Machel [Montano] thrills fans | Surprise act a no-show but… Walking out of Machel Montano’s Alternative Concept 4 concert yesterday morning, one couldn’t help but feel cheated. For starters, the advertised surprise act from the US never showed and the Global Village venue, on the western side of the Queen’s Park Savannah, was not big [...]
‘Where the music gone?’ Some veteran musicians within the local music fraternity are concerned that the formidable and often ubiquitous sound of contemporary Jamaican music is, for the most part, less musical than its predecessors. They say the “music is missing”. Accomplished musician, Ken Lazarus says that, while he is averse to judging the modern [...]
Ting-a-ling-a-ling: Shabba Ranks’ phone ring The name Shabba Ranks has an immediate, razor sharp edge to it. You would want to know right away who this person is without knowing why. It’s psychological: the name ‘Shabba’ is that of an African king, and ‘Ranks’ refers to a high position in dancehall. Deejay Shabba Ranks seemed [...]
Dubwise: Reasoning From the Reggae Underground This is a Trojan horse book, ostensibly about various facets of reggae music under-represented in reggae journalism, but on a certain level really a book about Jamaican jazz. As such, the information in Walker’s book is nothing sure of invaluable, particularly about the unjustly obscure saxophonist Joe Harriot and [...]
Freddy, Yassus, Maxi heat up Music Fest Yassus Afari, Maxi Priest and Freddy McGregor, the three headline acts at the Cayman Music Festival held at the Lions Centre on 10 February did not disappoint their fans, neither did most of the local acts. The artistes had the crowd on their feet dancing and singing along [...]
Dance with Destra and Ramnarine It was during a performance at a Carnival show, that soca diva Destra Garcia fell in love with a hit made popular by crossover band Dil-e-Nadan. Some three years later, Garcia met band leader Raymond Ramnarine at another Carnival fete where she again expressed her liking for the tune. “Destra [...]
At the Dancehall, Where Party Meets Performance In a recent documentary, Beenie Man did something that top dancehall reggae stars don’t usually do. He said vocalists like him play a secondary role. “Dancing was before singing,” he said. “Be honest.” You could see the proof on Friday night when hundreds of revelers converged on a [...]
Stalin, Shadow have ‘em singing and dancing Although visibly exhausted after having played for roughly four hours at the Synergy Soca Stars final before coming to the Zen nightclub, Port of Spain, the musicians of the Roy Cape All Stars still gave of their best while accompanying Stalin and Shadow on Thursday night. The two [...]
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 [...]
He’s a mystic, mon Nothing in the Talmud specifically forbids Orthodox Jews from stage-diving at live gigs. And nowhere does Jewish scripture recommend precisely how one should behave in the mosh pit. So Jewish reggae phenom Matisyahu had to learn through trial and error that it was a good idea to clip his yarmulke into [...]