Justin Hinds
& The Dominoes
Biography

    Justin Hinds and the Dominoes Dennis Sinclair and Junior Dixon truly deserve pioneer status in the history of Jamaican music. Their crucial and prolific early work for producer Duke Reid helped define and shape the music that became known as reggae. The moral authority and cultural thrust of Justin’s lyrics profoundly inspired an entire generation of Jamaican singers and musicians. Justin was a major star of ska and rock steady days, and thus had more releases on Duke Reid labels than any other vocal artist. These included his classic inspirational songs of prophecy and proverb such as ‘King Samuel,’ ‘Look Into That,’ ‘Nebuchanezer,’ ‘Once A Man,’ ‘Higher The Monkey Climbs,’ ‘Save A Bread,’ ‘Drink Milk’ and ‘Mighty Redeemer.’

    "I was born the seventh day of May, 1942 along the North Coast in a little village name of Steertown, in the parish of St. Ann. That’s where I still live now. My father was a religious person. He believe in righteous- ness. He was a spiritual man, and I adopt his ways. I would be with my father and listen to them in church, and I would just love to sing Christian songs.
 

    "The people that really influence my way of life in music is really the American artists. I used to listen to rock and roll sound. That’s where I get ideas. I listen to B.B. King, Louis Jordan, Smiley Lewis and those guys. I listen to a great pianist, Professor Longhair. The reason why I called my group Dominoes – I used to listen to Fats Domino. I like the man’s song and I used to like the game, dominoes.

    "Dennis and I used to be on a cruise boat. We used to work for the water sport concession at the Jamaica Hilton when we were pretty young. We used to drive water ski boat and t’ing like dat. We used to work on 85 foot yacht. Cruised from Jamaica Hilton to Port Antonio or Montego Bay. We used to sing on that boat. We used to just sing for the people and they used to throw up a lot of money for us. I have a different type of voice – a different sound. The people always just loves to listen to my voice.

    "I start to come to Kingston when I was about 17, you know, and I used to see these guys – they were preacher. Some used to wear those tall garment, gowns and t’ing like that. I used to reason with a dreadlock, the name of Nowell. He was one of the first Rastaman in Kingston. So from I reason with that Rastaman, I get to find that the truth is in Rastafari. The word that this man was relating to me, it was the truth. He was telling me that when you dread, you fear someone. So then, you fear the Almighty. So, when you say you are dreadlock, you lock off the frailty of the earth. I man have to lock off doin’ very dangerous t’ings. So, I get to love this man.

    "Then I come to Kingston with the expectation of goin' to Coxsone's studio, but when I went to Coxsone's, the guys didn't want to listen to me, you know. I was at Duke Reid studio, and this man Duke Reid want me to sing 'pon the piazza, you know -- want me to rehearse on the street. So I said, 'No, I never sing on the street, because I work in North Coast, and to come to town with a can to sing on the street -- I'll never do that.' I leave from there and I head over to check Bongo Nowell, over to a place they call Back O' Wall. I tell Bongo Nowell that I'm in town to do some singin'. So he laughed, you know, and he said, 'Well, the city's bad, man. You must know how fe move in the city.' So, (while) he cook, I was sittin' 'round there with Lord Creator, Don Drummond, Wilfred Edwards -- all the great guys dem that was older than me in the (music) business. Bongo Nowell give me some food to eat. Then I start to sing. A dude walk from Duke Reid studio and come over there to get some smoke. This dude listen to me singin' with all these great artist. So he come to me and say, 'What's your name? Where you from?' I say, 'My name is Justin from the country.' The dude jump on a cycle and he ride back to Duke Reid. He say, 'Look, Duke Reid, there is a guy from country, name o' Justin, that is over in Back O' Wall. This dude can really fuckin' sing.' So Duke Reid say, 'OK, bring him over.'

    "When the dude bring me over to Duke Reid, I realize it was the same man, again. He said, 'What is the name of your song?' I say, 'Carry Go Bring Come.' He said, 'OK, go in a de studio.' I went in the studio and I meet Baba Brooks, Tommy McCook, Lester Sterling, Rasta Jerry -- these was the people they call The Skatalites. Rasta Jerry plays the guitar on my records. He is one of the first Rastaman. Drumbago was the man who play the drums. In those days in Jamaica, everybody have to use Drumbago 'cause he was the greatest. So I start to sing with these people. That was the first time I ever sing with a band. Tommy McCook said, 'Ok, we gonna go to Federal tomorrow, go record.' This was late 1963 they take me to Federal. The first time I sing 'Carry Go Bring Come,' they take it. I didn't have to sing it a second time. That was my first record. When I did 'Carry Go Bring Come,' there was a big competition in Kingston. It was a sound system contest between Duke Reid and Sir coxsone. It was downtown in Old Kingston. So Duke tell me to stay in Kingston that night. It was eleven o'clock (when) Duke Reid drive in. The first time they gonna put my 45 on the table, it plays eight time. Duke Reid gain victory that night in Kingston. That's the way I started in those days -- was ska days. That was my first record. It was a hit for seven weeks.

