Lennox Brown

Lennox Brown - Selection

The powerful figures of Rolando Alphonso and Tommy McCook dominated the sax during the ska, rock steady, reggae and roots eras.

Only Val Bennett came close to taking the sax style away from the tenor and alto sax into the deep baritone sax favoured in the r&b era.

Yet other sax players did find a way through. Karl Cannonball Bryan was one, and Lennox Brown was another.

His champion was Bunny Lee. It looks like whenever Tommy was not around, Bunny would call for Lennox.

Lennox’s tunes for Bunny included ‘Striker Lee Special’, ‘Q Club’ and ‘Trial Of Babylon’.

It would be no surprise to find out that Bunny released an album in the US from Lennox - he looked like he was working on one.

And yet in the UK it was Tony Robinson who gave Lennox the ‘Soul Serenade’ rhythm to blow over, which gave Lennox his biggest hit.

Pama released ‘ High School Serenade’ in the UK, and it’s a very nice reading of a popular melody and rhythm. Jamaica has produced some outstanding sax players and Lennox is one of them.