Dwight Pinkney

Dwight Pinkney OD (born 1945), also known as Brother Dee, is a Jamaican guitarist best known for his work as a session musician and as a member of Zap Pow and the Roots Radics, who since 1999 has recorded as a solo artist.

Biography

Dwight Pinkney was born in Manchester Parish, Jamaica, moving to Kingston as a youth. In the mid-1960s he formed The Sharks as guitarist, the band recording for Studio One and backing The Wailers on their 1965 Jamaican hit single "Put It On", also providing backing for recordings by Ken Boothe and The Gaylads. Pinkney moved on along with Michael Williams to form Zap Pow in 1969, a band with members later included Beres Hammond, David Madden, and Glen DaCosta. In 2008 he released an album of instrumental versions of Bob Marley songs, Dwight Pinkney Picks Marley Melodies.

In 2000, he formed a new band, the Distinguished Personalities Band (aka the DP Band) along with Keith Francis and Earl Fitzsimmons.

In 2012 he released Dwight Pinkney and D.P. Band Plays the Ventures+ Jamaican Style, an album of instrumentals featuring reggae versions of surf instrumentals and film and television themes. It was included in the provisional list of 50 albums in contention for the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.

Pinkney has also appeared in the films Smile Orange, Land of Look Behind, and Holyland.

In August 2014 it was announced that Pinkney would receive the Order of Distinction in October that year for his contribution to the development of Jamaican music.

Solo discography Jamaican Memories by the Score (1999) RAS/TP All Occasions (2000) More Jamaican Memories (2002) VP Home Grown Jamaican (2005) Reggae Chronicles (2006) Hallmark Love & Peace (2007) Dwight Pinkney Picks Marley Melodies (2008) VP Dwight Pinkney and D.P. Band Plays the Ventures+ Jamaican Style (2012), Tad's Reggae Christmas Hits (2016), Abengg International Knockout (2021) VP

Awards Jamaica Federation of Musicians Union (JFMU) Award for Jamaican Memories by the Score Reggae-Soca Music Award for Jamaican Memories by the Score Canadian Pippers Award, 2002 International Reggae and World Music Award (IRAWMA) of Honour for contribution the development of Jamaican music, 2008. Order of Distinction -Officer class from Government of Jamaica 2014