The Wailers

Rooted in Trench Town, Kingston, Jamaica, The Wailers formed in the early 1960s around Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh, soon joined and supported by various singers and musicians from the local scene. Initially oriented toward ska and rocksteady, the group recorded for Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One label and developed a vocal style built on tight harmonies, drawing on gospel, rhythm and blues and Jamaican popular music. Under the name The Wailers, the trio gradually moved toward a slower, more stripped‑down reggae, notably through work with producer Lee "Scratch" Perry and musicians Aston "Family Man" Barrett and Carlton Barrett, who established a rhythmic foundation that would leave a lasting mark on their subsequent direction. The album The Wailing Wailers (1965) documents the group’s early ska period, before they began, around the turn of the 1970s, a collaboration with Island Records that introduced them to an audience far beyond Jamaica. The lineup later evolved to combine the vocal core with a fuller electric band, as The Wailers increased touring and recording between Kingston, London and other international stages. The departures of Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer in the mid‑1970s led to a redefinition of the entity as Bob Marley and the Wailers; after Marley’s death, various successor live formations continued to use the name The Wailers, featuring musicians who had been part of that history.