Nun who nurtured reggae Jamaican music owes an extraordinary debt to a Catholic school for ‘wayward boys’, says Thomas H Green Bar the odd dent – such as the depiction in the film The Magdalene Sisters of cruelty in their now-defunct Irish orphanages and laundries – the reputation of the Catholic Order of the Sisters [...]
Busy reggaeton stars offer some new, some old In the past 18 months, reggaeton has become so popular and grown so fast that the leading artists have had trouble keeping up with demand. New releases by Daddy Yankee, Ivy Queen and Don Omar could all be described as stopgap measures — and yet they all [...]
Sean Paul latest reggae star to politicize music The biggest musician to come out of Jamaica since Bob Marley has a lot more on his mind than asking sexy ladies to “shake that thing,” it seems. Take gun control in Jamaican, for instance. There isn’t any, Sean Paul opined. “There are only two major political [...]
‘Gong’ delivers Delivering a much better performance than when he was here last, Damian “Junior Gong” Marley, had the audience hanging on his every word during his performance on Sunday morning at the Soca Broadway venue set up at the National Stadium, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain. The event was dubbed The Peace Festival and [...]
For San Juan Youth, Reggaetón Rules the Night Backstage at La Feria, a local fair on the outskirts of San Juan across the street from the massive Plaza Las Americas shopping mall, Karelys RodrÃguez, a 15-year-old wearing a tiny pair of denim cut-off shorts that would make Daisy Duke blush, was rehearsing her dance moves [...]
Sun shines on the rocksteady party It takes a true master of reggae to make an audience feel as if they’re at a party on a Caribbean beach when in fact they’re in a chilly London venue still bedecked with plastic Christmas holly. But such is the great Alton Ellis. Ellis first came to prominence [...]
Rhythms from the Caribbean Rihanna, the 17-year old Barbados artiste, is touted to be the next Beyonce. She belongs to the young and beautiful urban dance-pop divas now dotting the contemporary dance-music scene. Every once in a while you get a Caribbean-styled, dance-pop hit sensations. Rihanna brings us the sultry dancehall and R&B sounds of [...]
Carrot mulling over return to Third World Former Third Word percussionist, Irvine ‘Carrot’ Jarrett, is not ruling out the possibility of returning to the group from which he parted company 21 years ago.
A lush beauty with rough edges Many Americans who visit Jamaica choose all-inclusive, lavish gated resorts, typically in Montego Bay, Negril or Ocho Rios. They are shuttled directly from the airport to the beach estates, and during their stays, they rarely stray from the premises. There they are treated to buffets and open bars but [...]
Bimbo Interview While Latin hip-hop and rap has been the causeway to a considerable flow of both industry and consumer dollars over the past five years, it’s reggaeton that has provided a fresh face on the contemporary Latin music scene. One such innovator and now one of reggaeton’s larger than life stars is Puerto Rico’s [...]