by Howard Campbell
CALIFORNIA – Lynford “Hux” Brown, a prolific session guitarist who played on classic songs like Jimmy Cliff’s The Harder They Come and Mother and Child Reunion, died in Oakland, California on June 18 at age 75.
Brown died in the parking lot of a Home Depot where he had gone to purchase items, his wife Bobbie disclosed.
Born in Portland parish in eastern Jamaica, Brown started his career at producer Clement Dodd’s Studio One in the early 1960s. He moved to the rival Treasure Isle studio later that decade and became a member of the Supersonics Band.
At Treasure Isle, Brown played on countless hit songs including Girl I’ve Got A Date by Alton Ellis, Wear You to The Ball by The Paragons and Ba Ba Boom by The Jamaicans which won the Festival Song Competition in 1967.
He also did a number of sessions for producer Leslie Kong, the first man to record Bob Marley. Kong was a mentor to Cliff and had Toots and The Maytals in his Beverley’s Records camp.
Some of the biggest songs Brown played on at Beverley’s were Sweet and Dandy, Monkey Man and Funky Kingston which helped make Toots a major star, and By The Rivers of Babylon by The Melodians.
Brown was one of several Jamaican musicians recruited by Paul Simon to work on his self-titled debut solo album, which was recorded at Dynamic Sounds in Kingston in 1971.
The reggae-flavored Mother and Child Reunion was the breakout song from that album which was released in 1972.
Brown was a member of Toots and The Maytals’ recording and touring band for over 35 years.
Lynford Hux Brown is survived by his wife, daughter and two grandchildren.
