Fire in His Eyes With a blazing new album out reggae maestro Capleton tells Davina Morris why he’s toppa tings Spanish-based reggae label Minor7Flat5 recently released the collaborative album The Good, The Bad & The Blazing. Featuring Junior Kelly as ‘The Good’, Bounty Killer as ‘The Bad’ and… any guesses which red hot artist would [...]
The ‘Joseph Coat’ Effect: February A Banner Month for Jamaican Musicians Needless to say, greatness in music, Jamaican or otherwise, is not simply a matter of birthdate. We have great entertainers born in every month, as is the case with other professions. But we may be forgiven (with apologies to all the others) for highlighting [...]
Roots reggae siren Likkle Mai branches out You could call Likkle Mai a reggae singer, and you wouldn’t be wrong. But you wouldn’t be quite right either. The diminutive vocalist– “likkle” is Jamaican patois for “little”–is nothing less than a reggae evangelist, intent on spreading the gospel far and wide. But rather than preach to [...]
All about Marley DJ organizes benefit rooted in reggae’s ideals Jessica McNamara seems very enthusiastic and excited about the realization of her dream. “Every Feb. 6 I’m wondering why there isn’t something going on for his birthday,†she says of her musical idol. After toying with the idea of hosting her own celebration for over [...]
Caribbean collaboration: Sounds good As Caribbean music takes its place in the United States and the rest of the world, Caribbean artistes continue to work together to make the music stronger. Following the saying, “Unity is Strength,” entertainers combine their efforts for the betterment of the region. Some of the artistes who have made music [...]
Air Jamaica Jazz fest 2K6 brought together jazzers old and new The past staging of the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues festival will be remembered as the one which confirmed the event as a world-class production. True, there were a few hiccups – in particular the band changes, a few of which were excessively long [...]
The Rough Guide to Dub Without the creativity of the Jamaican music scene in the early 1970s, modern pop music is unimaginable. Not only did reggae give the world both “rap” and dance-floor MCs who “played” their sound systems, but it also gave the world “dub” (essentially, separating a rhythm track from the rest of [...]
Matisyahu’s Jewish floetry prevails At first glance, it would seem as though Matisyahu is a huge practical joke put out to see if people will really pay attention to a notion as bogus as a Jewish rapper. But surprisingly, orthodox Jewish rapper Matisyahu, real name Matthew Miller, seems to have found a shtick that, well, [...]
Dreadlock holiday for Third World Roots reggae – the most pure form of the genre – runs through Steven “Cat” Coore’s blood. But over the years many purists have doubted it because his band, Third World, played a style of preened reggae that mixed in pop, rock, and R&B. They were seemingly dead-set on crossover [...]
Marley Family Ready To Reggae It happened in Jamaica in 2002. It was followed by another in Miami the following year and one in Ethiopia last year. Next week Friday, February 3 Bob Marley, the reggae legends birthday celebrated in grand concerts at the three venues mentioned above will be repeated in the Garden City [...]