The government is to establish a museum of reggae music and artifacts, to represent the struggles and achievements of Jamaican music, and will establish a special initiative to encourage and assist Jamaican film makers to produce works on Jamaican culture.
The announcement was made last week by Minister of Water and Housing, Dr Horace Chang, who was giving the welcome address on behalf of Prime Minister, Bruce Golding at a launching reception for the seventh International Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference. The reception was held at Vale Royal, the Prime Minister’s official residence.
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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.
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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.
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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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. [...]
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