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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Leroy Sibbles

Artist. Rocksteady, reggae

Active
1965-present
Sunrise
January 29, 1949, Jamaica

Leroy Sibbles (born Leroy Sibblies) sang lead for the Heptones and, in the same years, played bass and arranged at Studio One. Kevin O'Brien Chang and Wayne Chen called him the greatest all-round talent in reggae history, on the strength of his holding all three positions at once.

He grew up in Trench Town, where he learned guitar from two Rastafarian neighbors known as Brother Huntley and Carrot. A vocal group he was in auditioned for Duke Reid, who turned it down. Barry Llewellyn and Earl Morgan, who had formed a duo by 1964, met that group in a street-corner contest and afterward asked Sibbles to join them. The trio's first session was for Ken Lack's Caltone label in 1966, producing "School Girls" and "Gun Men Coming to Town." Neither was a hit, but the second was played on Radio Jamaica Rediffusion, which brought them to Coxsone Dodd's attention.

"Fattie Fattie" followed at Studio One in 1966 and sold heavily, and for the next five years the Heptones were the label's leading vocal group, the counterpart to the Techniques at Treasure Isle. "Pretty Looks Isn't All," "Get in the Groove," "Ting a Ling," "Sea of Love," "Party Time," "I Hold the Handle" and "Sweet Talking" belong to that run. Their approach was slower and more sustained than the ska singing that preceded it, modeled on the Impressions and the Temptations rather than on the speed of the Kingston studios.

Jackie Mittoo needed a bass player for a jazz trio and put Sibbles on the instrument. When Mittoo left Studio One in 1968, Sibbles took over much of what he had been doing: auditioning singers, arranging sessions, singing harmony and playing bass on a large share of what the studio issued until 1971, working with the Sound Dimension. His style, he has explained, was to lag the downbeat slightly. "Most of these bass lines made a lot of people hit songs," he says.

The lines that traveled furthest are on the instrumental "Full Up," recut by the Mighty Diamonds as "Pass the Kouchie" in 1981 and by Musical Youth as "Pass the Dutchie" in 1982, and on Alton Ellis's "I'm Still in Love," the Abyssinians' "Satta Massagana" and Cornell Campbell's "Queen of the Minstrel." Horace Andy's "Mr. Bassie" is addressed to him.

He was paid almost nothing for any of it, and said so afterward, his complaint being less about money than about credit: the producer, in his account, was the person who found the part, and at Studio One that person was frequently him. The Heptones left Dodd over payment in 1971, going first to Joe Gibbs, for whom they cut "Hypocrite," aimed at Dodd, and went on to record for a long list of producers, including Harry J, Lee Perry, Joseph "Jojo" Hoo Kim, Niney the Observer, Clive Chin, Gussie Clarke, Prince Buster, Phil Pratt, Harry Mudie and Rupie Edwards. "Book of Rules," sung by Llewellyn and built on R. L. Sharpe's poem "A Bag of Tools," was their biggest record, issued by Trojan in 1973. Sibbles emigrated to Canada the following year.

The group signed to Island in 1975 and made Night Food with Danny Holloway in 1976 and Party Time with Lee Perry in 1977. Sibbles left the Heptones in 1978 and did not return until the reunion of the original trio in 1995. He worked as a soloist with Lloyd "Bullwackie" Barnes, Lloyd Parks, Sly and Robbie, Augustus Pablo and Bruce Cockburn, but mostly produced himself. In Canada he won a U-Know award for best male vocalist in 1983 and a Juno for best reggae recording in 1987, recorded an album for A&M, licensed several to Pete Weston's Micron label, and took part in the Toronto hip-hop collective single "Can't Repress the Cause" in 1990.

