Glen Adams, best known for his keyboard work as one of Lee Perry's Upsetters died on Friday 17th December in Kingston, Jamaica, aged 65. Along with Winston Wright, Robbie Lyn, Peter Tosh and Ansel Collins he was one of the main Jamaican session keyboard players of the late sixties and early seventies.

Beginning as a singer, and becoming a keyboard player almost by chance when other musicians failed to turn up for a session, he soon became one of the most in-demand session men, cutting tracks for Bunny Lee, Randys, Herman Chin-Loy (he was one of the players whose instrumentals came out credited to "Augustus Pablo", before the name stuck to Horace Swaby), and Keith Hudson. It was his years with Lee Perry that brought him the greatest fame. With Aston and Carlton Barrett on bass and drums, and Alva "Reggie" Lewis on guitar, they cut dozens of hard stepping reggae tracks at Randys in North Parade between 1969 and 1974.

This is perhaps the best of them all. Glen sometimes claimed he wrote this, and it's clear that he had a lot to do with the arrangement. The rhythm is "Peenie Wallie", and the lyrics report a curious folk tale of a man driven slowly round Kingston in a coffin with two crows perched atop it. These are the Wailers with "Mr Brown", then the Upsetters' "Dracula" .

He emigrated to the United States in 1975, where he cut tunes for Brad Osborne's Clocktower Records. Here he is with an instrumental take on the Heptones "Why Did You Leave?"

In fairness, he wasn't a virtuoso; instead he simply concentrated on playing the part simply, rhythmically, and geting it right. His keyboards always fitted the tune. He will be missed.