Pablove Black
Artist. Reggae, roots
- Active
- 1968-present
- Sunrise
- October 24, 1950, Kingston, Jamaica
- Also known as
- Paul Dixon, Paul Anthony Dixon, Senor Pablo
Pablove Black is a keyboard and melodica player whose Studio One instrumentals, in the Rough Guide's judgment, "more than stand comparison with the best of Augustus Pablo's."
Born Paul Anthony Dixon in Kingston, he played in the Federal All Star Steel Band and in the Wanderers, and sang with Earl "Bagga" Walker's Soul Defenders, before he joined Coxsone Dodd's Studio One crew in 1971 as a keyboard player, arranger and backing singer. He described his job there as "overall musical coordination," auditions and horn sections included, and called Jackie Mittoo "my teacher," the one man who could move him from instrument to instrument. A version of "Java" that Prince Buster issued under the name "Senor Pablo" is in fact his. He preferred playing over the Twelve Tribes of Israel's Jah Love sound system to working in the studio, but after Studio One he cut instrumental versions of Fred Locks's "Black Star Liners" and "The Last Days"; his albums include Mr. Music Originally (1979) and Charcoal Charlie (1986).
A Rasta elder, bandleader, medical student and healer, he was a leading member of the Twelve Tribes when Bob Marley was shot in December 1976. He had refused to play the Smile Jamaica concert, wary of any connection with a political party three months before an election, and had stopped going to Hope Road after recognizing two gunmen there the week before; he arrived at Marley's side shortly after the shooting and spent the next two days with him. He first gave his account publicly in 1998, at the Reggae Archives in Los Angeles.
Last updated November 5, 2026
Connections
- Coxsone Dodd (producer)
- Prince Buster (producer)
- Fred Locks (collaborator)
- Bob Marley (friend)
- Studio One (session work)
Notes
- Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 209, which gives his birth name as Paul Dixon.
- "Pablove Black," Wikipedia, accessed October 21, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablove_Black, citing his Discogs discography and South Florida Caribbean News.
- Stephen Cooper, "Interview with Pablove Black (Part 1)," Info-Jamaica, March 5, 2026, https://info-jamaica.com/?p=29177.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 99.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 209. On the albums: "Pablove Black."
- Roger Steffens, "The Night Bob Marley Got Shot," Rolling Stone Australia, July 10, 2017, https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-night-bob-marley-got-shot-1877, an excerpt from So Much Things to Say, quoting Black: "three months before the election I don't do anything for any politician on any side 'cause you get marked."
