Hall was to become something of a reggae legend and later starred in the 1978 movie Rockers, alongside Leroy 'Horsemouth' Wallace.īrown always seemed to be able to get the best out of the deejays he worked with, and Prince Jazzbo's 'Mr Harry Skank' (the B-side of 'Realize') is a case in point. The horn-man Richard Hall also became known as 'Dirty Harry' on account of the popularity of this riddim, which is probably an allusion to the Don Siegel film of the same name. known as 'Dirty Harry' (the deejay Prince Jazzbo later recorded a track entitled 'Mr Harry Skank' named after that riddim).

One of the most influential releases on that label was the song entitled 'Realize' (1972) by Richard Mac Donald, which was based on an earlier instrumental track by Tommy McCook and Richard Hall.

'Merry Up' was a runaway hit and remained in the Jamaican charts for several weeks in 1972, even knocking from the Number One spot Ernie Smith's 'Pitta Patta.'īrown started several labels over the course of his long career (Pantomine, Dwyer, South East Music), but Pantomine is probably the one that is most associated with this producer. By the early 1970's, that instrument had already been made popular by Augustus Pablo who had had a big hit with 'Java' in 1971. Glen Brown's first hit as a producer was an instrumental entitled 'Merry Up' (1971), a simple melody played on the melodica by Joe White. After releasing several 45's on Shalimar, Brown finally opened his own record shop in the Cross Roads area, on Caledonia Place, which helped him considerably when he moved into record production in the early 1970s. Mahtani also had a small record label called Shalimar and had released several 45's on it by artists like Stranger Cole and Gladstone Anderson. Brown also recorded a few sides with Hopeton Lewis ('Girl You Cold') and Dave Barker around 1968-69.Īt the time, Brown began a partnership with a local businessman named M.G.Mahtani, who owned a jewellry store on King Street called Shalimar. He then worked with the Sonny Bradshaw Seven, which had a residence at the Sheraton at the time. Glen Brown then joined the Cecil Lloyd Quintet, which was at the time one of the best jazz combos on the Jamaican hotel circuit and developed a passion for jazz, which was to have a great influence on his career as a producer. They also provided harmonies on some Derrick Harriott songs, like 'The Loser.' They recorded several tracks for producer/sound-system legend Duke Reid like 'Little Girl,' a version of the Sam Cooke song. Glen Brown was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1944 and entered the music business in the mid-1960's when he formed a duo with the singer Lloyd Robinson. Perfect Sound Forever: Glen Brown, reggae producer GLEN BROWN

Glen brown