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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Richard "Dirty Harry" Hall

Artist. Reggae

Active
1970s-present
Sunrise
October 7, 1951
Sunset
Manhattan, New York (life taken)
Also known as
Dirty Harry

Richard Hall, known as Dirty Harry, was a tenor saxophonist and, with Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, one of the two leads in Theodoros Bafaloukos's Rockers (1978).

He studied saxophone at Alpha Boys School and was a lifelong friend of Horsemouth's from there. His session work runs through several of the best-known roots records of the mid-1970s. In 1974 he played on Jacob Miller's "Keep On Knocking" for Augustus Pablo's Rockers production team, and he is on Pablo's "King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown." In 1975 he was brought in for Burning Spear's Marcus Garvey, made by Jack Ruby with the Black Disciples, and he played on Peter Tosh's Equal Rights (1977).

In Rockers he plays a version of himself, a struggling musician and Horsemouth's companion. He is in the backyard scene in which he, Bobby Ellis, Herman Marquis, and Tommy McCook play the Abyssinians' "Satta Massagana," and in the scene in which he and Horsemouth, unhappy with the music at a club, take over the turntables. His photograph is on the cover of the film's VHS release.

His life was later taken during a robbery in Manhattan; Alpha Boys School Radio gives the year as 1994.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. "Rockers (1978 film)," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockers_(1978_film); Patricia Meschino, "CIA, Guns, and Rasta: Inside the Making of Rockers, Reggae's Most Iconic Film," Daily Beast, August 2, 2020, https://www.thedailybeast.com/cia-guns-and-rasta-inside-the-making-of-rockers-reggaes-most-iconic-film/.
  2. On Alpha, "Richard Hall (musician)," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hall_(musician). Alpha Boys School Radio calls Wallace his classmate there. "Richard 'Dirty Harry' Hall," Alpha Boys School Radio, accessed November 5, 2026, https://www.alphaboysschoolradio.com/post/alpha-richard-dirty-harry-hall.
  3. His nickname came from Glen Brown's "Dirty Harry," a "masterful horns workout from saxophonists Tommy McCook and Richard Hall." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 119. He was also among the Upsetters' hornsmen. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 176.
  4. The album credits him on tenor saxophone. "Augustus Pablo - King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/131443. The Rockers single of "Keep On Knocking" (1974) carries no musician credits; his part is reported in "Richard Hall (musician)," Wikipedia.
  5. The Rough Guide says Jack Ruby's Burning Spear productions were "driven by the horns of Richard 'Dirty Harry' Hall, Herman Marquis, Vin Gordon and Bobby Ellis." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 146. The Jamaican "Equal Rights" credits him on tenor saxophone. "Peter Tosh - Equal Rights," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/1607288. On the Black Disciples, "Richard Hall (musician)," Wikipedia.
  6. "Rockers (1978 film)," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockers_(1978_film).
  7. On the backyard scene, "Richard Hall (musician)," Wikipedia. Meschino places the turntable scene at the Turntable Club, where Hall "forcibly takes control of the DJ booth, replacing the soul selections with reggae." Meschino, "Inside the Making of Rockers."
  8. "Richard Hall (musician)," Wikipedia.
  9. "Richard 'Dirty Harry' Hall," Alpha Boys School Radio. Meschino: "Dirty Harry was murdered in a Manhattan robbery several years after Rockers was filmed." Meschino, "Inside the Making of Rockers."

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