In the early years of Jamaica's music business, producers and sound system operators like Arthur 'Duke' Reid and Prince Buster depended on flamboyant figures to get their music out to the public, and keep patrons at dances entertained.

One of those sidemen, dancer/show promoter Kenneth 'Lord Baskin' Scarlett, was recently honoured by a group of friends at El Mundo club, the party spot he has operated for close to 30 years at Mannings Hill Road in St Andrew.

Baskin is now in his mid-70s and suffers from failing eyesight and various physical ailments. Musicologist Bunny Goodison, one of the persons at El Mundo three weeks ago, said personalities such as Baskin are the unsung pioneers of Jamaican popular music.

"From a social point of view, the dances he put on kept money flowing through the communities. The social good he did, I think, was his most important contribution," Goodison said.

Originally from east Kingston, Lord Baskin was a fixture as a dancer at dances where Reid's Trojan sound system played during the 1950s and 1960s, especially at Charles and Bond streets in west Kingston where Reid's Treasure Isle studio was based.

Goodison points out that although Baskin was never a music producer, the assistance he gave Reid in the studio during his heyday of the 1960s, was invaluable in the 'Duke's' fierce rivalry with producer Clement Dodd of Studio One.

Others turning out to honour Lord Baskin were banker Walter Campbell, singer Count Prince Miller, sound system operator/musicologist Winston 'Merritone' Blake and former national football coach Winston Chung Fah.

- Howard Campbell