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Leonard “Sparrow” Dillon Of The Ethiopians Dead At 68

Leonard “Sparrow” Dillon, the lead singer of legendary reggae group The Ethiopians, has died at age 68.

Sparrow died yesterday (September 27) at his home in Kingston after battling lungs and brain cancer.

Leonard Dillon founded The Ethiopians in the 1960s along with band members Stephen Taylor and Aston Morris. The ska, reggae and rocksteady vocal group started recording for Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd in 1966.

The group recorded their first big hit single “Everything Crash” in 1968 at the height of political tension in Jamaica. In 1969 they released the album, Reggae Power, and in 1970, Woman a Capture Man.

Sparrow release his solo album On The Road Again in 1991 and went on to form a new Ethiopians in the late 1990s with female backing vocalists Jennifer Lara and Merlene Webber, who appeared on the 1999 album, Tuffer Than Stone.

R.I.P Sparrow.