World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

Remembering Derrick Harriott (1939-2026), rocksteady singer and producer. Read his story →

Rico Rodriguez

Artist. Ska, rocksteady, reggae

Active
1961-2015
Sunrise
October 17, 1934, Kingston, Jamaica
Sunset
September 4, 2015, London, England

Emmanuel "Rico" Rodriguez, also known as Reco and El Reco, was a trombonist whose recording career ran from the first Jamaican rhythm and blues sessions of the late 1950s through 2 Tone to Jools Holland's orchestra.

He was born in Kingston to a Cuban father and a Jamaican mother, and grew up on Mark Lane in the heart of the city. His mother sent him to Alpha Boys School, where he was taught the trombone by an older pupil, Don Drummond. He left for an apprenticeship as a mechanic, went back to music at the Stony Hill Industrial School, and played in the Eric Deans Orchestra. He was recording by 1957: Theophilus Beckford's "Easy Snappin'" for Coxsone Dodd, the Folkes Brothers' "Oh Carolina" for Prince Buster, Lloyd Clarke's "Parapinto Boogie," "Stew Peas and Cornflakes" under his own name for Duke Reid, and "Lightning Street" for Randy Chin. He also recorded for Lloyd Daley.

He took up Rastafari in his teens and in the 1950s went to live in Count Ossie's community in the Wareika Hills, staying until he left for England; Ossie's drumming, he later said, was the first thing that came to him when he began to write his own music. Harry Mudie issued a number of his singles on Rastafari themes from those years.

He moved to Britain in 1961 and for most of the next two decades played in London while working manual jobs. He joined live bands including Georgie Fame's Blue Flames, played on Prince Buster's "Wash Wash" and backed Buster on his British dates, recorded with his own Rico's All Stars and for Laurel Aitken, and formed Rico and the Rudies, whose albums Blow Your Horn and Brixton Cat appeared in 1969, the same year as "Reco in Reggae Land," a tribute to Drummond, on Pama. His trombone is on Dandy Livingstone's "Rudy, a Message to You" (1967). Island issued Man from Wareika in 1977, and Wareika Dub followed the same year. Katz wrote that the album "showed just how expressive the trombone could be in Rico's hands." Rico himself said: "I don't play trombone like a trombonist, I play trombone like saxophone." Trojan called his sound "rugged, eloquent, uncompromising and rarely more than two steps from the blues." Karl Pitterson was among the producers he worked with. He was the support act on Bob Marley's 1978 European tour.

He played on the Members' "Offshore Banking Business," and Ian Dury named him in "Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3" shortly before Jerry Dammers brought him into the Specials in 1979. He is the trombone on their "A Message to You Rudy," a remake of the Livingstone record he had played on twelve years earlier, and on "Ghost Town" (1981), and 2 Tone released his albums That Man Is Forward (1981) and Jama Rico (1982).

