Toppa Top 10: The Best Reggae Guitarists

Words by Jesse Serwer, Martei Korley and Sherman Escoffery—

In contrast to some other genres, reggae guitarists don’t necessarily enjoy greater status or celebrity than their cohorts in the rhythm section. Everyone who owns a non-Bob Marley reggae LP knows Sly and Robbie; a considerably smaller portion of folks know Bob and the Riddim Twins‘ preferred six-string partner, Earl “Chinna” Smith (at right in the above pic, with fellow JA guitar great Ernest Ranglin). To help you put a name and face to some of your favorite reggae licks, we’ve compiled a guide to the style’s best and most influential guitarists.

10. Roger Lewis

Along with his brother, bassist Ian Lewis, Roger Lewis has been the core of one of Jamaica’s best-known, and longest-running, acts, in Inner Circle. Check out some vintage footage of Roger grooving in Kingston with Jacob Miller and Inner Circle, from the 1977 PBS documentary Beats of the Hearts.

9.Mitchum “Khan” Chin

Mitchum “Khan” Chin’s name may not be as familiar as other names on this list but, as a member of the Firehouse Crew and also Buju’s Til Shiloh Band, he has been one of Jamaica’s most in-demand stage guitarists. (Watch him holding down Beres Hamond live in New York in the clip above). Quietly, Khan has also been one of the major forces behind the one-drop revival of the mid 2000s, featuring on records like Tarrus Riley’s “She’s Royal” and collaborating with Black Chiney’s Supa Dups on tracks for John Legend and Estelle.

8. Bo-Pee Bowen

One of Jamaica’s great session guitarists, Winston “Bo Peep” Bowen (sometimes known as “Bo Pee”) has held forth as part of a large chunk of reggae’s most significant bands: Roots Radics, the Abyssinians, the Revolutionaries, Lloyd Parks’ We The People band, the Uprising Roots Band, as well as alongside Sly and Robbie.

7.Eric “Bingy Bunny” Lamont

6. Al Anderson/Junior Marvin/Donald Kinsey

Here’s one reason why Bob Marley crossed over to rock audiences in a way no other reggae artist has: he actually had some pretty accomplished rock guitarists—who were also skilled at reggae—in his corner. A graduate of the prestigious Berklee School of Music, New York-born Al Anderson nearly found himself in classic rock band Traffic before he linked with Marley for the Natty Dread sessions. He later would back Peter Tosh on Legalise It and Equal Rights. Ironically, Junior Marvin, one of the guitarists who replaced Anderson in the Wailers, wound up joining up with Traffic’s frontman, Steve Winwood, many years later. Prior to connecting with Bob, the Kingston-born Marvin (who’s not to be confused with singer Junior Murvin) actually fronted the British funk-rock band Hanson. And no, not that Hanson!

On our tour of Bob sidemen, we can’t leave out Gary, Indiana’s Donald Kinsey. The son of Chicago blues legend Big Daddy Kinsey brought the rock to “Roots, Rock, Reggae” and other cuts on Rastaman Vibration and, like Anderson, also held down Peter Tosh, on albums including Legalize It and Bush Doctor.

5. Dwight Pinkney

Starting out as a member of The Sharks, a band that backed up Bob Marley and Ken Boothe in the early days of Studio One, Dwight “Brother Dee” Pinkney formed arguably JA’s most underrated band ever, Zap Pow, with Beres Hammond before joining the Roots Radics (of which he’s still a member) in the 1980s. Watch this killer video of him cooling down the pace with some sweet guitar licks for Gregory Isaacs, on British TV show The Tube, for a taste of Brother Dee at his finest.

4. Lynn Taitt
Lynn Taitt was actually born in Trinidad, and came to Jamaica in 1962, to play during the independence celebrations with Byron Lee. Taking up residence in JA instead of returning to his native Trinidad, Taitt quickly became one of the most prominent and in demand guitarists on the studio recording circuit, and is credited with arranging the first rocksteady song: Hopeton Lewis’ “Take It Easy.” Lynn Taitt also played on, and arranged, Jamaican classics such as “Tougher than Tough” and “Stop That Train.” Active for only six years in Jamaica before migrating to Canada in 1968, Taitt’s body of work still left an indelible mark on Jamaican music, and he is still viewed by many musicians from that era as one of the greatest guitarists in Jamaican music.

3. Cat Coore

Few reggae guitarists have the presence of rock stars onstage and even fewer get props from actual rock stars, but Third World co-founder/bandleader Cat Coore can boast to have both. Not content to just rock six strings, Coore’s cello solos are among the highlights of any Third World show.

2. Earl “Chinna” Smith

Playing for bands like The Soul Syndicate, The Aggrovators, The Upsetters, and even the Wailers, Earl “Chinna” Smith has been one of the hardest working guitarists from the days of ska to reggae. You can hear his guitar riff stand out on “None Shall Escape The Judgement,” a song that was originally written and recorded by his friend Earl Zero, but redone and became a hit by Johnny Clarke (after producer Bunny Lee lost Zero’s original vocal). For his own label, High Times, he produced seminal hits with artists such as Freddie McGregor  and Mutabaruka. “Chinna” is even credited by Gyptian as the man who formally introduced him to music.

1. Ernest Ranglin

With accomplishments spanning mento, ska, reggae and jazz, Ernest Ranglin is, by most accounts, the most significant guitar player in Jamaica’s history. If you’re a student of reggae, you’re already well aware of his essential session work at Studio One. But did you know (as we only earned recently) that Ranglin fashioned his first guitar from a sardine can, and played on Bob Marley’s inaugural studio session, as well as the hit that really launched Jamaican music to di worl’, in Millie Small’s “My Boy Lollipop”?

+1: Ian Beezy Coleman

Who gives Beres Hammond’s session that fine light and modern sound? Beezy. Who used to be the musical director for Castro Brown’s King of Kings Music? Beezy. Who played most of the guitars on Sizzla’s Da Real Thing while bandmate Kirk Bennett held forth on drums in the Bobby Digital produced sessions? Beezy!

+2: Willie Lindo

One of reggae’s great session guitarists, Willie Lindo is perhaps best known for his work with Beres Hammond, for whom he produced the classic single “What One Dance Can Do.” Lindo also recorded a handful of albums on his own as a featured performer, including 1977’s It’s Not Too Late.

+3:  Bob Marley + Peter Tosh

When it comes down to it, guitar playing was not what Bob was known for, but he wouldn’t have been the greatest reggae artist of all time without that guitar. And it was Peter, owner of the coolest guitar ever made, who taught Bob how to play guitar and who also wouldn’t have been the same dynamic musical force without his six-string skills.