January 12, 1931 – November 20, 1998
Roland Alphonso aka The Chief Musician from Havana, Cuba. He was a Jamaican tenor saxophonist. Alphonso came to Jamaica at the age of two with his Jamaican mother, and started to learn the saxophone at the Stony Hill Industrial School. In 1948 he left school to join Eric Deans’ Orchestra and soon passed through other bands on the hotel circuit and first recorded as a member of Baba Motta’s group in 1952.
Around the mid1950s, he joined the band of Cluett Johnson named Clue J & the Blues Blasters and backed many sessions of Coxsone Dodd in a typical Jamaican R&B style.
In 1963, after few months in Nassau, he took part in the creation of The Studio One Orchestra, the first session band of the freshly opened recording studio of Coxsone Dodd. The band soon adopted the name – The Skatalites.
Hits include:
- “ABC Rocksteady”
- “Brighter Shade of Roots”
- “Roll On”