    "They start to rush me in the studio. So, I start to make a lot of record and people start to dig my sound. So then I get famous. I was the champion for Duke Reid sound system. We did maybe sixty or seventy songs for Duke Reid. I was the only one that puttin' out, I would say, prophecy songs (in) those days. Some of the people think I was too deep on religion, but (that) was the culture. Was deep roots. I'm not the type of dude who love to run up and down, so I stick by Duke Reid for all dem days. He was kind in some ways, and in other ways greedy. We started with him young. We didn't know the value of our talent, you know, and we give it to him with our whole heart. We was behind him watching. We didn't know what was happenin', but we is looking for a turn. I can remember Alton Ellis, Desmond Dekker, the Paragons -- those people. We didn't have no protection.

    "I was at Duke Reid studio one day with some people from Europe and a lady from New York. These people was there just to work in the studio. These people need something to drink, so I prefer to go. As I burst the corner, I walk right into a gun. It was ten person hold up the studio -- five dreads and five baldhead. One of the guy put a gun in my belly and they put a knife at my throat, and take away my watch. They hit the girl on her head and said, 'Fuckin' white woman supposed to dead.' I said, 'No man. I bring these people come here. You can't do that.' These guys hold machine gun, thief away all the people's chains and money, and hit woman on her head with a gun, you know. T'ings like dose burn me, man. So I just curse off the whole o' downtown Kingston that day when they rob me. I rather stay in the country, you know, 'cause I rather not have anything and just be alone, more than to be amongst wolf out deh. I doesn't want them to tear me up, you know. Everyone become a hustler. I doesn't love dose t'ings, Rasta. To be truthful, I doesn't love the ground where a lot o' hustlin' go on. So then, I doesn't love the town, Rasta. I prefer it in the country."

    Justin continued working for Duke Reid exclusively until Reid's health failed in the early seventies, and Sonia Pottinger took over Duke's recording operation. Justin did very little new work for Pottinger, who preferred to release old material from the Duke Reid vaults, and he soon became discouraged with the 'rat race,' went back to Steertown, and stopped coming to Kingston. In 1976 Jack Ruby, one of the best known sound system men in Jamaica, sought Justin out at the request of Island Records who financed the production of two first class albums. A financial misunderstanding ended the Dominoes relationship with Jack Ruby and Island, so Justin simply stopped coming to town again. In 1981 Nighthawk Records went to Steertown to reason with Justin. The album, 'Travel With Love,' was the first fruit of that meeting.

    'Travel With Love' was a very well received album among reggae fans and critics. Recorded at the Tuff Gong studio, the album featured several of the Wailers in supporting roles. Particularly noteworthy as one of the last recordings by Wailers drummer, Carlton Barrett, whose performance on the album was simply magical. It was surely one of the saddest days in reggae when he was brutally murdered in Kingston only a short time later. Originally the marketing of the album was to include a promotional tour with Justin backed by the Wailers. While the band initially agreed to tour, soon they became so mired in their own problems that it became impossible. The music of Bob Marley is so clearly influenced by Justin that the combination seemed a natural, but it was not to be.

    In the early nineties, Justin began a more aggressive effort to push his career forward. He started working with a little band put together from friends and neighbors, rehearsing in his Steertown home. Word of the group spread slowly at first -- a few shows in America and a few in Europe sparked notice -- but his profile was still modest. In 1990, he recorded an album for Jwyanza Music in Jamaica released on LP which caught the ears of several key listeners abroad, despite it's limited availability. Nighthawk Records remixed the album and released it internationally in 1992. In 1994 Justin made his first (and long overdue) appearance on the Reggae Sunsplash Festival in Jamaica and by all accounts his performance was electrifying. With his gentle, spiritual and churchical vibe, Justin has emerged as an icon for reggae fans who love the more traditional cultural side of the music.

    1997 has been a very big year for Justin. He and the Dominoes made their first tour of America in the autumn, performing major markets coast-to-coast. For an artist with so much history behind him, this was a major event, as artist and audience finally connect. The current wave of popular interest in ska has given added value to Justin's extensive repertoire and brought him to the attention of a new young audience which was not even born when he cut his first ska record. Only a tiny handful of Jamaican artists have managed to remain relevant to generation after generation moving through each of the important periods of Jamaican music and surely Justin Hinds is among those few.

    1998 has brought the release on CD of 'Wingless Angels,' a side-project featuring Justin on vocals in a unique recording made by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, and Justin's good friend of many years. This album, which took many by surprise, features a set of North Coast bredren, all friends and neighbors, chanting some ancient roots hymns with hand drums and subtle overdubs. The folksy, front-porch charm of the recording marks it a longshot for commercial markets, but it will satisfy the listener who craves something real and down to earth, yet quite removed from the norm as we have come to expect it.