The Heptones
Leroy Sibbles, Earl Morgan and Barry Llewellyn made harmony feel weightless while their bass lines held Studio One to the floor. The Heptones bridge rocksteady sweetness and roots-reggae depth.
The Heptones formed in Kingston in the mid-1960s and became one of Studio One’s defining vocal trios. Leroy Sibbles supplied lead voice and, as a bassist and arranger, contributed directly to the instrumental foundations beneath the songs. “Fattie Fattie,” “Party Time,” “Equal Rights” and “Book of Rules” carried the group from rocksteady into reggae. Their later work with Lee “Scratch” Perry on the 1977 Island version of Party Time placed their harmonies inside the Black Ark world. The group’s importance is therefore double: voices at the front, and Sibbles’ bass and session work underneath a wider Studio One catalog.