Alton Ellis king of soul I’ve lost my musical hero and icon, Alton Ellis, but my mourning is mixed with enormous celebration of a professional life well lived. Comparisons are said to be odious, but apart from Bob Marley, Alton Ellis was the single greatest artiste Jamaica has produced and we are a superpower in [...]
King of reggae Nesta Robert Marley was born Feb. 6, 1945 and died of cancer May 11, 1981. Over those 36 years he emerged from crushing poverty in Jamaica to become one of the biggest musical and cultural icons of our time. In Bob Marley: A Life, veteran UK and Canadian journalist Garry Steckles traces [...]
Artist mixes it up at Whiskey Dick’s Collie Buddz is all over the map both literally and figuratively. Colin Harper was born in New Orleans, grew up on the island of Bermuda (aka “The Rockâ€) and stayed intermittently in Toronto, Ontario. His musical alter ego, Collie Buddz, reflects that upbringing, incorporating influences from hip-hop and [...]
World economic crisis affecting local shows The Christmas season will be a little less cheery for patrons of some of the major shows usually staged at that time. Rumours have been circulating that four major shows ‘East Fest, Reggae Camp Fire, Original Dancehall Jam Jam and Unity Splash ‘will not be held this year.
Peter Tosh’s tribute off The Tribute to Peter Tosh concert which was sche-duled for this Saturday, in the reggae icon’s hometown of Belmont, West-moreland, is off. The annual show, which was absent for the last three years and has been plagued with venue woes, was cancelled after police declared the Belmont site unfit.
Heavy D Returns with Hit Reggae Album Vibes Don’t call it a comeback — more like a return to the righteous roots that nurtured him. Legendary Heavy D, (Dwight Myers) has found himself with one of the country’s hottest new reggae albums, Vibes, released on his own Stride Ent. Label and distributed by Universal Music [...]
J’can CD sales fall worldwide – Downloads, piracy blamed for decline The sales of Jamaican music CDs worldwide are declining, with Internet access and piracy major contributing factors. With the great increase in Internet access, the sale of actual CDs has been declining significantly. In addition, with the easy access to pirated music (bootlegs), fewer [...]
‘Godfather of rocksteady’ Alton Ellis dies Reggae music pioneer Alton Ellis, known as the godfather of rocksteady, has died at the age of 70 in London, England. Officials at Hammersmith Hospital announced Sunday morning that Ellis, who had cancer of the lymph glands, died peacefully Friday night after he had been hospitalized for several weeks. [...]
Complex Blog » Tami Chynn Talks Akon Collabos & Jamaican Tabloids If Shaggy and Sean Paul were the pinnacle of the dancehall’s cross-over success in the mid-to-late ’90s, singer Tami Chynn has the potential to become the female equivalent today. With the exception of Rihanna, singers from the Caribbean have largely been unable to break [...]
Beenie Man arrives late for function to honour athletes; apologises Dancehall artiste Moses Davis, aka Beenie Man, who was one of the special guest performers on Wednesday night’s government-sponsored tribute to the Olympians in Trelawny, arrived when the show was over. A release from his publicist, Ray Alexander, stated that the artiste “unreservedly apologises to [...]