Headley Bennett

Headley Bennett
Birth name	Felix Headley Bennett
Also known as	Deadly Headley
Born	1931, Kingston, Jamaica
Genres	Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae
Instruments	Saxophone
Years active	Late 1950s–present
Associated acts	The Sheiks Lynn Taitt and the Jets The Mighty Vikings The Revolutionaries

Felix Headley Bennett OD (born 1931), more often known simply as Headley Bennett or Deadly Headley, is a Jamaican saxophonist who has performed on hundreds of recordings since the 1950s.

Biography

Born in Kingston in 1931, Bennett attended the Alpha Boys School from the age of five, where he learned to play the saxophone.^[1] He left aged fifteen and worked as a musician for a while in Canada before returning to Jamaica.^[1] Since the 1960s, Bennett has worked as a session musician in Jamaica, playing in the Studio One house band as well as in Lynn Taitt's band The Jets, The Mighty Vikings, and in The Revolutionaries.^[1][2][3] In 1962, as a member of The Sheiks, he performed at Palisadoes Airport to greet Princess Margaret on her visit to the island to mark Jamaica's independence.^[4] In the ska era of the late 1950s and 1960s he played on many recordings for a variety of studios including Bob Marley's first recording, "Judge Not" for Leslie Kong, and Derrick & Patsy's "Housewives Choice".^[4][5] He went on to record with The Abyssinians, Alton Ellis, and Prince Far I among many others.^[1] In the late 1960s he moved to Canada, returning to Jamaica in 1977.^[4]

While the vast majority of his recordings have been as a session musician, he has released two albums where he is credited as the main artist. In the late 1970s he released an album of instrumental versions of soul ballads with Ossie Scott, Deadly Headly Bennett Meets The Magnificent Ossie Scott, and in 1981 he recorded 35 Years From Alpha with producer Adrian Sherwood, released in 1982 and reissued in 1999.^[1]

In 2005, aged 74, Bennet was awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer for his contribution to the development of music by the Jamaican government.^[6]

Album discography

• Deadly Headly Bennett Meets The Magnificent Ossie Scott (197?), Carl's/Gorgon - with Ossie Scott
• 35 Years From Alpha (1982), On-U Sound

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Moskowitz, p. 26
2. ^ Larkin, p.249
3. ^ Larkin, p. 288
4. ^ ^{a b c} Campbell
5. ^ Barrow, p.35
6. ^ "People: Sylvester Stallone, Headley Bennett, ABBA", New York Times, 18 October 2005, retrieved 6 December 2009

References

• Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd edn., Rough Guides, ISBN 1-84353-329-4
• Campbell, Howard (2009) "Self-rule was music to one's ears - Bennett", Jamaica Gleaner, 5 August 2009, retrieved 6 December 2009
• Larkin, Colin (1998) The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae, Virgin Books, ISBN 0-7535-0242-9
• Moskowitz, David V, (2006) Caribbean Popular Music: an Encyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rock Steady, and Dancehall, Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-33158-8

External links

• Headley Bennett at Roots Archives

Persondata
Name	Bennett, Headley
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1931
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death