Island girl Rihanna continues her climb to the top
There’s nothing like the warm spirit of the Caribbean to re-energise a dry, stale season of the same old song and dance. And there couldn’t be a better time than now for Barbados-born singer Rihanna to break into an industry that is eager to celebrate the next big thing.
Striking solo debut by Stephen Marley
Each week, dozens of CDs turn up with uninteresting titles and even less engaging artistes. That changed with the arrival of Stephen Marley’s as yet unreleased Mind Control. Stephen Marley, the artiste, seems to have been around for eternity and has proved himself to be among the best – writer, producer, musician, etc., etc. Yet, as a solo artiste, his mettle is yet unknown. Until, I suspect, right now.
There will no doubt be a reflective, if not sombre mood pervading at the Caves in Negril as the Flashpoint Film Festival opens today. News that Jamaican film pioneer and director of the classic The Harder They Come, Perry Henzell died yesterday will no doubt hit hard, and will be more poignant given that the director’s ‘new’ film, No Place Like Home, long in the works (and nearly lost to posterity) will have its Jamaican premiere at the event.
Tonight’s Top Stop: Bambu Station at Strathmore
Bambu Station’s Roots are in the Virgin Islands, and its music’s heart is from Jamaica, but bandleader Jalani Horton is a longtime D.C. resident. Horton’s group is now in its 10th year of making roots reggae with a social conscious, strongly influenced by Steel Pulse and the Wailers.
Bambu Station’s new CD is “Break the Soil,” and Horton and Co. made their own breakthroughs recently. In 2005, Horton left his family-mediation job at the D.C. Superior Court to perform music full time, as well as help run the Mt. Nebo Records label. And his band — drummer Andy Llanos and guitarist Tuff Lion, both from St. Croix, along with multi-instrumentalist Warren Pederson and keyboardist Cat Mitchell — is the first reggae group to participate in Strathmore’s Artist in Residence program.
Ziggy Marley continues a tradition of upbeat pop-reggae
Ziggy Marley remembers his father, the late reggae legend Bob Marley, sharing his work with the whole family. “When he’d write his songs, he’d call out to the kids,” Marley says. ” ‘Come sing!’ We’d sit around and sing with him. That was his writing process: He had fun writing songs.”
Trinity Criss ready to explode
Trinity (three in one) Criss is ready to explode on the entertainment scene. Already there are a lot of people who have got some sunshine in their lives. The deejay has just concluded a tour with the likes of Beenie Man, Tanto Metro and Devonte backed by the Ruff Kut Band, and is anticipating a career-making appearance at Sting 2006 scheduled for December 26 in Portmore.
Caribbean awash in deals after passport worries
Alarmed that new U.S. passport requirements could cost the Caribbean region billions of dollars in lost visitors and tourism jobs, resorts and tourism bureaus there are offering a variety of discounts to keep travelers coming to their sandy shores. In the past, U.S. travelers often needed only a driver’s license and a birth certificate.
In Jamaica, there is a select group of artistes who can pack a venue whether they have a current hit song or not. There are others, who even with hits, still do not have much crowd pulling power. This is because the ‘hit’ is in the wrong place.
The Asylum ninth anniversary party held at Mas Camp Village on Oxford Road in New Kingston last Saturday was not short of excitement. There was a massive crowd turnout despite the rain earlier in the day and the vibe, the music, the artistes and dancers were well represented.
Film festival in Jamaica scraps plans to sell Peter Tosh guitar
Organizers of a film festival in Jamaica have shelved plans to auction a guitar shaped like a M-16 rifle that was once owned by reggae legend Peter Tosh, one of the founders of the Wailers, after his sons protested the sale.
Bidding for the guitar, which Tosh once said that he used to “scare all vampires,” was scheduled to start Sunday on the eBay.