Leslie Kong

Leslie Kong
Born	1933
Died	9 August 1971 (aged 38)
Genres	Ska, rocksteady, reggae
Occupation(s)	Record producer
Years active	1962–1971
Labels	Beverley's

Leslie Kong (1933 – 9 August 1971) was an influential Chinese-Jamaican reggae producer.

Leslie and his two older brothers Cecil and Lloyd ran a restaurant, ice cream parlour and record shop called Beverley's in Orange Street, Kingston. In 1961, he encountered a young Jimmy Cliff outside of his shop singing a song he had written called "Dearest Beverley," in the hopes that the mention of the establishment would convince Kong to record him. This encounter led Kong to launch his own record label, Beverley's, and to record Cliff's song, launching Cliff's career in the process.

Cliff took on an A&R role for the label, and brought Bob Marley to Kong's attention. In 1962, Kong recorded Marley's first single: "One Cup of Coffee" and "Judge Not", and Jimmy Cliff's first hit, "Miss Jamaica". Kong, known in Jamaican music circles as "the Chinaman", quickly established himself as the island's leading producer of local popular music. Throughout the 1960s Kong kept recording many leading Jamaican artists from ska to reggae through rocksteady including Joe Higgs, Desmond Dekker, Toots & the Maytals, Derrick Morgan, John Holt and Stranger Cole. A wise businessman, Kong was one of the original shareholders in Island Records along with Chris Blackwell and Australian engineer Graeme Goodall. Starting in 1963 Kong began licensing ska recordings to Blackwell for release in the UK on Island's Black Swan imprint. After Blackwell bought out Kong and Goodall's share in Island, in 1967 Kong formed a second partnership with Graeme Goodall, who created the Pyramid label in the UK for the successful release of Kong's rocksteady and early reggae productions. When Pyramid folded in 1969, the licensing successes continued with Trojan Records.

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