Biography
Born in Kingston in 1958, Noel Ellis grew up in the city’s rough Trenchtown neighborhood. As the son of reggae-soul singer Alton Ellis, he displayed a strong voice early on and cut an unreleased track called “It Has Been a Long Time” with the Gladiators at Channel One while still in his teens. When Alton departed Jamaica for Toronto, Noel followed, yet shortly after his arrival Alton continued on to England to join a large existing audience there. Noel remained behind with relatives, enrolling at Castle Frank High School. The city’s sizable West Indian community and its specialty record stores allowed him to stay current with fresh Jamaican 45s, and by the mid-1970s a fledgling local reggae scene had taken shape, centered largely around Jerry Brown’s Summer Records imprint.
Spotting Ellis’s promise, Brown issued the track “Reach My Destiny” on a split disco single in 1978. It attracted little notice, but the 1979 follow-up “Rocking Universally,” cut at Summer with assistance from Jackie Mittoo, fared better and registered on European charts as a 12-inch. Four years afterward, in 1983, Summer put out a self-titled full-length album that included “Rocking Universally” alongside five additional extended roots-reggae performances. The LP made no commercial headway upon release yet later acquired a reputation as a cult favorite. Ellis eventually parted ways with Summer, took a series of unrelated jobs, and sporadically recorded for minor independent labels before moving to London, mirroring his father’s path. In 2006 Seattle’s Light in the Attic Records reissued the long-unavailable Noel Ellis album on CD, bringing the overlooked set back into circulation.
Spotting Ellis’s promise, Brown issued the track “Reach My Destiny” on a split disco single in 1978. It attracted little notice, but the 1979 follow-up “Rocking Universally,” cut at Summer with assistance from Jackie Mittoo, fared better and registered on European charts as a 12-inch. Four years afterward, in 1983, Summer put out a self-titled full-length album that included “Rocking Universally” alongside five additional extended roots-reggae performances. The LP made no commercial headway upon release yet later acquired a reputation as a cult favorite. Ellis eventually parted ways with Summer, took a series of unrelated jobs, and sporadically recorded for minor independent labels before moving to London, mirroring his father’s path. In 2006 Seattle’s Light in the Attic Records reissued the long-unavailable Noel Ellis album on CD, bringing the overlooked set back into circulation.