For students of reggae, Leroy Sibbles is synonymous with The Heptones and as one of the music’s foremost bassists. He has also made a name as a producer. While he continues to record as a singer, Sibbles has worked in recent times with acts like Young Garvey and Christopher McDonald. He produced the latter’s version of Jackie Wilson’s To Be Loved which was released this month.
Sibbles also produced his hit versions of Bobby Womack’s Harry Hippie and Try Me, originally done by James Brown. As much as he loves guiding other artists, Sibbles is selective about his projects. “I have to be convinced that the artist is an artist. Has to be musical and the song that we’re going to do is of a certain quality,” he said.
As a member of The Heptones, Sibbles learned the ropes of music production at Studio One where the trio recorded most of their hit songs during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.There, he found a willing mentor in keyboardist Jackie Mittoo, the studio’s musical director.
Interestingly, although he played bass on, and helped arrange several hits at Studio One, Sibbles considers his 1978 version of Eddie Floyd’s I Never Found me A Girl (as Ain’t no Love) to be his debut production.
It was recorded while he was living in Canada, his home for over 20 years. “That’s the first time I got an insight into the kind of money producers are making,” he said.
Try Me, which spent three weeks at number one on the South Florida Top 25 Reggae Top Chart, is Sibbles’ most successful production to date.
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