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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Hux Brown

Artist. Rocksteady, reggae

Active
1960s-2020
Sunrise
December 4, 1944, Port Antonio, Portland, Jamaica
Sunset
June 18, 2020, Oakland, California

Lynford "Hux" Brown was the guitarist on many of the records that first carried reggae abroad, among them Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion."

He was born in Port Antonio, and the nickname came out of the schoolyard by way of "Fordie" and "Fordux." He started with a show band called the Vikings, moved to Kingston, and in 1966 joined Lynn Taitt's band the Jets, alongside Gladstone Anderson, Headley Bennett, Winston Wright, and Hopeton Lewis. Taitt's method was percussive and economical, the guitar muted and often doubling the bass line, and Brown learned it at close range for two years before Taitt left for Canada in 1968.

What he did with it was to adapt it to the newer reggae style. Musicians called the clipped, muted offbeat chop he played "chicken scratch." "He played what we called the chicken scratch on Mother And Child Reunion, him was the king of dat!" said Jackie Jackson, who played bass beside him for decades. "Everybody wanted to know how Hux do dat." Paul Simon's record was cut at Dynamic Sounds in 1971 with Kingston session players and released the following year.

The rest of the résumé is a list of the records that carried Jamaican music abroad. For Leslie Kong at Beverley's he played on Desmond Dekker's "Israelites," the Melodians' "Rivers of Babylon," Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come," and much of Toots and the Maytals' best work, including "Pressure Drop," "Monkey Man," and "54-46 Was My Number." He recorded with Gladdy's All Stars and on Lee Perry's early Upsetter sides.

In the early 1970s he joined Toots and the Maytals' working band with Jackson, drummer Paul Douglas, and guitarist Radcliffe "Dougie" Bryan, and stayed roughly thirty-five years. He moved to Oakland, California, and lived there for the rest of his life, touring with the band until he came off the road in the early 2000s. In November 2019 he was honored in Kingston alongside Jackson, Bryan, and Douglas. He departed in Oakland the following June, at seventy-five.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Wikipedia gives his dates as December 4, 1944, to June 18, 2020. "Hux Brown," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hux_Brown.
  2. Wikipedia attributes the nickname story to David Katz's Perry biography, People Funny Boy. "Hux Brown."
  3. Wikipedia's Lynn Taitt article, citing Colin Larkin, says the Jets formed in 1966 and included Brown, Headley Bennett, Hopeton Lewis, Gladstone Anderson, and Winston Wright. "Lynn Taitt," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Taitt. Wikipedia's Brown article instead traces him from the Vikings to Studio One's Soul Brothers, to Treasure Isle in 1967, and to Gladdy Anderson's All Stars in 1968. "Hux Brown."
  4. Wikipedia says Taitt moved to Toronto in August 1968 and that Brown "adapted Taitt's approach to the newer reggae style." "Lynn Taitt."
  5. "Hux Brown Is Dead," Jamaica Observer, June 19, 2020, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2020/06/19/hux-brown-is-dead/.
  6. Wikipedia lists Brown on lead guitar and Jackie Jackson on bass, and says the song was recorded in 1971 at Dynamic Sounds with Jimmy Cliff's backing group. "Mother and Child Reunion," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_and_Child_Reunion.
  7. The engineer Lynford Anderson, who recorded most of Leslie Kong's hits, told David Katz that his own sessions used "Gladdy's All Stars. Gladdy is on all of my songs, Hux Brown, Lynn Taitt, I think." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 91. Clancy Eccles names Hux Brown among the players at the session where, he says, the beat changed from rocksteady to reggae. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 109. Wikipedia credits Brown on "Rivers of Babylon" and "The Harder They Come." "Hux Brown."
  8. Wikipedia says he "recorded extensively with Lee 'Scratch' Perry," citing Katz. "Hux Brown."
  9. Wikipedia says he stayed with the touring Toots and the Maytals "for some 35 years." "Hux Brown."
  10. Wikipedia says he died in Oakland, aged seventy-five. "Hux Brown."

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