Hugh Malcolm
Artist. Rocksteady, reggae
- Active
- 1966-1970s
Hugh Malcolm was a session drummer of the rocksteady and early reggae years, one of the two drummers Duke Reid relied on at Treasure Isle, and the player Clancy Eccles credited with changing the beat from rocksteady to reggae.
At Treasure Isle the drum chair went to either Arkland "Drumbago" Parks or Malcolm, whom the Rough Guide remembers as "renowned for his tendency to swear profusely at the smallest provocation." Eccles, describing the sessions he produced after setting up on his own in 1967, with Hux Brown and Gladstone Anderson among the players, said that "it was Hugh Malcolm that change the beat from rocksteady to reggae." Ernest Ranglin called him "the first reggae drummer" and "the man who everybody wanted to play on their session," and the bassist Jackie Jackson counted him among the Treasure Isle drummers. Malcolm also recorded under his own name: his "Good Time Rock" was issued by Joe Gibbs in 1968, and other singles of 1968 and 1969 include "Mortgage," "Love Brother Love" and "Come Brothers." He played with Tommy McCook and the Supersonics, and his drumming is credited on records by the Wailers and Lee Perry's Upsetters from the same years.
Last updated October 21, 2026
Connections
- Tommy McCook (bandleader)
- Joe Gibbs (producer)
- Lee "Scratch" Perry (session work)
- Duke Reid (session work)
- The Wailers (session work)
- Gladstone Anderson (session work)
- Ernest Ranglin (session work)
- Clancy Eccles (session work)
- Drumbago (worked with)
- Hux Brown (session work)
- Jackie Jackson (session work)
- Treasure Isle (session work)
Notes
- Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 64, 109.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 64.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 109, from an interview with Eccles; the two-column layout of the page interleaves the quotation, which is given here as it reads once the columns are separated.
- Angus Taylor, "Interview: Ernest Ranglin (Part 1)," United Reggae, February 11, 2012, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n886/021112/interview-ernest-ranglin-part-1. Angus Taylor, "Interview: Jackie Jackson Talks Treasure Isle," United Reggae, August 5, 2016, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n2117/080516/interview-jackie-jackson-talks-treasure-isle, who says, "And then Hugh Malcolm was also in there."
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 101, which singles it out among the tracks on a Gibbs compilation. The singles and their years are from Discogs (see the next note).
- "Hugh Malcolm," artist page, Discogs, accessed October 21, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/artist/389435-Hugh-Malcolm, which lists him with Tommy McCook and the Supersonics and credits him on compilations of the Wailers' late-1960s singles, Lee Perry's Upsetters and Clancy Eccles's productions.
