King Stitt (Winston Cooper or Winston Sparks)

"The Ugly One"

"I am dreader than Fred, for he was shot dead, with two ounces of lead!"

King Stitt started off his musical career like so many of his contemporaries, at Studio 1. Although never as well known internationally as other deejays, Stitt turned his natural good looks to his advantage and worked the parties and dancehalls, and achieved greatness by being an originator. Starting off as the third of Coxsone's Big Three deejays (behind Count Machouki and Red Hopeton) "The Ugly One" electrified dance halls in 60's Jamaica with his performances for Coxsone, and evidently ended up running the Number One set, keeping the great URoy on the Number Two sound system. Strangely, though Stitt recorded with Coxone for many years, his recording output was almost nonexistent. It was not until Stitt's star began to rise with Clancy Eccles that Coxsone released any of Stitt's songs

By the time Stitt recorded with Clancy Eccles, he reigned supreme. This was in no small way due to his dashing good looks, but also because of the fabulous rhythms his songs were built on. Most of these tracks used the session musicians known as The Dynamites, based loosely around the organ playing talents of Winston Wright, and the lead guitar of Hux Brown. Other tracks used were versions of Monty Morris hits from the 60's.

Clancy Eccles started the fire with the releases "Dance Beat", "Virgorton Two", and the supreme "Herbsman Shuffle". In England, Trojan released songs like "Lee Van Cleef" and "Fire Corner", following which, the Coxsone sides then saw the light of day, and were released on the Banana label.

During the mid-1990's Studio One released "Dancehall '63" (left), a live LP of sorts, with Stitt toasting in the style of the early 1960's over tracks from such artist's as The Maytals, Don Drummond, Joe Higgs, Roland Alphonso, and many more. King Stitt was recently seen performing tracks from this album on Channel4's (England) Caribbean season. The program, another Bob Marley documentary, (noticeable for its interview with Coxsone Dodd) gave viewers an insight of what the sound system must have been like in 1960's Jamaica.

Long may the King continue to reign.

King Stitt Discography

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