Val Bennett

about

Val Bennett ( Lovall Bennett, died 1991) was a Jamaican tenor saxophonist and jazz and roots reggae musician who began his career in the 1940s. He made a number of releases on the Island Records and Crab Records labels. In the late 1940s, Bennett led his own band, the Val Bennett Orchestra. Artists that played in Bennett's band included Jah Jerry Haynes, Lloyd Knibb, and Ernest Ranglin, whose first professional experience was with this band. The Val Bennett Orchestra performed regularly at the Colony Club, performing mainly for foreign visitors to Jamaica. The band also toured abroad, performing in countries including Haiti, where they picked up merengue and played it on their return to Jamaica. In the early to mid-1960s, Bennett was a regular member of Prince Buster's band, playing on many of the singer's best-known recordings, including "Al Capone". Bennett was also a regular studio session musician, appearing on many releases from artists including Theophilus Beckford, Pat Kelly, Barrington Levy, and Delroy Wilson. Bennett's session work included saxophone, horn, and trombone. In the late 1960s, Bennett joined Bunny Lee's "All Stars". Notable tracks by Bennett include "The Russians Are Coming" (1968), a cover of "Take Five" by the Dave Brubeck Quartet,[4] which would later go on to be used as the theme tune to the British television series The Secret Life of Machines in the late-1980s; and "Tons Of Gold" (1970), with the Harry J Allstars, a version of their track "The Liq

top songs

albums

The Russians Are Coming / Lonely Girl

Rebel Music - A Reggae Anthology Vol.1

Trojan Instrumentals Box Set Disc 1

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Trojan Instrumentals Box Set

Trojan Instrumentals Box Set Disc 3

Trojan Reggae Chill-Out Box Set

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High Plains Drifter

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Val Bennett - EP

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Island Records Reggae Box Set - War Ina Babylon

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Tighten Up Volume 1

Instrumentals Box Set Disc 2

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Reggae Jazz Box Set

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