Before they became famous, Byron Lee and The Dragonaires faced their share of challenges, including racism.

Keith Lyn, former lead singer of the band, shared stories of triumph and controversy at Blackhead Chineyman: The Chinese Contribution to Jamaica Popular Music, held at the Institute of Jamaica in downtown Kingston, last Sunday.

It was the final of a four-part lecture series to mark Reggae Month.

The panel included ska legend Derrick Morgan. Dionne Jackson-Miller was the moderator.

“We were driving in Georgia, the next morning we reach a place and everybody hungry. We were at a gas station and there was a restaurant on the top of a hill. So, Carl Brady [the band’s co-founder] and I went up and said we had a group of 18 people and we want to get something to eat and the guy said: ‘Oh yes, yes, how many?’ and I said 18 and he asked ‘Where are they?’ and we said: Well, they are down there and when he come back he was like: ‘Oh, I am so sorry, our chef could not make it today’,” Lyn recalled.

Lyn was an early member of the Dragonaires, which was formed by Byron Lee in the 1950s at St George’s College. Lee died in November 2008 from cancer at age 73.

 The Dragonaires received a big break in 1964, when they were selected by Edward Seaga, then the island’s head of Social Welfare and Economic Development, to travel to the New York World Fair and perform as backing band for Jimmy Cliff, Eric “Monty” Morris, Prince Buster, and Millie Small.

Though they had a big hit at the time with the Lyn-penned song, Jamaican Ska, the move was controversial. Many wondered how an ‘uptown’ band was chosen to represent the music of the working-class over The Skatalites, a superior unit.

“He (Lee) had a good band,” was the response from Neville Hinds, a longstanding  member of The Dragonaires.

His response stirred the audience, pushing Lyn to provide more to the story.

“As you know, during that time we were considered an uptown band doing a lot of American music; rock and roll and all that. We were invited by Mr Seaga to listen to a new sound. The first visit we listened to the beat and it was infectious and it was the ska. We went down there again and listened to it, so we took the ska from North Street to uptown and it became an immediate hit amongst the uptown, so it’s not a matter of who was chosen to represent ska. We were trying to introduce the Jamaican music, to America because we were doing tours all the time. That was when we were requested to write a song that would not only reflect the music but the dance, so that’s what we did,” he explained.

“Wi spending di time arguing ’bout who invented di ska but di reality is Jamaica music is at di top, it is alive well an’ it will always be,” Hinds concluded.