Wingless Angels are a Jamaican Rastafari reggae group led by Justin Hinds, best known for their self-titled album which was a collaboration with and produced by Keith Richards.

On Jamaica's north coast lies St. Ann's Parish. At its highest point sits the hilltop village of Steertown, where lime trees grow and devout Rastafarian musicians congregate when the moon is full to chant sacred praises to the drummed trance rhythms of the Nyabinghi sect.

When Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards bought a home in Ocho Rios in the mid-1970s, he through Justin Hinds,met and befriended the Angels; a group of Nyabinghi musicians including Winston "Black Skull" Thomas (who has worked with Talking Heads and Bad Brains), Milton "Bongo Neville" Beckerd, "Bongo" Locksey Whitlock, Warrin Williamson, Maureen Fremantle (aka Sister Maureen), Vincent "Jackie" Ellis, and Bongo Jackie (aka Iron Lion).

Richards began a spiritual and musical jam with the group that has crystallized into a unique recording of primal drumbeats and haunted Wesleyan hymns. When Justin Hinds had by the 1990s moved back to live in his rural home town of Steertown near Ocho Rios he met up again with Richards who, with producer Rob Fraboni recorded the group one evening in 1995 playing in his own living room, shortly after the death of Bongo Jackie, to which he added overdubs added by himself, Blondie Chaplin, and Irish violinist Frankie Gavin. Richards released the recordings as the self-titled album Winged Angels on his own Mindless Records imprint (via Island Records) in 1997. It contains a fusion of the root and nectar of reggae, the hypnotic footsteps of Rasta, and Richards's delicate playing.


New recordings made shortly before the death of Justin Hinds in 2005 were issued in September 2010 on Mindless Records. This album is named Wingless Angels II Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.