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Jamaican music lost another of its founding fathers earlier today when Byron Aloysius St. Elmo Lee OJ, lost his two-year battle with transitional cell cancer, passing away at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Jamaica at the age of 73.
Byron, who had been receiving treatment in Miami, Florida in the weeks leading up to his death, had decided to return to Jamaica the previous weekend due to his desire to spend his final days in his home-land.
Born on June 27th 1935 in Christiana, Manchester, Jamaica, he first became a leading figure on the island’s music scene in the late fifties after forming the Dragonaires’ while a student at St. George’s College.
Byron & the Dragonaires made their recording debut in the late fifties with a version of the R&B hit, ‘Dumplins’, while in 1961, they made a cameo appearance in the James Bond film, ‘Dr No’.
They remained one of Jamaica’s most popular and hard-working acts throughout the Ska and Rock Steady years, playing a variety of styles and regularly touring and recording around the island and well beyond.
Early in 1969, Byron launched Dynamic Sounds Recordings, its studio complex and pressing plant promptly becoming key factors in the rapid growth of the island’s music industry.
The rise in popularity of Roots and Dub in the mid-seventies, resulted in Byron eventually abandoning Reggae in favour of Soca, a decision that resulted in a number of sizable hits, most notably ‘Tiney Winey’, ‘Give Me Soca’ and ‘Dancehall Soca’.
Byron and the group continued to favour Soca over other styles over the years that ensued, and while he has has never been perhaps the most fashionable of artistes among Reggae fans, his importance in the growth and success of the Jamaican music industry as a whole should never be underestimated.
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