Ansel Collins is a Jamaican keyboardist, producer and vocalist born in Kingston, Jamaica. As a producer, Collins released solo records, including single sides "Cock Robin", "Atlantic One", "Stalag" and "Nuclear Weapon" between 1969 and 1971, as well as a handful of later albums. Collins' magical fingers would add signature sounds to Jamaica's Mento, Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae, and Dancehall music from the 60's to present.


He continued to record during the 1980s, right up until 2013.
In September 2015 Ansel Collins re-emerged with a stellar 14 tracked instrumental album titled, "The Magnificent" which includes harmonies and versions of previously released songs by various artist with whom he worked.


Early Years

As his first love is singing, Collins was guided by his mother who would write songs for him and sang with him at times. She would also accompany young teen aged Collins to various recording studios in Kingston.
Collins remembered his first time on stage as a singer in 1960 at "A Star Is Born" event hosted by the late Cecil "Sonny" Bradshaw.
He would later move to Waterhouse Community where he was introduced to Bobby Aitken and The Carib Beats by Patricia/Patsy Clark. It was shortly after this meeting that Collins would finally see the light in terms of making a headway on his musical journey as he became a vocalist in the band. After a while, Collins bought his first keyboard book from Music Mart on Orange Street in Kingston from which he taught himself to play the keyboard and the rest is history.

In the late 1960s, Collins was introduced to Father Gooden of Rainbow Healing Temple(RHT) who at that time has just bought instruments for his church and was in search of musicians. This led to Ansel Collins becoming the band leader of Rainbow Healing Temple(RHT)Invincibles Band. This would become the launching pad for Collins as a professional musician. It was at RHT that Collins met young Lowell "Sly" Fillmore Dunbar also affectionately known as "coo-coo or "Charlie" at age 14 and made him a member of the band as a drummer.


As Collins found a calling as a record producer, after working with Lee "Scratch" Perry, Collins rose to prominence as part of the duo Dave and Ansell Collins along with Dave Barker in 1971 with the hit single “Double Barrel.” The song was the first Jamaican song to scale to the number one spot on the British singles chart, and the duo’s follow-up, “Monkey Spanner,” did nearly as well, entering the Top Ten. Following these hits, Collins wrote the song “Stalag 17″, the song became a top seller in Jamaica in 1973 and was later covered extensively by dancehall artists. One of the most popular song ever to be produced on that instrumental was “Ring the Alarm” by the late reggae artist Tenor Saw.

Collins who discovered the duo Sly & Robbie, worked extensively with them in the 1970s at the Channel One Studio band and regularly played with the Revolutionaries and the Aggrovators, both of them groundbreaking dub bands. He was also a regular member of Soul Syndicate band and many other bands other including "The Thoroughbreds" at club Stables. He was a member of 1970s Channel One studio band, The Revolutionaries. He was also part of Jimmy Cliff's backing band, Oneness, in the 1970s as well as the Impact All Stars. Collins also worked with backing bands such as Lynn Taitt and the Jets (including the reggae producer Joe Gibbs). In 1978 he was the member of the band The Gladiators (1978 album Proverbial Reggae)and Sugar Minott's Black Roots Players, performing on many of the classic songs of the roots reggae era (album 1979 Black Roots).

His keyboard playing exemplified the Skinhead reggae style.
Ansel Collins has played keyboards on the several albums of the various musicians: albums of the dub musician Scientist Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires and Scientist in the Kingdom of Dub (1981), album of Rico Rodriguez Man from Wareika (1977), album of Lincoln Thompson Natural Wild (1980), album of Augustus Pablo This Is Augustus Pablo (1974), album of Black Uhuru Sinsemilla (1980), albums of Jimmy Cliff Give Thanx (1978), album of King Tubby and Prince Jammy His Majesty's Dub (1976), Cliff Hanger (1985) and Humanitarian (1999), album of The Royals Pick Up the Pieces (1977), album of Mighty Diamonds Right Time (1976), album of Gregory Isaacs Cool Ruler (1978), album of Prince Far I Health and Strength (1998), but also on the albums of the musician like French Singer, and Songwriter, Serge Gainsbourg (Aux armes et cætera, 1979).

Throughout the ’80s and into the ’90s, Collins worked with many of reggae’s most popular artists: Black Uhuru, Jimmy Cliff, Gregory Isaacs, Israel Vibration, U-Roy, and many more. His next best known instrumental was covered by Sly & Robbie and made into a Reggae staple with the release of Chaka Demus & Pliers hit single “Murder She Wrote”.

Ansel Collins currently resides in St. Andrew Jamaica and said he is ready to get on the road doing live shows.