Don Carlos

Born Euvin Spencer, the sweetly intoned singer and songwriter Don Carlos achieved his widest recognition as a founding member of Black Uhuru, the reggae threesome he launched in 1974 alongside Kingston neighbors Rudolph Dennis and Derrick “Duckie” Simpson from the Waterhouse district. He cut just a single track with the group before stepping away to launch a solo path and to front the band Don Carlos and Gold. After a sixteen-year absence, he rejoined Dennis and Simpson in 1990 to revive the original lineup; their reunion album Now restored much of the trio’s earlier following from the seventies and eighties, although Carlos’s return proved short-lived. Once he had helped complete the follow-up Iron Storm, he again turned his attention to independent work. Subsequent solo releases, among them the 1997 set Seven Days a Week, earned critical notice, yet none have rivaled the reach he enjoyed during his first stint with Black Uhuru.