Mikey Chung

Born Michael Chung in 1954,Mikey "Mao" Chung is a keyboard, guitar and percussion player, arranger and record producer of Jamaican music.

Biography

Chung, of Chinese Jamaican descent, grew up on Tewari Crescent in Jamaica, later moving with his family to the Vineyard Town area of the city, attending St. George's College. He began his career in music as the guitarist for the Mighty Mystics, The Virtues (1967–69), Generation Gap, and the Federal Studios house band the Now Generation Band, before playing with artists such as Jacob Miller and Inner Circle in the 1970s. As a member of Word, Sound and Power from 1978, along with Sly & Robbie, he backed Peter Tosh on Mystic Man, Wanted Dread and Alive, and Bush Doctor, playing guitar and synthesizer. He played for Lee Perry's band The Upsetters (?-1975?-?), and the Compass Point All Stars (Island Records). He often accompanied Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare on their recordings and played guitar for Black Uhuru on their albums Red and Chill Out.

Sly and Robbie

Sly and Robbie are a prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo, associated primarily with the reggae and dub genres. Drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare teamed up in the mid-1970s after establishing themselves separately in Jamaica as professional musicians. Sly and Robbie are estimated to have played on or produced 200,000 recordings, many of them on their own label, Taxi Records.

Career

1970s: Beginnings in reggae

Sly Dunbar, then drumming for Skin Flesh and Bones, and Robbie Shakespeare, playing bass and guitar with the Aggrovators, discovered they had the same ideas about music in general (both are huge fans of Motown, Stax Records, the Philly Sound, and country music, in addition to Jamaican legendary labels Studio One and Treasure Isle), and reggae production in particular. They first worked together with The Revolutionaries for the newly created Channel One studio and label, operated by the Hoo Kim brothers.

According to The Independent, their breakthrough album was The Mighty Diamonds' 1976 release Right Time, which helped to establish them as the "masters of groove and propulsion." The drum beat on the title song was particularly tricky; in 2001 Dunbar recalled, "When that tune first come out, because of that double tap on the rim nobody believe it was me on the drums, they thought it was some sort of sound effect we was using. Then when it go to number 1 and stay there, everybody started trying for that style and it soon become establish."

Robbie Lyn

Robbie Lyn is a Jamaican session musician who plays piano, keyboard and synthesiser.

Biography

Robbie Lyn is a popular Jamaican session musician, who has played with various session/backing bands including Now Generation, Sound Dimension, Word, Sound and Power, and Sly and Robbie. He has also backed and/or toured with many reggae artists, including Burning Spear, Peter Tosh, Dennis Brown, and Third World.

Discography

References

External links