Headley Bennett, Jamaican saxophonist, Died at 85

  Music

Felix Headley Bennett was born in 1931, in Kingston, Jamaica, and died on August 21, 2016.

He was also known as Deadly Headley.

He was a Jamaican saxophonist.

Headley performed on hundreds of recordings since the 1950s.

He attended the Alpha Boys School from the age of five, where he learned to play the saxophone.

Bennett left at aged fifteen and went on to worked as a musician for a while in Canada before returning to Jamaica.

During the 1960s, he has worked as a session musician in Jamaica, playing in the Studio One house band as well as in Lynn Taitt’s band The Jets, The Mighty Vikings, and in The Revolutionaries.

He had a vast majority of his recordings have been as a session musician, he has released two albums where he is credited as the main artist.

During the late 1970s he released an album of instrumental versions of soul ballads with Ossie Scott, Deadly Headly Bennett Meets The Magnificent Ossie Scott, and in 1981 he recorded 35 Years From Alpha with producer Adrian Sherwood, released in 1982 and reissued in 1999.

During 2005, at aged 74, Bennet was awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer for his contribution to the development of music by the Jamaican government.

During 2013, he was suffering from back and prostate problems, he was reported to be in financial difficulties due to mounting medical bills.

He died due to prostate cancer.

Headley Bennett passed away at 85 years old.