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 →

King Edwards

Vincent Edwards
Sunrise May 22, 1934, Sunset January 2, 2025
George Edwards
Sunrise 1930

Producer. Ska, rocksteady

Active
1955-1964

King Edwards "The Giant" was one of the three sound systems that dominated Kingston at the turn of the 1960s, alongside Duke Reid's Trojan and Coxsone Dodd's Downbeat, and the only one of the three whose operators have been largely written out of the history. The brothers Vincent Edwards (1934-2025) and George Edwards (born 1930) ran it. Rich Opre Lowe's Two Kings (2023), assembled from five years of interviews with both men, is the fullest account of them; Lowe had earlier written a book on Lloyd Daley.

The brothers came from St. Mary. Vincent traveled to the United States in 1954 and brought back records and equipment, and the sound they built out of it, first called Rock and Roll and then King Edwards, took its nickname from its power. A sister in Philadelphia kept him supplied with American records that no rival could match, which in the sound system economy of the period was the whole competitive advantage. Their base was a shop selling drinks and records at 135 Spanish Town Road, and their territory ran through Greenwich Farm, Whitfield Town, Jones Town, and Maxfield Avenue. Vincent recalled being "flopped" early on by a sound called Cavalier, rebuilding, and then beating Duke Reid and Coxsone on Beat Street; Red Hopeton was the deejay in its best years, the late 1950s and early 1960s, and Ernie Freeman's "Return to Me" was the tune it signed off with. Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff were among the young singers who came looking for work.

The King Edwards label carried significant ska records, including Baba Brooks's "Shank I Sheck," Shenley Duffus's "I Bet You Don't Know," Lord Tanamo's "I Had a Dream," and Eric "Monty" Morris's "Suddenly" and "Ungodly People." Prince Buster's run of records against the big three, "Three Against One," "The Duke," and "The King and the Sir," took Edwards as one of its targets, though Buster later said Edwards had come after him less hard than the others.

Vincent Edwards neither smoked nor drank, and by his own account the smoke in the studios was among the reasons he left the music business around 1964. He moved into politics, serving as member of parliament for St. Mary Western on a People's National Party ticket and holding party offices, and into horse racing, where he trained for around fifty years, saddled 241 winners, conditioned Dye Job, Secret, and Mr. Nutcracker, and led the Jamaica Racehorse Trainers' Association from 2004 until his sunset. He received the Order of Distinction in 2007. He was born May 22, 1934, and departed January 2, 2025, at ninety. George Edwards, the elder brother, had long since left Kingston for the countryside.

Last updated October 21, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide calls King Edwards the Giant "the third major sound system of the period," after Dodd's and Reid's. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 16. Bradley ranks it close behind Tom the Great Sebastian "in terms of power and prestige." Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 9.
  2. Vincent Edwards, quoted in the Rough Guide: "The whole idea owning a sound came from my brother. In October 1954, I migrated to the United States, but I didn't like it," and he came home with "an amplifier and many records," then rebuilt for the "heavy bass" Jamaican dances wanted. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 15. The early labels credit "G. Edwards." "Baba Brooks / S. Duffus - C. Brown, Shank I Sheck / No Body Know," King Edwards single, Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3600627.
  3. The Rough Guide says he "soon made a name for having an unparalleled selection of scarce US tunes." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 16. Edwards himself said that "from 1958, I started to ride the plane like a bus," buying records in person because imports brought "more bad than good ones." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 15.
  4. Edwards described being "flopped" by Cavalier, then "ruling in the West, around the Maxfield Avenue area, Greenwich Farm area," and flopping "Coxsone Downbeat and Duke Reid" on Beat Street. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 15. Bradley puts the sound in "the Maxfield Avenue/Waltham Park area." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 7. The Rough Guide names Red Hopeton as deejay and gives Ernie Freeman's "Return To Me" as "the theme song of King Edwards The Giant." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 16, 29.
  5. The Rough Guide calls John Holt a "former follower of the King Edwards sound" and says Toots Hibbert "made a dubplate for King Edwards" in 1961. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 34, 35.
  6. The Rough Guide says Edwards released records "on the King Edwards label" and names Baba Brooks's "Shank I Shek" among its instrumentals. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 16, 45. Discogs lists King Edwards pressings of "Shank I Sheck" (1964) and "I Bet You Don't Know" (1963). "Baba Brooks / S. Duffus - C. Brown, Shank I Sheck / No Body Know," King Edwards single, Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3600627; "Shenley Duffus, I Bet You Don't Know / Three Times Seven," King Edwards single, Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/11146688.
  7. Buster told Bradley that his success forced "Coxsone, Duke Reid and King Edwards into an alliance" and that he answered with "Three Against One" and "The King, the Duke and the Sir." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 58-59.
  8. Edwards: "I couldn't take the studio because of the smoking." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 15. The Rough Guide says he "finally retired from music production at the end of 1964." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 45. The sound itself was still advertised in the 1965 Festival street parade. Heather Augustyn, "Sound Systems at the Jamaica Festival," SkaBook (blog), April 19, 2014, https://skabook.com/2014/04/19/sound-systems-jamaica-festival/, reproducing a Daily Gleaner advertisement of July 31, 1965.
  9. The Gleaner says he ran as member of parliament for St. Mary Western in the 1970s, held several People's National Party posts, and led the Jamaica Racehorse Trainers Association for more than ten years. "Horseracing Stalwart, Former Politician Vincent 'Trainer' Edwards Has Died," Jamaica Gleaner, January 2, 2025, http://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20250102/horseracing-stalwart-former-politician-vincent-trainer-edwards-has-died. The Observer names Mr Nutcracker, Secret, and Dye Job among his A Class runners and says he was president of the association at his death. "Trainer Vin Edwards Passes On," Jamaica Observer, January 3, 2025, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2025/01/03/trainer-vin-edwards-passes/. In a 2013 interview with Michael Turner and Brad Klein, quoted by Augustyn, Edwards said, "I'm a politician. And a race horse trainer." Heather Augustyn, "A Horse Named Ska," SkaBook (blog), January 2, 2015, https://skabook.com/2015/01/02/horse-named-ska/.
  10. The Gleaner reported his death on January 2, 2025. "Horseracing Stalwart, Former Politician Vincent 'Trainer' Edwards Has Died," Jamaica Gleaner, January 2, 2025, http://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20250102/horseracing-stalwart-former-politician-vincent-trainer-edwards-has-died.

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