Crowd welcomes Isaacs’s warm reggae grooves

It might well have been 96 degrees in Jamaica this week, a point that the jovial MC at Gregory Isaacs’s performance Wednesday at the Paradise took great pleasure in noting, with Boston stuck in a deep winter chill. Such trivial matters didn’t bother reggae veteran Isaacs though. He soon turned up the heat in the sold-out club.

Dressed in a white cotton suit more appropriate for his Jamaican home, the so-called ”Cool Ruler” brought his smooth, romantic ”lovers rock” to a thrilled audience.

Sweet soca for the road

It has been a memorable Carnival, I find, and what made it so was the finest of the music. Mark down 2006 as the year in which soca road music finally emerged at the hands of a new, more or less, generation of soca singers either as individuals or in collaboration with others, the caveat being that I am too far removed from the international pop scene to know which of the melodies are original or simply disguised pastiches of said originals.

TUCO, which has reminded us about its ruling re sampling of other people’s records will no doubt tell us although I don’t see how the likes of the organisation’s president, Protector, can be close to the international pop scene either. Given that I was the first to put him on stage (he sang “The Mosquito Really Sexy” at the then dilapidated and now long defunct “Rio” cinema in Laventille) when we were both young men, he continues to be a contemporary which means he must have some younger ears (Resistance, perhaps?) listening for him with respect to this illegal “sampling” business.

Alton Ellis for reggae Hall of Fame

One of Jamaica’s leading hitmakers, Alton Ellis, who is this year celebrating 50 years in entertainment, will be inducted into the International Reggae and World Music Awards Hall of Fame this year. Ellis will be joined by his Caribbean counterpart, Guyanese Eddie Grant. Both will be honoured during ceremonies for the 25th staging of the International Reggae and Wrold Music Awards at the Apollo Theatre in New York City on May 6.

Understanding Caribbean Music

You hear it frequently these days: “What’s happening to Caribbean music? Where is calypso? Where did we get these strange songs with no melody and just boom, boom?” The short answer is that it’s not strange at all.

Change is always the norm in popular music; thirty years ago, Lord Shorty, propelling Soca in Trinidad, was lambasted by adults even as young people were galvanized by his music. One prominent band leader refused to play Shorty’s songs.

Our music changes as the world in which it lives changes. The current change is not an oddity; it has always been so. Sometimes the shifts are so gradual to be unnoticed, like the segue from instrumental music to vocals in carnival road marches.

Sean Paul: “The Trinity” World Tour

Riding high off an incredible year that saw him shatter the record for most reggae sales in a single week and had the whole country jamming to “We Be Burnin” and now “Temperature, ” Sean Paul announces the U.S. leg of his “The Trinity” World Tour. On the tour he will perform current hits from his album “The Trinity” (VP/Atlantic). In addition to “Temperature” (currently #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the second most downloaded song of the week) and “We Be Burnin” (a Top Ten hit), Sean Paul will perform all his megahits from “Dutty Rock” (including “Gimme The Light, ” “Get Busy, ” “Like Glue, ” and “I’m Still In Love”) and Stage One (“Hot Girl Today” and “Deport Dem”).

Is calypso terminally ill?

It’s Carnival season in a number of Caribbean locations as well as elsewhere. Trinidad and Tobago’s celebration is of course one of the more popular Caribbean versions of this annual rite. But how ironic that while some have paused to note that this year marks the 50th anniversary of rather memorable happenings that added to the Trinidad Carnival tapestry back in 1956, this is taking place against a backdrop of real concern for the survival of one of the Carnival’s long-standing core constituents, calypso.

Ironic indeed, for it was in 1956 that there was recorded no lesser calypso milestone than the big, brash breakthrough of Slinger Francisco, the redoubtable Mighty Sparrow. To his credit, Sparrow somehow sensed that calypso needed a “take charge” presence and he obviously saw himself possessed of the kind of bravado, not to mention talent, to amply fill the breach. When he performed his legendary “Jean and Dinah” on Carnival Sunday night in 1956, clearly his intent was not merely to win a Calypso King title, which he did handsomely, but to serve notice that Trinidad and Tobago and the world would have to deal henceforth with a new, no-nonsense lord of the manor.

Mighty Arrow for Music Festival

The return of the Mighty Arrow, Montserrat’s most famous soca son, is a feature of the 10th anniversary of the Music Festival this year.

The calypsonian of international renown, appeared on the first Music Festival in 1996 and is now the latest in the line-up of quality acts signed this year, enhancing the Thursday night package.

Keeping Score…..Gold & platinum discs among reggae artistes

Damian ‘Junior Gong’ Marley’s recent gold certification by the Recording Association of America (RIAA) for his smash album Welcome to Jamrock has also helped the disc to further increase sales, following as it did on his double Grammy win.

As it turns out, Jamaican artistes, including Damian’s illustrious father, have made a habit of striking gold or platinum with the RIAA for US sales of albums or singles. Bob’s Legend compilation disc for Island Records (1999) was certified diamond for sales in excess of 10 million copies in the US, the only album by a reggae artiste yet to hit that mark.

Good music from the old and not so old

Given the deluge of so much passing off for soca, and more so music these days, the release of compilation discs by Sylvester Lockhart (Poser) and Nigel Lewis is a most welcome sound to the ears.

Poser recently released another one of his CDs entitled De Groove Continues that contains 14 tracks including two club mixes. the name of the CD speaks for itself and one can easily identify with the lyrics of each of his tracks, nine of which were composed by him. Those tracks are “Sweetness”, “Country Girl”, “Another Rounds”, “Nothing Ent Change Part II”, “Kaya Grass”, “Granny’s Advice”, Soca Test”, “When You Nice” and “Pan Man”.

Tessanne Chin – Ready to rock the music industry

Tessanne Chin’s rock reggae music is a reflection of who she is, a window into her world.

“My music is a nice fusion of rock, reggae and soul. A little bit of dancehall influence. It’s everything that describes me, it’s who I am,” said Tessanne who is the younger sister of singer Tami Chynn.

Rock music started to shape her personality while in high school in England, where she was exposed to the genre. Her favourite rock bands, which have all influenced her music, include Skunk Anancy, Anouk, System of a Down and singer Papa Roach. Her songs, Hideaway, Guilty By Design, One Night Stand and Messenger all came about by playing the acoustic guitar and singing.