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 →

Val Bennett

Artist. Ska, rocksteady, reggae

Active
1940s-1970s
Sunset
1991
Also known as
Lovall Bennett, Val Bennett Orchestra

Val Bennett was a tenor saxophonist and bandleader whose career ran from the dance bands of the 1950s through ska and into early reggae.

In the 1950s his big band was among the top-class orchestras, playing hotels such as the Caribbean Hotel; the young Jah Jerry played guitar with it in the middle of the decade, and Laurel Aitken sang with it. Ernest Ranglin and the drummer Drumbago also passed through it, and Hedley Jones remembered Bennett as a comic showman in the manner of Cab Calloway. In the ska years he was one of the core session players who appeared, under different band names, on the records of rivals Duke Reid, Coxsone Dodd and Prince Buster. He was a stalwart of Buster's band, contributing the booting tenor to "Al Capone," and also cut updated mentos such as "Cut Munno" for Buster.

In the rocksteady era he recorded for Bunny Lee as a member of the Bunny Lee All Stars, and his "The Russians Are Coming" came out on Lee's label in 1967. "Spanish Harlem," credited to Val Bennett and the Upsetter All Stars, was issued by Lee Perry in 1968. He played at Studio One as well, and for Harry J he cut "Tons of Gold," a tenor version of "The Liquidator."

Last updated October 15, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 31; Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 50.
  2. Jah Jerry's account in Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 33; the soundman Metro's account in Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 28.
  3. Hedley Jones, in the account Augustyn reprints, calls Bennett "a comical tenor-saxophone-playing bandleader" in the manner of Cab Calloway and says that "Ernest Ranglin's guitar-playing was a feature of the Bennett band." Heather Augustyn, "Pioneer Hedley Jones," SkaBook (blog), December 19, 2014, https://skabook.com/2014/12/19/pioneer-hedley-jones/. The Gleaner's 1969 obituary of Drumbago lists "Val Bennett and his All-Stars" among his bands. Heather Augustyn, "Drumbago," SkaBook (blog), March 14, 2014, https://skabook.com/2014/03/14/drumbago/.
  4. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 50.
  5. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 31, 32.
  6. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 77, 80; "Val Bennett / Caribbeans: The Russians Are Coming / Butterflies," Discogs, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3546460; "Jimmy & Ranny, The Inspirations / Val Bennett and the Upsetter All Stars: Tighten Up / Spanish Harlem," Discogs, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/12593680.
  7. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 214; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 113.

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