Byron Lee

In the years before reggae or even ska was known outside of the Caribbean, Byron Lee was the first bandleader to achieve an international following playing Jamaican music, and he played a vital role in popularizing it around the world. And when Bob Marley was a struggling young musician of the little-known Wailers, Byron Lee was probably the most well-known Jamaican bandleader in the world. Lee was 20 years old when he formed his band the Dragonaires in 1956. They began making a name for themselves almost immediately, as a kind of big-band equivalent to the solo Calypso singi...