Byron Lee

Byron Lee was born on June 27, 1935 to a Black Jamaican mother (whose father was Chinese) and a Chinese father. Byron,s father came from Hong Kong with other Chinese brought to the west to build the Panama Canal; many of those immigrants later settled in Jamaica. "From my mother I received the soul, rhythm and love of music," Byron explains, "and from my father I received my shrewd business sense. My father went into the usual Chinese things and was quite successful, he owned bakeries, hardware stores, everything." The elder Lee hoped to return to China with his Jamaican family and sent nearly all of his money to his son back home to buy the family a house; when the Chinese communist regime displaced the (Nationalist) rule of Chiang Kai Shi, ByronÕs father lost everything. As a means of reclaiming his wealth, Mr. Lee wanted the family to enter the grocery business but young Byron already knew he wanted a career in music.
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Byron began playing piano at five years old but discovered his true affinity for music as a teenager and quickly graduated to other instruments including the guitar and bass. He was also an avid football player who used his musical skills to celebrate the many victories of his St. George's College team, The Dragonaires. "We won three trophies in '56 and two in '57," Byron recalls, "and we celebrated by improvising, a little guitar, pots and pans, Corn Flakes box, cigarette paper and comb, whatever it is. That's how the band started and we called ourselves The Dragonaires for music too."
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For several years The Dragonaires played free of charge at birthday parties, weddings or any opportunity they could create for themselves, performing popular American hits and mento (Jamaican folk music), which bears a strong resemblance to Trinidadian calypso. Edward Seaga, future leader of the Jamaican Labor Party, produced Byron Lee and The Dragonaires first record "Dumplins" in 1960; the same year the band was featured playing three calypso songs in the James Bond film "Dr. No" which was filmed in Jamaica. Seaga had a strong interest in indigenous Jamaican music and encouraged Byron to play ska which was extremely popular in the poor west Kingston constituency that Seaga represented. Byron visited western Kingston to familiarise himself with ska and then went about making the music more palatable (rhythmically less complex, lyrically less political) to Jamaica's middle and upper classes. Ska soon became an integral part of The Dragonaires repertoire, alongside calypso and American pop, as they performed live in villages, tourist resorts and various upscale functions throughout the island. "Ska wasn't getting anywhere in the market because it was confined to the poorer element," Byron explains, "and they couldn't afford to buy the records or present the shows. So Seaga said go down there, get ska and bring it uptown. We had a club called the Glass Bucket in Half Way Tree. I brought it uptown there, then radio picked up the music and the rest is history."