Port Royal Music Festival 2008 Date Announced
The official date for the third annual Port Royal Music Festival is November 7 - 9, 2008. The change of date from the usual month of August to November will enhance tourism in Jamaica for November, bringing more tourists to the island during this time. The planning and organizing for its third staging is well underway and this year’s event promises to exceed all expectations.
The festivities will begin with the Celebrity Party, followed by the Main Show and then Jazz on the Harbour. It is clear that this year’s event will capture “all the right elements of music, bringing a diverse line-up of activities” as Christopher Blythe explains Director of Paradise Communications. “As we develop a music festival in Kingston, Jamaica we plan to revive Port Royal and bring forth its once ritzy days, which will be envied by many, not only in Jamaica but the entire region as a festival of class and quality” he added. This years line-up will include genres from adult contemporary, pop, r&b, reggae and jazz just to name a few.
BET signs on as media partner for reggae charity concert
Black Entertainment Television (BET) has joined the Team Jamaica on the Road to Beijing campaign. The network is partnering with Team Jamaica Bickle and VP Records on the ‘Team Jamaica on the Road to Beijing’ reggae charity concert, to be held at Brooklyn College on April 20.
BET will be filming the event, which features reggae artistes Richie Stephens, Etana, Duane Stephenson, and Jamaican sports legend Donald Quarrie, and a host of other music and sport ambassadors, for airing on both BET and BETJ.
Proceeds from the charity staging will not only assist Team Jamaica Bickle with providing much needed support to the Island’s promising high school athletes competing at Penn Relays in April, but will also fund Jamaican athletes competing in the XXIX Olympics in Beijing this August.
Jamaica to experience Reggae in Symphony
If everything goes according to plan, later this year Jamaican music lovers could be in for a very special treat with the staging of Reggae in Symphony. This, according to one of the featured acts, Freddie McGregor, who along with John Holt constitute the main attraction on the stellar event that highlight reggae’s classical ingredients.
The first of two such gala concerts, highly ranked as “an evening of elegance” is set for Sunday, April 20 at the Broward Centre for the Performing Arts, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Started in London six years ago with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Reggae in Symphony was last held in October 2007 at Brooklyn College, New York.
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Reggae Singer Cocoa Tea records Endorsement song for Obama
Barack Obama has won what could be an influential endorsement among reggae fans: Jamaican singer Cocoa Tea, who’s backing the Illinois senator in a new tune. “This is not about class nor color, race nor creed,” the veteran dancehall crooner sings in a version posted on the video Web site Dailymotion. “It’s about the changes, what the Americans need.”
The song goes on to call Obama a “trendsetter” and urge Americans “to unite as one” behind him. Cocoa Tea, whose real name is Calvin Scott, said Sunday that the tribute song “Barack Obama” will be released this week by New York’s VP Records.
“The young people who are supporting him want change — and that’s what he represents,” said the singer, whose laid-back lyrical style made him a local star in the 1980s.
Marley Family to Rock Miami
The music legend received the Reggae Icon Award posthumously Sunday during the 2008 Reggae Academy Awards. His widow, Rita Marley, accepted the award, held at Jamaica’s National Indoor Sport Centre in Kingston, from Prime Minister Bruce Golding.
The first-time event coincided with what Golding dubbed National Reggae Month in Jamaica. Another blowout event, the Smile Jamaica Africa-Unite concert on James Bond Beach Saturday, lasted almost 12 hours.
Rita Marley thanked international hotelier Chris Blackwell for believing in her husband and helping to launch the reggae singer to stardom. She remembers people warning Blackwell about trusting musicians from Trench Town, a ghetto in west Kingston. “Don’t give those guys any money. If you give them money, you will never see them again.”
Blackwell’s bet was right, and he was recognized by the academy with an award, presented by the island’s minister of culture, youth and sports, Olivia Grange.
2008 Reggae Academy Award winners
Best Reggae Song - She’s Royal Omar ‘Tarrus’ Riley
(Songwriter’s Award)
Best Solo Male Vocal Performance - She’s Royal, Tarrus Riley
Best Solo Female Reggae Vocal Performance - Roots, Etana
Best Reggae Album -
Mind Control, Stephen Marley
Best Instrumental Recording/Album - Making Notes, Robbie Lyn
Best Solo Male Dancehall Vocal Performance - Nah Go A Jail, Busy Signal
Best Female Dancehall Vocal Performance - Chat To Me Back, Lady Saw
Best Dancehall Vocal
(Performance by duo or group) - Love Is Wicked, Brick and Lace
Best Dancehall Album -
Intoxication, Shaggy
Best Dancehall Video - Church Heathen Remix, Jay Will
Breakthrough Reggae Artiste - Tarrus Riley
Best Dancehall Riddim - Tremor, Stephen McGregor
Global Reggae Conference 2008
When Erna Brodber discusses ‘Reggae as Black Space’, the distinctive burru drumming and voices of the University Singers fill the Assembly Hall, University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus, tomorrow evening, it will mark the beginning of an extensive blend of artistic endeavour and academia.
The opening ceremony of the ‘Global Reggae Conference 2008′, which will explore ‘Global Reggae: Jamaican Popular Music a Yard and Abroad’, officially starts a week which dovetails with the inaugural Reggae Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24. Conference chair, Professor Carolyn Cooper of the Institute of Caribbean Studies, noted that “For at least five years now, as co-ordinator of the Reggae Studies Unit, I thought it was important to hold a major conference focusing on the global impact of reggae.” Read the rest of this entry »
Marley’s Mind Control Wins 2008 Reggae Grammy
Stephen Marley, the second son of Bob Marley, yesterday laid claim to the Reggae Grammy for his album Mind Control.
Nominations in the category Best Reggae Album included The Burning Spear Experience - Burning Spear; Mind Control - Stephen Marley; The End Of An American Dream - Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry; Anniversary - Sly & Robbie And The Taxi Gang and Light Your Light - Toots & The Maytals.
The University of the West Indies to host annual Bob Marley lecture
The Reggae Studies Unit of the University of the West Indies, Mona will host the Annual Bob Marley Lecture on Tuesday, February 5, at the Undercroft of the Senate Building. The lecture, The Full Has Never Been Told: Exploring Dancehall’s Moral Conscience, will be delivered by Dr Donna Hope. Vivien Goldmans The Book of Exodus: The Making and meaning of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Album of the Century will also be launched. The double-bill programme begins at 6:00 pm.
Vivien Goldman is an adjunct professor of punk and reggae at New York University’s Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music. She has devoted much of her multi-faceted career to Afro-Caribbean and global music. Read the rest of this entry »
Africa Unite - A Celebration of Bob Marley’s Vision
The newly proclaimed ‘reggae month‘ will be getting its full dose of the king of reggae, Bob Marley, with the premiere of the documentary Africa Unite: A Celebration of The Vision of Bob Marley, along with a look back at the Smile Jamaica/Africa Unite concert. Two of many events to be held throughout the month to celebrate the reggae legend, Africa Unite is planning to make its impact on Jamaica. On Marley’s birthday, February 6, at the Carib 5 Cinema, Africa Unite the film will have its world premiere.
The documentary features American actor Danny Glover, Angelique Kidjo, the I-Threes and the Marley family.
Africa Unite Trailer
The film is centred on events before, during and after the Marley family’s first family trip to Ethiopia in 2005 for the twelve-hour Africa Unite concert held in the capital city of Addis Ababa. Three hundred thousand persons from across the globe helped the Marley family celebrate Bob Marley’s 60th birthday that year with the massive outdoor concert. Read the rest of this entry »
