs.
  16. Wikipedia gives his dates as 1950 to October 13, 1995, and the cause as liver failure. "Geoffrey Chung." Black Echoes gives November 1995 and kidney failure, against October 13, 1995 and liver failure elsewhere; the Observer calls him the younger brother of Mikey Chung, born 1950. "In Memoriam," Black Echoes Online, archived September 23, 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20180923051046/http://www.blackechoes.net/memoriam.htm.

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