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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Horace Andy

Artist. Reggae, dub

Active
1970-present
Sunrise
February 19, 1951, Kingston, Jamaica

Horace Andy, born Horace Keith Hinds on February 19, 1951, has been recording since the mid-1960s in what the Rough Guide calls a "strikingly effective, distinctively stylized high tenor voice" that "spawned a whole new school of Jamaican male singers." Bradley writes of his "lilting falsetto voice and supernaturally light, pleading delivery," and Donal Dineen of his "vibrato-laced tones."

His first single, "This Is a Black Man's Country," was made for Phil Pratt in the mid-1960s and went unnoticed. He auditioned successfully at Studio One in January 1970, and Coxsone Dodd renamed him: Andy after Bob Andy, partly to borrow the association and partly to keep him distinct from his cousin Justin Hinds, whose phrasing his own then resembled. "Got to Be Sure" came first, then "Something on My Mind," "See a Man's Face," "Night Owl," and "Mr. Bassie." "Skylarking," a rebuke to loitering youth rather than a love song, appeared on a Dodd compilation in 1971, proved itself on the sound systems, and was released as a single. The 1972 album of the same name was backed by Sound Dimension.

The mid-1970s work with Bunny Lee produced a second set of standards, including "Just Say Who," "You Are My Angel," "Zion Gate," and a re-cut "Skylarking." He also recorded for Derrick Harriott, the Hoo Kim brothers at Channel One, Winston Riley, Keith Hudson, and Augustus Pablo. In 1977 he moved to Hartford, Connecticut, and recorded In the Light and its dub for Everton DaSilva's Hungry Town label; DaSilva's life was taken in 1979. Pure Ranking (1978), produced by King Tubby, and Dance Hall Style (1982) anticipated the shape of the decade that followed, and he worked through the 1980s for King Jammy, Bobby Digital, and, in Britain, Mad Professor and Jah Shaka.

Massive Attack approached him in 1990 and he has sung on every album they have made, starting with Blue Lines in 1991. "I like the challenge of singing with Massive Attack," he has said, "no reggae producer allow me to sing like that." Ammar Kalia calls his "vibrato-heavy falsetto" one of dub's "defining features." He continues to record and tour.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide gives his birth name as Horace Hinds, born 1951 in Kingston, and says his "strikingly effective, distinctively stylized high tenor voice spawned a whole new school of Jamaican male singers." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 92, 199.
  2. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 346.
  3. Donal Dineen, "Sunken Treasure: Horace Andy's Dance Hall Style, 1982," Irish Times, May 13, 2016, https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/sunken-treasure-horace-andy-s-dance-hall-style-1982-1.2645678.
  4. The Rough Guide says Phil Pratt "first ventured into production with a very young Horace Andy around 1966." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 117. Elsewhere it dates "the beginning of his career" to the early 1970s, and Bradley says his career got "off the ground as a teenager at Studio One at the very beginning of the 1970s." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 199; Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 221.
  5. Andy told Bradley he queued for one of Dodd's Sunday auditions and sang "See a Man Face": "he say he like it, ask me to come back in a few days and it start from there." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 221.
  6. The Rough Guide credits the singer Larry Marshall with "considerable input in the early work of Horace Andy." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 92.
  7. The Rough Guide notes that he recorded several of his Studio One songs more than once, including "Every Tongue Shall Tell," "Just Say Who," "See A Man's Face," and "Something's On My Mind." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 92.
  8. The Rough Guide describes "Skylarking" as being "about the unemployed youth who waste their time idling on the street." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 199.
  9. The Rough Guide calls the Studio One Skylarking album "the best of Horace Andy's material at Brentford Road." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 92.
  10. The Rough Guide says Bunny Lee's anthology gathers "all of Horace Andy's major hits for Bunny Lee" along with versions of Studio One songs including "Skylarking," and names "Zion Gate" as a classic. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 154, 155, 200.
  11. The Rough Guide credits him with records for Derrick Harriott, Niney, Leonard "Santic" Chin, and Channel One; with "Love Is The Light" on Winston Riley's "Stalag" rhythm; with "Don't Think About Me" for Keith Hudson; and with "Rock To Sleep" for Augustus Pablo. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 117, 118, 157, 171, 199.
  12. The Rough Guide says In the Light and In the Light Dub were "originally released on Everton DaSilva's Hungry Town label," and that it was "Ital Vital" that came out on his own Rhythm label. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 200. It says the dub was mixed by Prince Jammy for "the New York-based Jamaican producer Everton DaSilva." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 237.
  13. The Rough Guide says the sparseness of Pure Ranking anticipated dancehall, and lists Dance Hall Style among Lloyd "Bullwackie" Barnes's Wackies releases. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 201, 427.
  14. Bradley, writing around 2000, says Andy had "recut some of his classics with Massive Attack." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 221.
  15. "Horace Andy: '3D Is a Brilliant Young Man. But Massive Attack Work Slow,'" Guardian, April 12, 2022, https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-guardian-usa/20220412/282024740797553.
  16. Ammar Kalia, review of Horace Andy, Midnight Rocker, Guardian, via Inkl, accessed November 5, 2026, https://www.inkl.com/news/horace-andy-midnight-rocker-review-the-jamaican-singer-s-finest-performances-yet.

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