Ernest Ranglin O.D (Order of Distiction)
Ernest Ranglin O.D. (born 19 June 1932, Manchester, Jamaica) is a Jamaican guitarist and composer. Best known for his session work at the famed Studio One, Ranglin helped give birth to the ska genre in the late 1950s. Some credit Ranglin with the invention of the core style of guitar play (sometimes known as "scratching") found in nearly all ska music.
Ranglin played on many classic Jamaican recordings, performing with artists such as Theophilus Beckford, Jimmy Cliff, Monty Alexander, Prince Buster, The Skatalites, Bob Marley and Eric Dean's Orchestra. He has also explored other styles of music, notably blending jazz, mento and reggae.
In the 1950s Ranglin recorded plenty mento (traditional Jamaican music style), including the fine 1958 album by Denzil Laing and the Wrigglers, At the Arawak Hotel on which his early, outstanding jazz guitar is featured. Some of these rare and significant 1950's mento records, his earliest recordings, were reissued in 2010 on the Jamaica - Mento 1951-1958 album.
Chris Blackwell produced a Ranglin single, which was one of the first releases on Blackwell's R&B label in the late 1950s. A live album split between Ranglin and Bermudian pianist Lance Hayward was among the first recordings released by Blackwell. Around 1956, Ranglin had also joined Cluett Johnson's studio band Clue J and the Blues Blasters, recording several tracks for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One, including Theophilus Beckford's hits "Easy Snapping" and "Jack and Jill Shuffle" as well as "Shuffling Jug," regarded as some of the first Jamaican rhythm and blues records. In 1962, the James Bond film Dr. No was filmed in Jamaica. While Byron Lee & the Dragonaires appeared in the film, the soundtrack recordings were actually made by Ranglin. In 1964, Ranglin played guitar on singer Millie Small's "My Boy Lollipop", the first Jamaican song to achieve international success.
In 1973 he was awarded the Order of Distinction from the Jamaican Government for his contributions to music. He moved to Florida in the late 1970s, where he performed at jazz festivals and continued to record occasionally.