Biography
Alton Nehemiah Ellis, OD, (September 1, 1938 – October 10, 2008), was a Jamaican musician best known as one of the innovators of rocksteady music, and was often referred to as the "Godfather of Rocksteady". In 2006, he was inducted into the International Reggae And World Music Awards Hall Of Fame.
Ellis was born in 1938 and grew up in Kingston's Trench Town district. Born into a musical family, he learned to play piano at a young age. He initially sought fame as a dancer. After winning a couple of competitions, he switched to singing, starting his career in 1959 as part of the duo Alton & Eddy with Eddy Perkins. Ellis and Perkins recorded for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One, initially in the R&B style, having a massive hit with "Muriel", a song Ellis had written whilst working as a labourer on a building site.
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In 2004, Ellis was awarded the Order of Distinction by the Jamaican government in recognition of his achievements.
In December 2007, he was admitted to hospital in London for treatment of cancer of the lymph glands, but he returned to live performance after receiving chemotherapy.
Ellis died on 10 October 2008 at Hammersmith Hospital, West London, of cancer.
He was the older brother of the late Hortense Ellis, and the father of more than twenty children including Noel Ellis and Christopher Ellis, who are both reggae singers.
Hortense Ellis (18 April 1941, Trenchtown, Kingston, Jamaica - 19 October 2000) was a reggae musician, and the younger sister of fellow artist, Alton Ellis.
Ellis' career began with performances on the Vere Johns' Opportunity Hour Talent Show, where she was a regular finalist.
In the early 1960s, she recorded several songs for Coxsone Dodd and Prince Buster. She later went on to record duets with her brother Alton, with Duke Reid, and solo tracks with Bunny Lee. She also collaborated with Derrick Morgan in the mid 1970s on a couple of his albums. Ellis released an album of duets with Jackie Edwards in 1978, and had a hit single with "Let It Be Me". She also scored a Jamaican hit with the song "Unexpected Places".
Ellis moved to New York in 1985, but later returned to Jamaica.
She died, at the age of 59, on 19 October 2000 at the Kingston Public Hospital from a stomach infection.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.