Joe Gibbs

Biography

b. 1943 in Montego Bay, Jamaica
d. 21 February 2008 in Miami, Florida

Joe Gibbs grew up in the resort town of Montego Bay in the fifties and in the early sixties he moved to Kingston where in 1966 he opened his first shop on Beeston street. Initially he sold and repaired radio and television sets but he soon started to sell records as well because it helped to draw people into the shop. His electronics background gave him the confidence to move into music production and he built his first recording studio in 1968 in the Duhaney Park area: “a simple but effective two track studio modelled on the studio at Federal Records”. See [l=Joe Gibbs Studio]

Influential and prolific reggae producer, Joe Gibbs employed [a=Lee Perry] and then [a=Winston ‘Niney’ Holness] as engineers before forming [a=The Mighty Two], a long-term collaboration with engineer [a=Errol Thompson]. The backing for many releases was provided by his studio band [a=The Professionals (9)], whose members included [a=Sly Dunbar], [a=Robbie Shakespeare] and [a=Earl “Chinna” Smith].