The consummate session musician, Felix Headley Bennett was never one to blow his own horn, even though he had an impressive list of achievements during a 60-year career.

Family and colleagues turned out at the Faith Chapel of Faith Apostolic Ministries church in Kingston last Saturday to remember Bennett, who died August 21 at age 85.

Musicologist Kingsley Goodison, who knew the saxophonist for 50 years, remembered him as a “dedicated and humble human being” who deserved more recognition from the Jamaican music industry.

The Kingstonian-born Bennett was a graduate of the Alpha Boys’ School where he learned music alongside other talented students such as trombonist Don Drummond and trumpeter Bobby Ellis. The latter was at Saturday’s service.

Bennett was part of a formidable horn brigade that helped create ska. In 1962 he played on Judge Not, the first song by a teenaged singer named Bob Marley, and went on to a prolific career in the rocksteady and reggae genres.

Some of the many hit songs on which Bennett played include: Dancing Mood (Delroy Wilson), Dancing Shoe (The Wailers), I’m The Toughest (Peter Tosh), I Wanna Go Back Home (Bob Andy), Satta massagana (The Abyssinians) and Ballroom Floor (Bunny Wailer).

His distinctive sound earned him the moniker “Deadley Headley” while he was with the Roots Radics band during the early 1980s. He was awarded the Order of Distinction by the Jamaican government in 2005 for his contribution to music.

Musicians David Madden, Tony Green, Everol Wray, Everald Gayle, Vivian Scott, Junior Sinclair, Dwight Pinkney and Frankie Campbell attended the service. So too Desmond Young, president of the Jamaica Federation of Musicians; singers Tinga Stewart, Orville ‘Bagga’ Case, Peter Austin and Earl Morgan; Colin Leslie of the Bob Marley Foundation, Lorna Wainwright, Neville Reynolds (formerly of Sonic Sounds), deejay Junior “Trinity” Brammer, Dr Dennis Howard, Claudette Kemp, Roy Black and Teddy Davis.

Felix Headley Bennett is survived by two children, three grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

— Howard Campbell