15 Facts About Byron Lee

Byron Lee, born Byron Aloysius St Elmo Lee, was a Jamaican musician, record producer, and entrepreneur, best known for his work as leader of Byron Lee and the Dragonaires.

The family moved to the Mountain View Gardens area of Kingston when Byron Lee was around 8 or 9 years old.

Byron Lee learned to play piano at a convent school in Mandeville, but put music on hold when he was selected to the Jamaica national football team.

Byron Lee taught himself to play bass on a homemade instrument, and around 1950, along with his friend Carl Brady, he formed the first incarnation of the Dragonaires, named after the college football team that they played for, at that time concentrating on mento.

Byron Lee is known to have introduced the electric bass guitar to Jamaica in late 1959 or 1960.

However, the reason Byron Lee began to use the electric bass as opposed to the double bass had nothing to do with sound.

Rather, it was a way for Byron Lee to avoid carrying the large and heavy double bass to the truck to move from gig to gig.

Byron Lee became the head of distribution in Jamaica for Atlantic Records.

Byron Lee purchased the West Indies Records Limited recording studios from Edward Seaga after fire had destroyed the pressing plant on the same site, and renamed it Dynamic Sounds, soon having a new pressing facility built on the site.

Byron Lee's productions included Boris Gardiner's Reggae Happening, Hopeton Lewis's Grooving Out on Life, and The Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad".

Byron Lee has been credited with taking soca in the opposite direction, popularising a genre that had previously only been enjoyed in Jamaica among the upper classes, with the island's working class.

Byron Lee missed the Jamaica Carnival in 2007 as he was receiving treatment for bladder cancer after having surgery in Florida, and no longer appeared on stage with the Dragonaires, although he was still involved in the band's management, and was involved with the festival again in 2008.

Byron Lee was awarded the Order of Distinction in 1982, upgraded to Commander level on 15 October 2007, in recognition of his "contribution in the fields of Music and Entertainment both locally and internationally".

In October 2008, after receiving treatment for several weeks in Florida, Byron Lee returned to spend his final days in Jamaica.

Byron Lee died from bladder cancer in Kingston on 4 November 2008, aged 73.