The Prophet Rides Again

Today we go straight into the music. What I have right now is an inexpressible feeling because the music that I love so much has taken the world by storm. Lorda mercy!

And that is as it should be because reggae music na fi gwaan, as Calvin Scott, the one you call Cocoa Tea would say. It is big with a capital B if you know what I mean. So big that you can name it thrice, reggae, reggae, reggae. Whether you are in New York, Tokyo, London, Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Kingston or, of course, Harare, reggae music has become a way of life for a significant portion of the respective populations.

Nun who nurtured reggae

Jamaican music owes an extraordinary debt to a Catholic school for ‘wayward boys’, says Thomas H Green

Bar the odd dent – such as the depiction in the film The Magdalene Sisters of cruelty in their now-defunct Irish orphanages and laundries – the reputation of the Catholic Order of the Sisters of Mercy is of 200 years of good deeds in some of the most underprivileged areas of the world.

Less well known, and more bizarre, is that this order of nuns is also partly responsible for the birth of reggae music.

Busy reggaeton stars offer some new, some old

In the past 18 months, reggaeton has become so popular and grown so fast that the leading artists have had trouble keeping up with demand.

New releases by Daddy Yankee, Ivy Queen and Don Omar could all be described as stopgap measures — and yet they all are on the charts.

The reggaeton stars have all been in such nonstop demand that they haven’t had time to produce an all-new album, so they’re giving fans new albums that combine current hits, remixes, live versions and some new tunes.

Sean Paul latest reggae star to politicize music

The biggest musician to come out of Jamaica since Bob Marley has a lot more on his mind than asking sexy ladies to “shake that thing,” it seems.

Take gun control in Jamaican, for instance. There isn’t any, Sean Paul opined.

“There are only two major political parties (in Jamaica) and they have control of docks and bays that bring in the guns,” said Sean Paul, whose Never Going To Be The Same from his new album The Trinity is dedicated to late Jamaican musician Daddigon, a victim of gun violence. “We don’t make guns in Jamaica” so he says it’s up to him to drop a “lot on the politicians.”

‘Gong’ delivers

Delivering a much better performance than when he was here last, Damian “Junior Gong” Marley, had the audience hanging on his every word during his performance on Sunday morning at the Soca Broadway venue set up at the National Stadium, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain.

The event was dubbed The Peace Festival and it was produced jointly by a new local outfit known as Visionz Promotions and Tuff Gong of Jamaica. The latter is an extension of Tuff Gong Studios, which was established by Marley’s father the legendary Robert Nesta Marley.

For San Juan Youth, Reggaetón Rules the Night

Backstage at La Feria, a local fair on the outskirts of San Juan across the street from the massive Plaza Las Americas shopping mall, Karelys Rodríguez, a 15-year-old wearing a tiny pair of denim cut-off shorts that would make Daisy Duke blush, was rehearsing her dance moves – bending over, jiggling her backside and undulating her pelvis. It was a warm Friday evening in early December and among the neon-lighted amusement rides and food stands, a reggaetón concert, on a big stage with pyrotechnics and a dry-ice fog streaming out over the largely teenage crowd, was in full, ear-blasting gear.

Sun shines on the rocksteady party

It takes a true master of reggae to make an audience feel as if they’re at a party on a Caribbean beach when in fact they’re in a chilly London venue still bedecked with plastic Christmas holly. But such is the great Alton Ellis.

Ellis first came to prominence via ska, the frantic, jazz-based music that soundtracked Jamaica’s independence in 1961. His golden period began five years later, just as the island’s boisterous sense of liberation was wearing off, and its music slowed down, striking a more soulful mood. The sound was called “rocksteady”, and Ellis cut many of the idiom’s most sublime singles.

Rhythms from the Caribbean

Rihanna, the 17-year old Barbados artiste, is touted to be the next Beyonce. She belongs to the young and beautiful urban dance-pop divas now dotting the contemporary dance-music scene. Every once in a while you get a Caribbean-styled, dance-pop hit sensations. Rihanna brings us the sultry dancehall and R&B sounds of the Caribbean islands.

Carrot mulling over return to Third World

Former Third Word percussionist, Irvine ‘Carrot’ Jarrett, is not ruling out the possibility of returning to the group from which he parted company 21 years ago.

A lush beauty with rough edges

Many Americans who visit Jamaica choose all-inclusive, lavish gated resorts, typically in Montego Bay, Negril or Ocho Rios. They are shuttled directly from the airport to the beach estates, and during their stays, they rarely stray from the premises. There they are treated to buffets and open bars but are insulated from much interaction with most Jamaicans. Port Antonio, on the other hand, is Jamaica à la carte, a more beautiful and less touristy slice of the island.