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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Pablo Moses

Artist. Reggae

Active
1975-present
Sunrise
1953, Jamaica

Pablo Moses, born Pablo Henry on June 28, 1948, is a roots singer whose first album, Revolutionary Dream, is among the most admired records of the period, and whose high, cool voice and watchful stance set him apart from the other Rasta singers of the time.

He grew up in Manchester and later in Vineyard Town, Kingston, sang in school groups, and entered talent shows with Don Prendes as the Canaries. He came to recording late. Auditions at Treasure Isle and Studio One went nowhere, in one case after he camped outside the studio waiting for one, and he was twenty-seven before he persuaded Geoffrey Chung, of the Now Generation band and a fellow resident of Vineyard Town, to produce "I Man a Grasshopper." Chung refused until Moses threatened to take the song to Herman Chin Loy instead. It was cut in a day at Lee Perry's Black Ark, where Perry also mixed it, and Jamaican radio banned it for its subject.

Revolutionary Dream appeared in 1975 on Jigsaw, produced by Chung, recorded by Errol Thompson at Joe Gibbs's studio and mixed by Karl Pitterson at Randy's, with "I Man a Grasshopper" the exception on both counts. Frank Aird played the trumpet call that opens the title track and Robbie Lyn the keyboards, and Tommy McCook wrote the horn arrangements. "Blood Money" came from the same sessions. The album was reissued in the United States in 1978 as I Love I Bring.

It earned him little, and he went to the Jamaica School of Music for two years, gathering a band there and playing clubs and campuses, before returning with A Song (1980) and Pave the Way (1981), both made with Chung for Island and Mango, with Clive Hunt joining the partnership. When Chung and Island parted he signed to Alligator for In the Future (1983), which carried "Ready, Aim, Fire," and Tension (1985). Live to Love (1987), We Refuse (1990), Confession of a Rastaman (1993) for Musidisc, and Mission (1995) for RAS followed; We Refuse was produced with Robbie Lyn and mixed by Steven Stanley and Chung.

A gap of roughly a decade between 1998 and 2010, which he attributed partly to label changes and partly to a head injury that put him in a coma, ended with The Rebirth. The Itinuation appeared in 2017. He has continued to record and to tour, mainly out of France, where his catalog has been reissued in full.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Moses gives 1948 as his birth year in Angus Taylor, "Interview: Pablo Moses," United Reggae, December 1, 2010, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n516/120110/interview-pablo-moses. The Rough Guide has "b. Pablo Henry, 1953." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 208.
  2. The Rough Guide calls him "a far more sophisticated artist" than Little Roy or Fred Locks and "a highly original vocalist," notes "Moses' cool style of delivery," and says he "always appeared as a conscious commentator, slightly removed from the feelings he articulated." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 208, 209. Erik Magni hears a voice that is "peaceful, high and cool." Erik Magni, "Pablo Moses - The Revolutionary Years (1975-83)," United Reggae, January 4, 2017, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n2167/010417/pablo-moses-the-revolutionary-years-1975-83.
  3. On his childhood in Manchester Parish, Angus Taylor, "Revolutionary Dream: The Life and Music of Pablo Moses," United Reggae, August 19, 2016, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n2130/081916/revolutionary-dream-the-life-and-music-of-pablo-moses; on Vineyard Town, Taylor, "Interview: Pablo Moses." The Canaries are mentioned only in the Wikipedia article, which cites Sandra Brennan's AllMusic biography. "Pablo Moses," Wikipedia, accessed October 4, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Moses. Prendes sings harmony on "Revolutionary Dream." "Pablo Moses - Revolutionary Dream," Discogs, accessed October 4, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3714552.
  4. Moses: "I even camped outside to get an audition." Taylor, "Revolutionary Dream." Taylor dates the single to 1975 and gives Moses's age then as twenty-seven, a figure that rests on the 1948 birth year.
  5. Taylor, "Revolutionary Dream."
  6. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 208, where the single is said to have been "recorded at Perry's Black Ark studio by Geoffrey Chung." On the one-day session and the radio ban, Taylor, "Revolutionary Dream." The album sleeve credits Lee Perry with recording and mixing the track. "Pablo Moses - Revolutionary Dream," Discogs, accessed October 4, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3714552.
  7. The sleeve of the Jigsaw LP reads: "Recorded at Joe Gibbs Studio, Kingston, Jamaica and mixed at Randy's Recording Studio, Kingston, Jamaica except 'I Man A Grasshopper', which was recorded and mixed at Black Ark Studio," and credits Errol Thompson as engineer and Karl Pitterson as mixer. "Pablo Moses - Revolutionary Dream," Discogs, accessed October 4, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3714552. The Jamaican Penetrate pressing is dated 1976, the year David Katz gives in Taylor, "Revolutionary Dream."
  8. The sleeve credits Frank Aird and Richard "Dirty Harry" Hall on trumpet and Robbie Lyn on piano, organ and synthesizer, with horn arrangements by Tommy McCook. "Pablo Moses - Revolutionary Dream," Discogs, accessed October 4, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3714552; see also Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 209. On McCook's "imaginative horn arrangements," Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 209.
  9. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 208-9, which lists "Blood Money" (Jigsaw) with the singles of 1975-76 that preceded the album. The single credits the E.T. (Errol Thompson) studio. "Pablo Moses - Blood Money," Discogs, accessed October 4, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/544829.
  10. "Pablo Moses - I Love I Bring," Discogs, accessed October 4, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/2127454.
  11. Moses told Taylor he spent "two and a half years" at the school. Taylor, "Interview: Pablo Moses." On what the first album earned him: "I made a small amount... a small advance." Gerard McMahon, "Interview: Pablo Moses Gets Personal," United Reggae, April 13, 2012, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n816/041312/interview-pablo-moses-gets-personal. For Chung as producer of "A Song," "Pablo Moses - A Song," Discogs, accessed October 4, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/2347176; Taylor names Chung and Hunt as the producers of both albums. Taylor, "Interview: Pablo Moses." See also Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 209. No source was found for the club and campus dates.
  12. "Pablo Moses - In The Future," Discogs, accessed October 4, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/2514842; "Pablo Moses - Tension," Discogs, accessed October 4, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/299446, which dates the American and French issues to 1984 and the Jamaican issue to 1985. Moses has described his Island years as being "signed and shelved." Taylor, "Revolutionary Dream."
  13. Discogs dates "Live to Love" (Rohit) to 1987. The "We Refuse" sleeve credits Moses and Robbie Lyn as producers and Steven Stanley and Geoffrey Chung as mixers. "Pablo Moses - Live To Love," Discogs, accessed October 4, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/550767; "Pablo Moses - We Refuse," Discogs, accessed October 4, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3427690; "Pablo Moses - The Confession Of A Rastaman," Discogs, accessed October 4, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/461472; "Pablo Moses - Mission," Discogs, accessed October 4, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/708951.
  14. Moses cited a "change of distribution companies and recording companies" and added: "about four or five years ago I went through an accident where I hit my head and was in a coma for four days." Taylor, "Interview: Pablo Moses." In 2016 he spoke of an accident "in the early 2000s" and a coma of two weeks. Taylor, "Revolutionary Dream."
  15. "Pablo Moses - The Itinuation," Discogs, accessed October 4, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/1198293. Discogs lists French reissues of "Revolutionary Dream," "A Song" and "In the Future" by Grounded Music and others; no source was found that the whole catalog has been reissued, or that he now works mainly out of France.

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map