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 →

Sonia Pottinger

Producer. Rocksteady, reggae

Active
1965-2010
Sunrise
1930 or 1931, St. Thomas, Jamaica
Sunset
November 3, 2010, St. Andrew, Jamaica

Sonia Eloise Pottinger (née Durrant) was the first woman to produce records in Jamaica, and she worked at it for twenty years.

She was born at Leith Hall in St. Thomas, moved to Kingston as a child, attended St. George's girls' school, trained as a secretary and studied accountancy before marrying the accountant Lindon O. Pottinger. The couple ran a bicycle shop and a bakery. In 1961 Lindon opened a small recording studio, described in several accounts as the first in Jamaica owned by a black Jamaican, and issued records on Gaydisc, Golden Arrow and SEP, the last of these his wife's initials, recording the Maytals, Derrick Harriott, Lord Tanamo and the teenaged Millie Small. In 1964 he sold his equipment to Duke Reid and the Pottingers separated soon afterward. She decided to carry on producing.

She kept the Tip Top record shop on Orange Street, which the couple had set up, and began producing in 1965 or 1966. Her first release was "Every Night" by Joe White and Chuck Josephs, who had sung alongside Roy Shirley and Ken Boothe in the Leaders. Her labels were Tip Top, Gay Feet, High Note, Rainbow, Excel, Pep, Sky Note and, for gospel, Glory. Through the rocksteady years and into early reggae she recorded Roland Alphonso, the Ethiopians ("The Whip"), Delano Stewart, the Melodians ("Swing and Dine"), the Gaylads ("Hard to Confess"), the Silvertones ("Guns Fever"), Ken Boothe, Alton Ellis, Toots and the Maytals, Stranger Cole and Patsy Todd, the Hippy Boys ("Dr. No Go") and the gospel singer Otis Wright. Errol Brown was her engineer through the 1970s. "She knew what she wanted in the studio, and had a lot of respect for the musicians," he said. She was also among the first producers after Prince Buster to bring Nyabinghi hand drums into the music.

In 1974 she bought the Treasure Isle label from Duke Reid, a long-standing friend, shortly before his sunset. Rather than rebuild his studio she put the catalog back into circulation: the Hottest Hits volumes, the Treasure Dub albums mixed by Brown, and Justin Hinds and the Dominoes' From Jamaica with Reggae. Her right to the recordings was challenged by the Jamaica Recording and Publishing Studio Limited, the company behind Coxsone Dodd's operation, by Reid's son Anthony, and by Bunny Lee. The case was decided in her favor in 2009.

Her own productions of the roots years were substantial: Culture's Harder Than the Rest (1978), Cumbolo and International Herb, Marcia Griffiths's "Dreamland" and "Stepping Out of Babylon," Judy Mowatt's "I Shall Sing," and albums by Bob Andy, U-Roy, Big Youth and Phyllis Dillon. In the dancehall era she produced Archie and Lynn's "Rat in the Centre."

