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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Marjorie Whylie

Artist. Reggae

Active
1965-present
Sunrise
October 31, 1944, St. Andrew, Jamaica
Also known as
Marjorie Arnoldene Gregory Whylie, Whylie Wrhythm

Marjorie Whylie is a pianist, percussionist, composer, musicologist and educator, the musical director of the National Dance Theatre Company for forty-five years and one of the leading scholars of Jamaica's folk music.

Raised in the Collins Green community of St. Andrew, she began the piano as a small child, won a scholarship to St Andrew High School for Girls at nine, and read Spanish at the University of the West Indies, where she sang with the University Singers and played in the university's steel band. She then taught Spanish and music at Kingston College for nine years.

In 1962 she played for the dance classes of Roots and Rhythms, the production out of which Rex Nettleford and Eddie Thomas formed the National Dance Theatre Company. She joined the company as its pianist in 1965, soon became its musical director, also led its singers, and retired in 2013, staying on as a consultant and as musical director emerita. Her arrangements of traditional music carry Nettleford's Gerrehbenta (1983), with which the company opened its 2026 season in her honor.

In 1978, at Pamela O'Gorman's invitation, she joined the Jamaica School of Music, where she headed the folk music research department and later served as director of studies and acting director; at the University of the West Indies she became acting director of the Music Unit and in 2001 senior lecturer and head of department, retiring in 2010. Her writing includes Folk Songs of Jamaica (1997), with Joy Fairclough, and her 2005 Grace Kennedy Foundation lecture, Our Musical Heritage: The Power of the Beat.

As a performer she has held the piano chair in Sonny Bradshaw's Jamaica Big Band, led her own group, Whylie Wrhythm, at the Jonkanoo Lounge of the Wyndham Hotel in Kingston, and played with the saxophonist Cedric "Im" Brooks. She was inducted into the Jamaica Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997, received the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Theatre and Music in 2004 and the Institute of Jamaica's Bronze Musgrave Medal, and was raised to the Commander class of the Order of Distinction in 2015.

Last updated October 21, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Richard Johnson, "Marjorie Whylie's Curtain Call," Jamaica Observer, April 8, 2013, https://jamaicaobserver.com/2013/04/08/marjorie-whylies-curtain-call, which says she spent "47 years with the outfit, 45 as musical director."
  2. Johnson, "Marjorie Whylie's Curtain Call." "Marjorie Arnoldene Gregory Whylie, CD," Music Unites Jamaica, accessed October 21, 2026, https://www.musicunitesjamaica.com/marjorie-whylie.html. Lennox Aldred, "Music, Theatre, Culture: The Marjorie Whylie Story," Jamaica Gleaner, March 27, 2021, http://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/esponsored/20210327/music-theatre-culture-marjorie-whylie-story.
  3. "Marjorie Arnoldene Gregory Whylie, CD," which says she "spent nine years at K.C." Aldred, "Music, Theatre, Culture."
  4. Johnson, "Marjorie Whylie's Curtain Call," on the 1962 classes, joining "as a pianist in 1965," and her retirement. The Music Unites Jamaica profile dates her appointment as musical director to 1966. "Marjorie Arnoldene Gregory Whylie, CD." Aldred has her leading the company's singers. Aldred, "Music, Theatre, Culture." On her title, "NDTC Celebrates Marjorie Whylie with Joyful Tribute," Jamaica Gleaner, December 28, 2023, https://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20231228/ndtc-celebrates-marjorie-whylie-joyful-tribute.
  5. "NDTC Opens 64th Season of Dance: Pays Tribute to Marjorie Whylie, Jimmy Cliff," Jamaica Gleaner, July 8, 2026, https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20260708/ndtc-opens-64th-season-dance-pays-tribute-marjorie-whylie-jimmy.
  6. "Marjorie Arnoldene Gregory Whylie, CD."
  7. "Marjorie Whylie," Wikipedia, accessed October 21, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Whylie, for Folk Songs of Jamaica. Marjorie A. G. Whylie, Our Musical Heritage: The Power of the Beat, Grace, Kennedy Foundation Lecture 2005 (Kingston: Grace, Kennedy Foundation, 2005), https://gracekennedy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/gkf_-lecture-power-of-the-beat.pdf.
  8. "Marjorie Arnoldene Gregory Whylie, CD," which spells the group's name "Whylie Wrhythm." The playing with Brooks is reported in "Marjorie Whylie."
  9. Aldred, "Music, Theatre, Culture." "Marjorie Arnoldene Gregory Whylie, CD," on the Musgrave Medal.

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