Let the play!

What is it about live music that gets patrons to regularly flock to venues such as Red Bones Blues Café on Braemar Avenue and the JAVAA headquarters on Haining Road to hear it?

The energetic ambidextrous antics of the drummer. The cool du-du-dum of the bass player; the eclectic twing of the guitar and the metallic tinkle of the keyboard ivories.

It’s all part of bands playing music. Jamaica, the land of reggae, has always produced great bands: The Wailers, Black Uhuru, Third World, Byron Lee and The Dragonaires, and the list goes on.

Live music appears to be alive and well in Jamaica despite all the technological advancements. If anything, all the computers help to do is refine the sound on the album. Other than that, the good old drum and bass combo still works.

Jewish reggae artist turns heads with new CD

A Hasidic Jewish reggae artist releases a live album and nine months later it cracks the Top 40 albums chart. Next thing we’ll be told is that he isn’t a joke. He is … isn’t he?

It would be an exaggeration to say that the release of Matisyahu’s “Live at Stubb’s,” a live album recorded at a popular venue in Austin, Texas, was welcomed with a lot of press and high album sales. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The album was ignored by just about everyone and the 26-year-old Matisyahu seemed destined to stay in the shadows of dancehall artists such as Elephant Man, with whom he has shared a stage.

So what happened?

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 enough to hold the 15,000-plus crowd.

The result was disappointment for those who spent more than $200 for a general admission ticket just to be pushed around every 20 minutes or so during several fights between patrons.

‘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 sounds and ultimately, the “youngsters in the business,” he thinks Jamaican music at present is selling itself short.

“I won’t criticise the music,” he said before telling of his own experiences as a young artiste.

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 to know from the get go that he would be one of the kings of dancehall.

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 the ska-jazz trombonist Don Drummond. In fact, Walker offers a daring revisionist history of reggae music that more heavily emphasizes the jazz contributions of Drummond than previous reggae histories (which have tended to highlight the American R&B influence).

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 with every song. Yasus Afari, an old school dub poet, went over well with the crowd young and old.

Most of his work was about bringing back the unity between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

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 and I were liming backstage and we were talking about the song. She was telling me how much she liked it and I was explaining the meaning to her. Then she came up with an idea that we should do the song together,” Raymond said.

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 grandly named place called Convention Hall: a big, dingy-carpeted room. (What it lacked in charm, it made up for in — well, a low rental fee, let’s hope.) The event was called “Dancing Will Never Die,” and it gave a hallful of Jamaican-Americans a chance to show off their moves, their clothes and — thanks to some roving cameras — their most videogenic sides. (Not, it seemed, their front sides.)

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 iconic artistes were presented in concert, each delivering a one-hour performance.

Scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. the show got on the way at 10.20 p.m. due to the late arrival of the band.