She gave up production by 1985, in the face of piracy and a changed market, and turned to a ceramics business; she was made an Officer of the Order of Distinction in 2004, and in her last years had Alzheimer's disease. She departed at her St. Andrew home in 2010 at seventy-nine. The thanksgiving service held for her that November drew Judy Mowatt, Alvin Ranglin, Donovan Germain and Tommy Cowan.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide calls her "Jamaica's only female record producer until the 1980s" and "the most successful female producer in Jamaican music." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 105, 80. Augustyn: "She was a female producer, the first female producer, in a sea of men": Heather Augustyn, "Sonia Pottinger: Phenomenal Woman," SkaBook (blog), May 30, 2014, https://skabook.com/2014/05/30/sonia-pottinger-phenomenal-woman/.
  2. Katz says she was the youngest of three children, born Sonia Durrant at Leith Hall, and that she attended St. George's girls' school in Kingston, took secretarial and accountancy courses, and married the chartered accountant Lindon Pottinger: David Katz, "Sonia Pottinger Obituary," Guardian, November 18, 2010, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/nov/18/sonia-pottinger-obituary.
  3. Katz says the couple ran a bicycle store and a shop selling her patties, that Lindon began producing in 1961 with the labels Gaydisc, Golden Arrow and SEP, and that his home studio was "the first such facility in Jamaica to be owned and operated by a black person," recording the Maytals, Derrick Harriott and Lord Tanamo: Katz, "Sonia Pottinger Obituary." Millie Small is named among his artists in "Sonia Pottinger," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Pottinger. Bradley mentions Lindon Pottinger's R&B and boogie records and his licensing to Island. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 93, 130.
  4. Katz says Lindon sold his equipment to Duke Reid in 1964 and that the couple separated the following year: Katz, "Sonia Pottinger Obituary."
  5. The Rough Guide says she owned the Tip Top store on Orange Street and released records "from 1966." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 80. Moore dates her first release, "Every Night," to 1965 and says it reached number one. Roberto Moore, "Sonia 'Miss P' Pottinger," Kool 97 FM, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.kool97fm.com/component/content/article/12?mlt=system&tmpl=component. Katz says the Tip Top shop and distribution center was "established by the Pottingers," and that she turned to production after they separated in 1965: Katz, "Sonia Pottinger Obituary."
  6. On the Leaders, David Katz, "Roy Shirley," Guardian, August 28, 2008, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/aug/28/worldmusic.
  7. The Rough Guide names Gay Feet, Tip Top, Rainbow, and High Note. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 80. Sky Note and Glory appear in the discography in "Sonia Pottinger," Wikipedia. Katz names Gay Feet, Excel, Pep, High Note and, for gospel, Glory: Katz, "Sonia Pottinger Obituary."
  8. Bradley lists "The Whip," "Swing and Dine," and Stranger Cole among the Gay Feet hits. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 171. Brent Dowe recalls the session that produced hits for the Melodians, the Gaylads, Ken Boothe, and Delano Stewart. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 71. On "Guns Fever," Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 82; on the Hippy Boys and Patsy Todd, Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 105. On Alphonso, Alton Ellis, the Maytals, and Otis Wright, "Sonia Pottinger," Wikipedia.
  9. Howard Campbell, "Sonia Pottinger, Ja's First Female Producer," Jamaica Observer, February 16, 2022, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/sonia-pottinger-jas-first-female-producer/.
  10. Quoted in "Sonia Pottinger, Ja's First Female Producer," Jamaica Observer, February 15, 2022, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2022/02/15/sonia-pottinger-jas-first-female-producer/.
  11. "Sonia Pottinger: JA's First Female Record Producer," Zero to 180, accessed November 5, 2026, https://www.zeroto180.org/sonia-pottinger-jas-first-female-record-producer/, citing Patsy Todd's "Pata Pata" with Count Ossie's band.
  12. Wikipedia says she bought the label "shortly before his death." "Sonia Pottinger," Wikipedia. Campbell says she bought the catalog in 1974, "shortly after his death." Campbell, "Sonia Pottinger." Bradley says she "spent most of the late 1970s" reissuing Reid's catalog. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 351. Katz says she acquired the rights "in 1974, while Reid was suffering from cancer": Katz, "Sonia Pottinger Obituary."
  13. On "Hottest Hits," the "Treasure Dub" albums, and "From Jamaica with Reggae," "Sonia Pottinger," Wikipedia. See also Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 68.
  14. "Sonia Pottinger," Wikipedia. Katz: "Last year she won a lengthy court battle over the rights to Reid's catalogue." Katz, "Sonia Pottinger Obituary."
  15. The Rough Guide notes her work with Culture, Judy Mowatt, and Marcia Griffiths. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 105. On the albums, "Sonia Pottinger," Wikipedia. Moore names Griffiths's "Stepping Out a Babylon." Moore, "Sonia 'Miss P' Pottinger."
  16. "Sonia Pottinger," Wikipedia.
  17. Katz says that "changes in the music scene and widespread piracy caused Pottinger to abandon music production by 1985," that she then ran a ceramics business and taught flower arranging and baking, and that she had Alzheimer's disease in her final years: Katz, "Sonia Pottinger Obituary." Moore dates the Order of Distinction to 2004. Moore, "Sonia 'Miss P' Pottinger."
  18. She departed on Wednesday, November 3, 2010, at seventy-nine, at her St. Andrew home. Howard Campbell, "Sonia Pottinger Leaves Rich Legacy," Jamaica Gleaner, November 7, 2010, https://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20101107/news/news1.html. Wikipedia gives a birth date of June 21, 1931, which the Gleaner age allows but does not confirm.
  19. On her death and the service, "Sonia Pottinger," Wikipedia. Moore gives November 3, 2010. Moore, "Sonia 'Miss P' Pottinger."

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