Roland Alphonso

Early years

Roland Alphonso was born in Havana, Cuba, on 12 January 1931 and moved to Jamaica with his Jamaican mother at the age of two. He learned saxophone at the Stony Hill Industrial School, left in 1948 to join Eric Deans' orchestra, and made his first recording in 1952 with Stanley Motta's group.

Session work

In the late 1950s Alphonso became a session player for Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid, playing on shuffle and early ska records. In 1963 he helped set up the Studio One house band that soon took the name the Skatalites.

Skatalites and after

His tenor features with the Skatalites and under his own name included "El Pussy Cat", "Ska Bostello", "Nimble Foot Ska" and "Stranger on the Shore". After the band split in August 1965 he formed the Soul Brothers with Jackie Mittoo at Studio One; the group became the Soul Vendors by 1967. "Phoenix City" (1966), credited to Roland Alphonso and the Soul Brothers, became one of his best known records and was later issued in the UK on Trojan. He also played on many vocal sessions at Brentford Road through the rocksteady years.

Later career

Alphonso moved to the United States in 1972 and received Jamaica's Order of Distinction in 1977. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he led the Ruinaires, a nightclub band in Kingston, before a stroke interrupted his playing. He rejoined the reformed Skatalites in 1983 and toured with them for the rest of his life. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while performing and died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on 20 November 1998.