He appeared at Reggae Sunsplash through the 1980s, returned to Jamaica permanently in the mid-1990s, and was central to the rocksteady revival built around the Heineken Startime shows. He recut "Full Up" with Beenie Man in 1996 and appeared in the 2009 documentary Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae. In 2009 he set up the Bright Beam label and moved further into production. He now bills himself as the king of the reggae bassline.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Wikipedia, citing Chang and Chen's Reggae Routes (1998). "Leroy Sibbles," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leroy_Sibbles. Bradley calls him "probably the most important man in rocksteady/reggae" in purely musical terms. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 215.
  2. Wikipedia, citing Dave Thompson's Reggae & Caribbean Music. "Leroy Sibbles."
  3. Wikipedia, citing Thompson, dates the founding of the Heptones by Llewellyn and Morgan to 1958 and Sibbles's joining to 1965. "Leroy Sibbles." Bradley, however, has Sibbles as the group's "lead singer and songwriter" from 1962, and quotes him: "The Heptones come into music in 1962 or '63, just after independence." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 215-16. The Rough Guide gives Llewellyn's birth year as 1947 and Morgan's as 1945. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 70. Katz says Llewellyn and Morgan had formed a duo "by 1964" and that the group, "initially known as the Hep Ones," was "officially founded in 1965" after they met Sibbles in Newland Town. David Katz, "Barry Llewellyn Obituary," Guardian, December 2, 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/dec/02/barry-llewellyn.
  4. The Rough Guide: "The Heptones, for instance, cut their first two 45s for Lack." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 80. The titles and the RJR airplay are from Wikipedia. "Leroy Sibbles." Katz says that after the Ken Lack session the group was "rejected by Duke Reid and Leslie Kong" before signing "a five-year contract with Studio One." Katz, "Barry Llewellyn Obituary."
  5. Sibbles told Bradley that after "Fattie Fattie" the radio banned it, "but everywhere, in the jukeboxes, in the rum shops, in the dance, everywhere playing it. For nearly a year, pure 'Fattie Fattie'." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 217. The Rough Guide calls the Heptones Dodd's "mainstay for the period." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 70.
  6. Sibbles: "We were listening to American groups like the Impressions and the Temptations ... and our style was always more mellow, slower than ska." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 216.
  7. The Rough Guide says Sibbles learned bass under Mittoo and "first played in a jazz trio led by Mittoo during early 1967." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 68. Bradley says Mittoo "let Coxsone know that the lead singer in his most promising rocksteady group had musical talents to match his vocal abilities." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 215.
  8. Bradley says Dodd relied "mostly" on Sibbles or Mittoo to choose acts at auditions, and that "Leroy Sibbles edged Jackie Mittoo to one side as the man in charge of the music at Studio One." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 215. The Rough Guide dates the Sound Dimension's run of rhythms "from late 1967 until Mittoo's departure for Canada in 1968." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 90.
  9. Wikipedia: "Sibbles has explained that his style was to lag the downbeat slightly." "Leroy Sibbles."
  10. Angus Taylor, "Interview: Leroy Sibbles in Kingston (Part 1)," United Reggae, November 13, 2017, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n2307/111317/interview-leroy-sibbles-in-kingston-part-1.
  11. The Rough Guide credits Gussie Clarke's "Pass the Kouchie" with bringing the "Full Up" rhythm back in 1981 and notes Musical Youth's version; it names Sibbles as bassist on "Satta Massa Gana," recorded at Studio One in 1969. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 182, 285. Sibbles told Bradley he played on "Queen of the Minstrels" and "Satta Massa Gana." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 217. Wikipedia calls "Mr. Bassie" Horace Andy's tribute to him. "Leroy Sibbles." Augustyn calls "Full Up" a rhythm "originally created by Leroy Sibbles," with Headley Bennett on saxophone, that became a hit for the Sound Dimension. Heather Augustyn, "Tribute to Deadly Headley," SkaBook (blog), September 1, 2016, https://skabook.com/2016/09/01/tribute-deadly-headley/.
  12. Bradley says he was "responsible for the signing of so many artists and for the sound and feel of so much of that classic catalogue," and that "it was lack of recognition as much as lack of payment that led to the resentful parting" in 1971. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 215.
  13. Katz says they left "following disputes over payment" and recorded "Hypocrite," "aimed at" Dodd, for Joe Gibbs, then moved to Harry J in 1973, "equally dissatisfied with Gibbs's attitude towards payment." Katz, "Barry Llewellyn Obituary." The other producers are from Wikipedia, citing Thompson. "Leroy Sibbles." Bradley quotes Sibbles on Perry at the Black Ark. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 327.
  14. Discogs lists the 1973 Jamaican album Book of Rules on Harry J's Jaywax label, produced by Harry J, and a 1973 UK single on Island. "The Heptones, Book of Rules," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/1334430; "The Heptones, Book of Rules," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/2367154. Wikipedia gives Trojan for Book of Rules and, citing Katz, 1973 for the move to Canada. "Leroy Sibbles." Katz gives 1974 for the move to Canada. Katz, "Barry Llewellyn Obituary."
  15. The 1976 Island sleeve of Night Food credits Danny Holloway as producer and says it was recorded at Harry J's studio. "The Heptones, Night Food," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/5150087. Bradley: "The Heptones cut the Party Time LP with Perry at the Ark." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 364. Discogs dates Party Time to 1977. "The Heptones, Party Time," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/186765.
  16. Wikipedia says instead that he "left the Heptones in 1976, midway through a US tour," and "returned to the Heptones in 1991." "Leroy Sibbles." Katz says Sibbles returned to Jamaica in 1976 and made his "decisive exit" the year after Party Time. Katz, "Barry Llewellyn Obituary."
  17. The Rough Guide lists "former Heptone Leroy Sibbles" among the established Jamaican artists who worked with Bullwackie in New York. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 426-27. The other names are from Wikipedia. "Leroy Sibbles."
  18. The Juno went to Mean While in 1987. "Juno Award for Reggae Recording of the Year," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_Award_for_Reggae_Recording_of_the_Year. The U-Know award, the A&M album, the Micron licensing, and "Can't Repress the Cause" are from Wikipedia. "Leroy Sibbles."
  19. Wikipedia lists Sunsplash appearances in 1980, 1981, 1983, 1986, and 1990, the 1996 "Original Full Up" with Beenie Man, and the 2009 documentary. "Leroy Sibbles."
  20. Wikipedia, citing Howard Campbell in the Jamaica Observer (2012), dates the Bright Beam label to 2009. "Leroy Sibbles."

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