Byron Lee: Bandleader of the Dragonaires and Jamaica's first ska export

When he founded the Dragonaires in 1956, the Jamaican bandleader Byron Lee didn't think much further than celebrating his college football team's victories and playing the occasional wedding and party. Yet the band soon turned professional and backed visiting American stars like Harry Belafonte, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino.

In 1959, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires released their debut single, "Dumplins", on the Dragon's Breath label, and were in at the birth of the bluebeat and ska genres which eventually evolved into reggae. Three years later, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires appeared in the first James Bond film, Dr. No, mostly shot on location in Jamaica, and performed "Jump Up" in the movie, while their "Kingston Calypso" and several instrumentals featured on the soundtrack album issued to capitalise on the 007 craze.

In April 1964, they travelled to the New York World's Fair where they performed with a line-up of Jamaican singers comprising Millie Small – who had had a worldwide hit with "My Boy Lollipop" the previous year – Prince Buster, Jimmy Cliff and the Blues Busters as well as Carol Joan Crawford, Miss World 1963, who demonstrated the ska dance.

While this event and his subsequent tours of the US and Canada cemented Lee's status as an ambassador of Jamaican music, he was less an originator than an entertainer adept at playing whatever style was popular at the time and moving seamlessly through mento, calypso, bluebeat, ska, rock steady, reggae, soca, dancehall and even easy listening. Nevertheless, he introduced the Fender electric bass to Jamaica, helping it to become one of the defining instruments of the dub genre, and demonstrated his business acumen with the acquisition in 1968 of WIRL, the West Indies Recording Ltd studios and its pressing plant, from Edward Seaga, the future Jamaican Prime Minister.

Rebranded Dynamic Sound, the facility proved popular with Paul Simon – who cut "Mother and Child Reunion" there in 1971 – and the Rolling Stones, who recorded much of their 1973 album, Goats Head Soup, there. The studios were also used by Bob Marley & the Wailers.

"From my mother, who was of African descent, I received the soul, rhythm and love of music," Lee said, "and from my father, who was Chinese, I received my shrewd business sense."

Born in 1935, he grew up in Manchester parish in West Central Jamaica, where his father worked as a teacher. The young Lee was an excellent football player and a gifted musician who learnt to read music and play the piano at a school run by nuns. By 1950, the family had moved to Kingston and he began playing mento with his friends Carl Brady, Alty East, Ronnie Nasralla and Ronald Peralto. They grew into a 14-piece group. From the outset, Lee called the shots and put the emphasis on running a well-presented, reliable outfit playing a variety of musical styles. This endeared the Dragonaires to promoters like Seaga, who signed them to his WIRL label, and explains their lasting popularity with local and international audiences. Lee and his group recorded over 50 albums in as many years and scored hits in the ska era with "Mash Mr. Lee", "Joy Ride" and "Jamaica Ska" – written in 1962 at the behest of Seaga to put the newly independent country on the map – and with soca numbers, including "Tiny Winey", "Give Me Soca" and "Dancehall Soca" in the Eighties and Nineties.

Ever the entrepreneur, in the Sixties he organised Byron Lee's Spectacular Show – basically the Dragonaires and assorted vocalists – which toured the Caribbean, and he distributed Atlantic Records releases in Jamaica. This gave him first pick when it came to covering rhythm 'n' blues hits like "Green Onions" for the local market. In the US, Atlantic issued Dragonaires compilations entitled Jamaican Ska and Jump Up. Lee moved into record production too, working with the Maytals on their 1965 Jamaican chart-topper, "Daddy"/"It's You", and helping them win the Jamaican Festival Song Competition with "Bam Bam" the following year. But the imprisonment of frontman Toots Hibbert on drugs charges ended their ass ociation. For a while, he employed as A&R man the producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, who masterminded the Dragonaires' 1969 album Reggay Eyes.

Lee also collaborated with the calypso singer Mighty Sparrow, most notably on the Sparrow Meets the Dragon album in 1970, and Boris Gardiner, producing "Elizabethan Reggae" the same year. He also oversaw the seminal "Johnny Too Bad" for the Slickers – included on the The Harder They Come soundtrack – and later worked with Hopeton Lewis and Barry Biggs, the vocalist whose sweet-reggae version of Blue Magic's "Sideshow" was Dynamic's biggest hit abroad (making No 3 in Britain in 1976).

Having played at carnivals throughout the Caribbean, Lee launched the Jamaica Carnival on the island in 1990 which attracted a crowd of 200,000 in its first year and has become an annual fixture. "It meant one day without prejudice," he said. "That was the happiest moment in my life."

Lee stopped performing with the Dragonaires and did not accompany the group to China last year. He was awarded the Order of Distinction and the Order of Jamaica in recognition of his "contribution in the fields of music and entertainment, both locally and internationally."

When asked how he would like to be remembered, Lee was frank. "In the same way that fine wines, luxury cars, premium whisky, the world's top cricket ground or the leading telecoms provider are remembered," he said. "Top of the line. People should say I gave quality and value for money."

Pierre Perrone

Byron Aloysius St. Elmo Lee, bandleader, bassist, composer, producer, entrepreneur: born Christiana, Manchester parish, Jamaica 27 June 1935; married (two sons, four daughters); died Kingston, Jamaica 4 November 2008.