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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Soul Vendors

Band. Rocksteady

Active
1965-1968
Also recorded as
The Soul Brothers

The Soul Vendors were Studio One's house band in 1967, the middle of three successive house bands led by Jackie Mittoo after the Skatalites broke up in August 1965. The first was the Soul Brothers; the third was Sound Dimension, which was this band renamed.

The players were Mittoo on organ and piano, Roland Alphonso on tenor saxophone, Johnny "Dizzy" Moore on trumpet, Lloyd Brevett or Leroy Sibbles on bass, Eric Frater on guitar and Bunny Williams or Joe Isaacs on drums, with Ernest Ranglin on some sessions. Mittoo was also Dodd's arranger and musical director, coaching singers and building the riddims the label ran on.

In 1967 Dodd took the band to England, with Alton Ellis and Ken Boothe singing, and the trip produced Mittoo's album Jackie Mittoo in London. Frater came home with an echo unit, and the sound of it gave the next incarnation of the band its name.

As a backing band they are behind a large part of the Studio One rocksteady catalog, including Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson, the Heptones, Marcia Griffiths and Dawn Penn's "You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)" of 1967. Under their own name they cut instrumentals including "Tropic Island" and "West of the Sun," and Mittoo's own sides from these years include "Hot Milk," "Ghetto Organ" and "Free Soul," which Lily Allen sampled for "Smile" in 2006.

Mittoo emigrated to Canada in 1968, returning for sessions while Robbie Lyn and Richard Ace took his seat. He departed in Toronto in December 1990.

Last updated October 21, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide dates the Skatalites' farewell show to just after Independence Day 1965, calls the Soul Brothers "the next great Studio One band" after them, and traces Mittoo's session bands "from the Soul Brothers through the Soul Vendors to the Sound Dimension." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 42, 74, 96. On leadership the books vary: the Rough Guide says Dodd's session bands were "usually led by Jackie Mittoo" but also writes of "Roland Alphonso's Soul Vendors," and Bradley has the band "led by Jackie Mittoo or Leroy Sibbles." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 55, 90; Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 313.
  2. The Rough Guide has the band recording "usually" as Sound Dimension "from late 1967 until Mittoo's departure for Canada in 1968." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 90. Bradley still calls the Studio One house band the Soul Vendors when Dodd was issuing instrumental cuts of his early reggae hits after "the end of 1968." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 313. Jo-Ann Greene, as quoted by the blog undergroundundercovered, says the band took the new name the year after its 1967 British tour. "Sound Dimension @ Studio One w/ Undercover," undergroundundercovered (blog), May 6, 2019, http://undergroundundercovered.blogspot.com/2019/05/sound-dimension-studio-one-w-undercover.html.
  3. The Rough Guide says the rhythms of the Soul Vendors' instrumental hits, "most of which were driven by Sibbles' basslines," have been copied ever since, and lists Sibbles on bass, Eric Frater on guitar and Bunny Williams on drums in Mittoo's bands, with Ranglin sitting in. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 69, 90. The On Tour album of 1967 credits Brevett on bass, Hector Williams on drums, Errol Walters on guitar, Mittoo, Alphonso and Johnny Moore. "The Soul Vendors - On Tour," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/1481537-The-Soul-Vendors-On-Tour. Wikipedia lists Joe Isaacs among the band's drummers. "Sound Dimension," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Dimension.
  4. The Rough Guide says Studio One's rocksteady came "largely under the supervision of organist/pianist Jackie Mittoo." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 68. Bradley calls him "Coxsone's resident musical arranger/talent scout" and says Dodd relied "mostly" on Sibbles or Mittoo at auditions. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 201, 215.
  5. Wikipedia, citing Colin Larkin, says Boothe and Alton Ellis "had a successful UK tour with the Studio One session group, the Soul Vendors" in 1967. "Ken Boothe," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Boothe. The On Tour LP credits Ellis, Boothe and Owen Gray as singers, though its sleeve notes say it was recorded at Jamaica Recording Studio in Kingston. "On Tour." Discogs dates Mittoo's In London to 1967. "Jackie Mittoo - In London," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/195167-Jackie-Mittoo-In-London.
  6. Greene, as quoted by undergroundundercovered: "guitarist Eric Frater returned home with an echo box." "Sound Dimension @ Studio One." The Rough Guide says Sound Dimension was "named after an echo unit favoured by Frater," and the engineer Sylvan Morris credits Frater's guitar sound to "a piece of equipment called the Sound Dimension." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 90, 233. Bradley says Dodd himself had "recently imported from the UK" the delay echo unit heard on his guitar parts. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 200.
  7. The Rough Guide places Delroy Wilson's rocksteady sides "over some of the Soul Vendors' most infectious rhythms," and dates Steely & Clevie's recut of Dawn Penn's "No No No" to twenty-seven years after the original. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 69-70. It credits Marcia Griffiths's Studio One work to "rhythms from the Soul Brothers/Vendors." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 73.
  8. "Tropic Island," credited to Jackie Mittoo and the Soul Vendors, and "West of the Sun," credited to the Soul Vendors, were both Coxsone singles of 1968. "The Minstrels / Jackie Mittoo And The Soul Vendors - Yours Until Tomorrow / Tropic Island," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/7902237; "The Soul Vendors, Alton Ellis - West Of The Sun / A Fool," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/5983327.
  9. "Free Soul" was issued in 1966 as by "Jackie Mitto & His Soul Bros." "Slim And Delroy / Jackie Mitto & His Soul Bros. - Look Who's Back Again / Free Soul," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3942784. The Guardian calls the sample in "Smile" "a summery, rocksteady sample of The Soul Brothers' Free Soul." Jude Rogers, "The best No 1 records: Lily Allen - Smile," Guardian, May 31, 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/may/31/lily-allen-smile. Discogs dates the first issue of "Ghetto Organ" to 1971. "Myrna Hague / Jackie Mittoo - Time After Time / Ghetto Organ," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/4558047.
  10. The Rough Guide says Mittoo "first left for Toronto in 1968." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 96. Greene, as quoted by undergroundundercovered, says that after he emigrated "Robbie Lyn or Richard Ace usually took his seat, although the keyboardist returned regularly for recording sessions." "Sound Dimension @ Studio One."

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