Ernest Ranglin - Biography

Biography

As a child, Ranglin had two uncles who played guitar and ukulele. After watching them play, he practiced on their instruments, and stood in for one of them when they failed to turn up for a recording session, impressing his other uncle so much that he was given the instrument for his seventh birthday. He built his own guitar using a sardine can and wires, before progressing to a real one. He moved with his family to Kingston, where he was educated at Providence, Kingston Senior School, and Bodin College. While still in his teens, he began performing live, locally and in the Bahamas, often with the young Monty Alexander. Charlie Christian was an early influence. Aged 15, he joined the Val Bennett band, and went on to play with the Eric Deans band and Count Boysie. By the early 1950s, Ranglin had become a proficient jazz guitarist and toured overseas.

In the 1950s Ranglin recorded plenty mento (traditional Jamaican music style), including the fine 1958 album by Denzil Laing and the Wrigglers, At the Arawak Hotel on which his early, outstanding jazz guitar is featured. Some of these rare and significant 1950s mento records, his earliest recordings, were reissued in 2010 on the Jamaica - Mento 1951-1958 album.

Chris Blackwell produced a Ranglin single, which was one of the first releases on Blackwell's R&B label in the late 1950s. A live album split between Ranglin and Bermudian pianist Lance Hayward was among the first recordings released by Blackwell. Around 1956, Ranglin had also joined Cluett Johnson's studio band Clue J and the Blues Blasters, recording several tracks for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One, including Theophilus Beckford's hits "Easy Snapping" and "Jack and Jill Shuffle" as well as "Shuffling Jug," regarded as some of the first Jamaican rhythm and blues records. In 1962, the James Bond film Dr. No was filmed in Jamaica. While Byron Lee & the Dragonaires appeared in the film, the soundtrack recordings were actually made by Ranglin. In 1964, Ranglin played guitar on singer Millie Small's "My Boy Lollipop", the first Jamaican song to achieve international success.

Ranglin recorded two jazz albums in the mid-1960s for the Merritone record label - Wranglin (1964) and Reflections (1965), also working for Duke Reid as a musical director at the Treasure Isle recording studio during this period.

He began attracting international notice in 1964 when he traveled to London, England to perform at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. He became the venue's resident guitarist for nine months, backing numerous guest artists and appearing in a recording of a Sonny Stitt/Dick Morrissey jam session in 1966. He made several solo records for Island Records, as well as collaborating with Prince Buster. He returned to session work, arranging songs such as the Melodians' "Rivers of Babylon" and playing guitar leads in the Wailers' "It Hurts to Be Alone".

During the late 1960s and the 1970s, Ranglin was much in demand as a studio musician and arranger, working with top Jamaican producers such as Dodd, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and Clancy Eccles. He also toured with Jimmy Cliff in the 1970s. In the late 70s, he re-teamed with his friend Monty Alexander to record Latin-Caribbean infused jazz for Pablo Records.

In 1973 he was awarded the Order of Distinction from the Jamaican Government for his contributions to music. He moved to Florida in the late 1970s, where he performed at jazz festivals and continued to record occasionally. He signed to Chris Blackwell's newly-formed Palm Pictures label to issue 1998's In Search of the Lost Riddim. The albums E.B. @ Noon and Modern Answers to Old Problems followed two years later. In 1998 Ranglin performed with Spearhead for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody. Grooving was released in early 2001. In 2002, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree from the University of the West Indies for his outstanding contribution to the development of music in Jamaica. In 2006, he was the subject of a documentary covering his career - Roots Of Reggae: The Ernest Ranglin Story, produced and written by Arthur Gorson. In 2008, he was inducted into the Jamaican Music Hall of Fame by the Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes and Affiliates (JAVAA).

Ranglin's fusion of jazz and reggae was continued by his nephew, Gary Crosby, who formed the group Jazz Jamaica in 1991.