In 1982 he returned to Jamaica intending to stop performing, but left in 1987 to work with the Heartbeat Band in Switzerland, then returned to London, played with Jazz Jamaica and with Linton Kwesi Johnson in the early 1990s, and recut Man from Wareika for Island as Roots to the Bone in 1995. From 1996 until 2012 he was a member of Jools Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, and he guested on records by Paul Young, Suggs, Spiritualized, Ocean Colour Scene, Super Furry Animals, and Ray Davies. He was made an MBE in the 2007 New Year Honours and awarded the Silver Musgrave Medal in October 2012, and departed after a short illness in a London hospital at eighty.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. On his early session work, including Clue J's "Shufflin' Jug" and the Duke Reid Band, Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 24.
  2. Katz: "Born in Kingston, to a Cuban father and a Jamaican mother, Rico spent his formative years in the heart of the city on Mark Lane." David Katz, "Rico Rodriguez Obituary," Guardian, September 6, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/06/rico-rodriguez. Wikipedia instead has him born in Havana and brought to Jamaica as a child. "Rico Rodriguez (musician)," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rico_Rodriguez_(musician). Baird gives a Cuban father and a Jamaican mother and a childhood in downtown Kingston. Saxon Baird, "R.I.P: Emmanuel 'Rico' Rodriguez, 1934-2015," LargeUp, September 7, 2015, https://www.largeup.com/2015/09/07/r-i-p-emmanuel-rico-rodriguez-1934-2015/. Williams says he was "born to a Cuban father and a Jamaican mother" in "Kingston's teeming Mark Lane." Richard Williams, "Rico Rodriguez 1934-2015," The Blue Moment, September 7, 2015, https://thebluemoment.com/2015/09/07/rico-rodriguez-1934-2015/.
  3. Katz dates his entry to Alpha to 1940. Katz, "Rico Rodriguez Obituary." Rico told Augustyn that his mother sent him there after he was hit by a car while hustling on the waterfront, and that Drummond, the band's first trombone, "taught me the double tongue." Heather Augustyn, "Tribute to Rico," SkaBook (blog), September 4, 2015, https://skabook.com/2015/09/04/tribute-to-rico/, quoting her 2011 interviews for Don Drummond. "Rico Rodriguez (musician)," Wikipedia. On Alpha, Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 101, and Baird, "R.I.P: Emmanuel 'Rico' Rodriguez."
  4. Katz: "From 1952 until 1954, he worked as an apprentice car mechanic, but subsequently furthered his musical education at Stony Hill Industrial school," and he played with the Eric Deans Orchestra. Katz, "Rico Rodriguez Obituary."
  5. On the session bands, Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 50, 55. "Parapinto Boogie" came out on Duke Reid's label, "Lightning Street" on Randy's. "Laurel Aitken / Lloyd Clarke - More Whisky / Parapinto Boogie," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/5705473; "Rico / V. Foster Orchestra Feat Rico - Rico Special / Lightning Street," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/5517995. "Stew Peas and Cornflakes," credited to Aubrey Adams and Rico, appears on Coxsone Dodd's All Stars label rather than Duke Reid's. "Various - All Star Top Hits," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/8018240. Katz places him on "Easy Snappin'," Clue J's "Shufflin' Jug," "Oh Carolina," Derrick Morgan's "Lover Boy" for Duke Reid, and his own "Rico's Special" for Randy's, and says that "between 1957 and 1961, Rico worked for every producer of note in Jamaica." Katz, "Rico Rodriguez Obituary."
  6. "Rico Rodriguez (musician)," Wikipedia. See also "Rico Rodriguez: The Specials' Trombonist Dies Aged 80," BBC News, September 5, 2015, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34162351.
  7. The books differ on the date. The Rough Guide: "As early as 1953, trombonist Rico Rodriguez had gone to live in the Rasta community of Count Ossie, based then at Renock Lodge in the Wareika Hills." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 26. Katz: "In 1958, he settled in the Rastafarian encampment established by Count Ossie in the Wareika Hills." Katz, "Rico Rodriguez Obituary." Williams speaks of "his spell in the late '50s at Renock Lodge" and quotes him: "Most of what I know, I learnt from playing with them." Williams, "Rico Rodriguez 1934-2015." Rico told Augustyn, "I was leaving from Wareika Hills to come to England." Augustyn, "Tribute to Rico."
  8. Katz, "Rico Rodriguez Obituary."
  9. On 1961, "Rico Rodriguez (musician)," Wikipedia. Before leaving he cut "Rico's Farewell" and "Cuban Blockade" for Randy's. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 46. Williams mentions "a spell on the production line at Ford's Dagenham plant and another as a painter for a local authority." Williams, "Rico Rodriguez 1934-2015." Katz dates his departure to December 1961. Katz, "Rico Rodriguez Obituary."
  10. On Georgie Fame, Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 384; on his early British recordings, Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 383, and Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 125. The albums and labels are from "Rico Rodriguez (musician)," Wikipedia. On "Wash Wash" and Buster's British dates, Katz, "Rico Rodriguez Obituary."
  11. The Rough Guide names "1967's popular 'A Message To You Rudy' (Ska Beat), featuring the trombonist Rico Rodriguez." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 385.
  12. The Island LP was recorded "at Joe Gibbs and Randy's Studios... Sept. 1976" and issued in 1977. "Rico - Man From Wareika," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/507657. The Rough Guide says it was licensed to Blue Note "when first issued in 1978." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 151. "Rico - Wareika Dub," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/187822.
  13. Katz, "Rico Rodriguez Obituary." David Katz, "Remembering Pioneering Trombonist Rico Rodriguez," FACT, September 7, 2015, https://factmag.com/2015/09/07/remembering-pioneering-trombonist-rico-rodriguez. "Legendary Trombonist, Rico Passes Away," Trojan Records, accessed November 5, 2026, https://trojanrecords.com/?p=12185.
  14. Pitterson is credited as an engineer on "Man from Wareika." "Rico - Man From Wareika," Discogs. See also "The Specials' Trombonist Dies Aged 80."
  15. Katz, "Rico Rodriguez Obituary," which adds that the follow-up to "Man from Wareika" was shelved.
  16. "The Members - Offshore Banking Business," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/126377. On "Reasons to Be Cheerful," "Rico Rodriguez (musician)," Wikipedia.
  17. "Rico - That Man Is Forward," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/186957; "Rico - Jama Rico," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/469830. Baird places him on the Specials' first two albums. Baird, "R.I.P: Emmanuel 'Rico' Rodriguez."
  18. "Rico Rodriguez (musician)," Wikipedia. On Jazz Jamaica, Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 50; on "Roots to the Bone," Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 151. Katz says he spent "much of the 80s in solitude in Jamaica" and went to Switzerland in 1987 to work with the Heartbeat Band. Katz, "Rico Rodriguez Obituary."
  19. On Jools Holland's orchestra, 1996-2012, Baird, "R.I.P: Emmanuel 'Rico' Rodriguez." The guest appearances listed are from "Rico Rodriguez (musician)," Wikipedia.
  20. "The Specials' Trombonist Dies Aged 80." On the Musgrave Medal and his last illness, "Rico Rodriguez (musician)," Wikipedia.

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map