Alerta nurtures reggae in Colombia When Javier Foncesca and Alex Bonilla left Jamaica on Friday afternoon, they took a route very familiar to the famed Jamaica ICIs. They went to Panama. They are the lead singer and manager, respectively, of pioneering Colombian reggae band Alerta  and they did not go home empty-handed. They carried [...]
Great expectations There are at least a dozen good reasons why Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley should have been nervous about opening up for the mega-popular U2 at the Oakland Arena in November. But the young reggae star can’t think of a single one worth mentioning. “I don’t see why opening for U2 should be a [...]
Reggae Artist Slinky Sharp Passes In Car Accident Rising reggae artist and producer Slinky Sharp has died in a tragic car accident in North Carolina. While the details of the accident are not exactly clear, the report is that Slinky Sharp was a passenger in the car that crashed while on their way home from [...]
Return of the Upsetter Before we go any further, let’s get one thing straight: Lee “Scratch” Perry isn’t mad. Got that? Good. Eccentric? Sure. Erratic beyond belief? Absolutely. A hyperactive huckster, trickster and holy fool given to spouting some of the most deranged psychobabble bollocks known to man, all rolled up into one bewildering, manic, [...]
Early success for Spear’s own label Winston ‘Burning Spear’ Rodney has done the record label rounds, from Studio One to Island to Heartbeat. Now in his “pre-retirement” stage, as he puts it, his second album on his own Burning Music imprint, Our Music, has earned a nomination for the 2005 Reggae Grammy. Of course, Grammy [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Reggae legend still has rivers to cross Jimmy Cliff realised he had a good voice when he started singing at school during lunchtime and the girls came running. “They said they thought they heard a radio. I said, ‘No, that was me’. And that’s when I thought, ‘Hey, I think I’ve got something here’,” he [...]