Augustus Pablo

Augustus Pablo was a major pioneer of dub reggae in the ’70s, using his skills on the melodica—a toylike keyboard harmonica—to conjure plaintive, minor-key melodies that floated like nimbus clouds over the bulbous bass and cavernous echoes of definitive albums like 1976’s King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown. Pablo was born Horace Swaby in June 1954 in St. Andrew, Jamaica. As a teenager, he taught himself to play the piano, organ, and other instruments, and he took on his stage name when he recorded his first singles with producer Herman Chin Loy of Kingston-based Aquarius Records—who had previously used the “Augustus Pablo” moniker for instrumentals featuring organist Glen Adams. Pablo landed his first major hit with 1972’s “Java,” and he further refined what he called his “Far East sound” on albums like 1977’s East of the River Nile—an opus of heady grooves rich with melancholic mystique, made with the help of formidable contributors such as Aston “Family Man” Barrett and Robbie Shakespeare. Pablo launched several labels starting in the ’70s, including Rockers, Hot Stuff, and Message, and he worked as a session keyboardist and producer for countless artists throughout the ensuing decades, staying busy as a studio wizard and reggae innovator until his death in 1999.