FEW of Jamaica’s musicians scored as many firsts, recorded as many records or worked with as many musicians and producers as Laurel Aitken. More importantly, he bonded British youth to Jamaican cool in the fraught Windrush years and set a musical style that would spawn a uniquely British style of rocksteady and reggae before cross-fertilising with punk.

Born in Cuba in 1927, he emigrated to his father’s homeland of Jamaica when he was 11 and by his teens was earning a living singing calypsos for the tourist boats in Kingston harbour. At 15 he entered the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour at the Ambassador Theatre in Kingston, a talent show that helped to launch the careers of Desmond Dekker and the Wailers. Aitken won several weeks running and he became a regular in Kingston’s nightclubs.

His first recording was Roll Jordan Roll in 1957, and he had his first hit in 1958 with the double A-sided single Little Sheila and Boogie In My Bones. One of the first Jamaican records to be influenced by black American music, it was the first single released on Chris Blackwell’s Island Records, one of the first true ska records and the first Jamaican-made recording released in England. In Jamaica it topped the charts for three months.

Ska, with its upstroke guitar played on the offbeat, became a distinct Jamaican form. Aitken moved on from the shuffling, R&B boogie style and with contemporaries such as Phyllis Dillon, Prince Buster and Dekker he became a pioneer of ska, with songs such as Bartender, More Whiskey and Judgement Day.

Imported versions of these records were soon circulating among the West Indian community in Britain, and their popularity caused Aitken to move to London in 1960. From his new British base he recorded hundreds of ska tracks, with the hit Boogie Rock the first release on the Blue Beat label. Britain remained his home as he recorded ska, rocksteady and eventually reggae. His music was embraced by white skinheads in the 1960s, recording such songs as Skinhead and Skinhead Train just for them.

Aitken’s output was mostly wry, good-humoured dance music, sometimes with risqué lyrics such as his notorious Pussy Price, a complaint about costs in the personal-services industry, and Wire in Mi Blood, about his constant libido — a “rude reggae” style that became “slack” in Jamaica. One single, Rise and Fall, was banned after a vigorous performance at the Wembley Festival suggested what it might be all about.

Although Aitken was known as the “Godfather of Ska” and “Boss Skinhead”, he made little money from his time with Blue Beat, and even less after his move to Rio records, which went bankrupt. He signed to Pama Records when they agreed to pay his child support.

With the growing influence of Rastafarianism and politically conscious reggae in the 1970s, Aitken’s rude boy style began to look outdated. Although he tried to keep up with songs such as Haile Selassie, it was obvious that he was out of step. Jamaican ska, dread, dancehall and big beat were already beginning to influence punk. The Clash emulated Big Youth and Junior Murvin, John Lydon of the Sex Pistols went to meet U Roy, and Aitken recorded with the Ruts.

By the mid-1970s he had moved to Leicester and settled into semi-retirement, but was soon to return to prominence as an icon of the 2Tone ska revival of the early 1980s led by young British bands such as the Specials, Madness and the Selecter. Aitken, now in his 50s, found himself hailed as the elder statesman of ska. He performed with a variety of British groups including the Beat, Secret Affair and Potato 5. He at last had his own chart hit, Rudi Got Married, and in 1986 appeared in the film Absolute Beginners with David Bowie.

In his 70s he still performed with third-generation ska acts such as the Toasters, the Busters and the New York Ska Jazz Ensemble, while innumerable ska compilations have been pressed since the 1980s — none of them complete withouta contribution from Aitken.

He is survived by his wife, Sandra, and his daughter.

Laurel Aitken, musician, was born on April 22, 1927. He died on July 17, 2005, aged 78.