ONE of the understated pioneers of Jamaican music, Lascelles Perkins turned 90 on October 13. The milestone was celebrated at the Kingston home of veteran session guitarist, Earl “Chinna” Smith.

Carl Finlay, an Irish musicologist who is writing a book about the legendary Studio One label, said Perkins does not get the acclaim like his contemporaries from the 1940s and 1950s.

“Any man that reaches 90 years old deserves some sort of acknowledgement. When you talk about foundation artistes, Lascelles is the definition of a foundation artiste,” said Finlay. “Some would say [Clement] Coxson Dodd and Studio One built up reggae music. Well, Lascelles Perkins was there at the very first recording session Coxson Dodd ever made, and the first set of singles Coxson Dodd ever released was Lascelles Perkins.”

Dodd’s initial sessions took place in 1956 at Federal Records in Kingston. The boogie woogie songs Perkins did for his fledgling label were No More Running Around and Moonlight Cha Cha.

The Trench Town-born Perkins got into music shortly after leaving the Alpha Boys Home [(now Alpha Insitute) where his schoolmates included trombonist Don Drummond and saxophonist Lester Sterling, future members of The Skatalites.

Perkins told the Jamaica Observer, “It feels great to be 90. Wi give thanks for every year; yuh have yuh likkle aches an’ pains but wi give thanks all di same.”

The eldest of seven children for his parents, Perkins said they were concerned that he was becoming wayward and that resulted in him being sent to Alpha, which was an institution for troubled boys. After leaving Alpha he entered talent contests as a singer, the best-known being the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour.

In addition to recording “countless songs” for Dodd, including The Mighty Organ and No Man is an Island (later made famous by Dennis Brown), Perkins worked in north coast hotels and on tourist ships which sailed to The Bahamas and Miami.

Perkins also performed with and recorded for bandleader Carlos Malcolm during the 1960s. He continued to record into his 70s, cutting an album of Studio One covers for Dodd that was released in 2015.

One of Lascelles Perkins’ sons was the deejay Lee Van Cleef.