If your name is Nerlyn...

You might want to move. Or change your name. Or cultivate a talent so esteemed that people don't even care about your name.
Nerlyn Taitt took all three routes to elude his name.
He moved from his native Trinidad to Jamaica, he shortened his name to the more streamlined "Lyn" and in the mid-1960s he became the guitarist who singularly defined Jamaica's "rock steady" musical era.
Taitt and a small number of other musicians took the frenetic pace of Jamaica's existing ska style and sloooooowed it down. The resulting musical backdrop enabled vocalists to croon in a soulful style, blazing the trail for the phenomenal rise of reggae a decade later.
I have been listening to Lyn Taitt -- and his regular backing band the Jets -- as I have been driving around today. I admire his guitar style, a "less is more" approach that pared down extraneous notes. Rather than streaming toward the listener, Taitt's playing stands out because of its beautiful starkness.
It's a style, I would say, that almost makes the name "Nerlyn" seem cool. Almost.