Nearlin “Lynn” Taitt was born on June 22, 1934 in San Fernando, Trinidad. When he was eight years old, he and his four brothers started a steel pan band called Seabees, the name taken after the classic John Wayne film, The Fighting Seabees. Lynn also learned to play cuatro which is an instrument similar to the ukulele. 

 He would first record for RCA records and Cook Records in Trinidad with Southern All Stars Orchestra and then later begin a career with The Dutchy Brothers. The Dutchy Brothers had contracts in Venezuela and Jamaica concurrently, so they opted to play Venezuela, and knowing that Taitt had his own band, the Nearlin Taitt Orchestra,  they asked him to play Jamaica.

They left on a multi-country tour through the Caribbean and, for a reason no one can truly explain, when they got to Jamaica, they were billed as Cyril Diaz & 7 Piece Orchestra. (The most likely scenario is that Cyril Diaz had become popular during the tour and so they switched it up.) Arriving in August 1963, they would become stranded on the island due to their tour managers disappearing with their pay. Most of the members of the band eventually went home but Lynn decided to stay and was hired by Byron Lee to play in The Shieks band. If it wasn’t for this event, reggae guitar could have been a lot different. 

 Lynn was offered to lead the famous Skatalites. He recorded and played with them several times. He would go on to play in several bands including The Cavaliers, The Comets and The Jets. His first hit record as a guitarist was “Shank I Sheck” by Baba Brooks on the King Edward’s label. He would go onto record a lot of songs for Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle label beginning with Stranger & Patsy’s “Yeah Yeah Baby.” He would also play guitar on every candidate for the first rocksteady song, such as Roy Shirley’s “Hold Them,” Hopeton Lewis’ “Take it Easy,” and Alton Ellis’ “Rock Steady.” 

What made Lynn’s style so unique was a combination of his instrument and how he played it. He exclusively used a flat body guitar when everyone was using larger, semi-hollow body jazz guitars. His guitar was a German made 1964 Hofner Super Solid with Humbucker pickups in a striking red and black color scheme. He also had a Gibson Starfire TR1000 solid state amplifier. The Fender Reverb Deluxe has also been mentioned as an amplifier he used. His strings were of a heavier gauge and were flat wound with a wound 3rd string.  

 He had several distinct playing tricks, the first being that he downstroked all of his rhythm chops when everyone up to that point had been playing ska with upstrokes. Often, you’d hear the lowest string dropped from the chord as he felt it would clash with the low bass notes and make the rhythm sound muddy. “Pick up chords” were another trait that he devised. It was a way for him to add flavor to the otherwise monotonous chop, but also a way to signal the band that a chord change was about to occur.  

 “Bubbling” is a term he gave to the picking of notes that followed the bassline. “Pick and roll” were the fast tremolo-style picking fills. These were influenced from his pan playing days, but also as a way for the bassline to be heard over small speakers and the mid-range heavy mixing of the day. This was often followed by what he calls the “ska bullet,” which was a pluck of the strings higher up the neck to deliver a piercing stab of a note.  

One of my favorite things about Lynn’s arrangements are his intros. No other arrangers ever had intricate or unique intros like he did. Most often, they’d feature a melody exclusive to the section, or it would just be comprised of guitar and piano with cymbal or cowbell embellishments from the drummer. 

 Lynn would eventually leave Jamaica and emigrate to Toronto, Canada to continue his career where he built a recording studio in his garage. Before he left, he sold his guitar to Rannie Bop, one of his rhythm players. Rannie, along with his other apprentices such as Hux Brown, Jerry Cleary, Patrick McDonald, George Tucker and Bobby Aitken would continue his playing legacy. 

In 1973, he would return to Jamaica and Federal Studios to record a few sessions as well as the pure funk tune, “Out on a Funky Trip,” which he had recorded on his own to be released on Randy’s, the label owned by Randy Chin which essentially was the precursor to VP Records.  

Over the ensuing years, he played shows with several bands including The Skatalites in Japan in 1989. He played  to the very end of his life, eventually succumbing to pneumonia while battling kidney cancer in Montreal on January 20, 2010.

 His playing influenced generation upon generation of reggae guitarists. Every reggae rhythm guitarist in the world plays their chops with downstrokes and every lead reggae guitarist picks their notes along with the bass. This all leads back to Lynn Taitt.  

 Taitt is featured in Japanese rocksteady documentary Ruff N Tuff. Several years ago, a push to get funding from the Canadian government to release his last album was not successful. As with many members of Jamaican music history, their contributions are unknown to this day. Hopefully, however, we have scratched one more name off that list with this article and playlist. If you would like to know his full story, check out the writings of Brian Keyo and Kenneth Bilby.