When veteran entertainer Sanchez takes command of the microphone tonight at Usain Bolt’s Tracks and Records at Marketplace, it will be against the backdrop of an illustrious 32-year career. Popularly proclaimed the ‘Prince of Lovers Rock’, Sanchez...
The seeds for Reap Records, nurtured by Maia Chung, were sown two years ago. A noteworthy advocate of local culture and its purpose on the global scale, Chung said she has her sights set on reaping talent and setting records on the entertainment...
With an EP heralding the release of her singles, Longing For You, featuring I-Octane, and Sweet Reggae Music, which has scenic visuals to match the positive vibrations, reggae newcomer Tia will not be ignored. Like a caterpillar that finds comfort...
Schampagne Popping opened at The Barracks Theatre in Kingston last Saturday to a small, but intimate gathering. The start of the play was delayed by 15 minutes due to the small turnout but the actors, like the true professionals they are, made...
“Jamaican music deserves to have soldiers who fight for its recognition everywhere across the globe,” said French Guianese recording artiste Alya in an interview with The Gleaner. Alya, who was born in Suriname, noted that France is a big melting...
Possessing an engaging personality, combined with a body that will stop any man mid-conversation, entertainer Stacy-Ann Facey has been shaking things up for over a decade, thanks to her career as a dancer, recording artiste, and actress. A founding...
Imagine your child, one year before his high-school graduation, announcing that he wants to migrate to another country to study dance. It may not be the simplest wish to grant, but for Joshua Craigie’s parents, their son was already living the...
Local theatre professionals have been telling the stories of and for the voiceless for many years, where ‘making light’ of a situation takes on a new definition. Writer, actress and producer Trudy Bell, best known for her roles as Melcita in the...
As a multi-instrumentalist with the capacity to play wind, string, keys and percussion instruments, Shekinah Ade-Gold, has discovered new ways to overcome the psychological chaos that clouds his mental space. It has been a long and winding road of...
The best things in life are not always free, says Evel Mante, director of the Eastern Rangers Marching Band. The almost five-year-old music organisation is home to approximately 85 members, inclusive of dancers, choreographers, aspiring composers...
Veteran singer and producer Glenmore Brown, whose roots reggae rhythms inspired several musicians in the 1970s, from Big Youth to Gregory Isaacs, has died at the age of 75. Brown, who was known as “God Son” and “Rhythm Master” by colleagues, passed...
The Little Theatre stage served less as a setting and more as a state of mind when the Wolmer’s Dance Troupe took centrestage last weekend for their 29th Season of Dance, aptly named ‘Sense of Peace’. The production, an 18-piece repertoire of dance...
Seventeen years have passed since he migrated, but the London-based comedian who goes by the alias, White Yardie, still speaks patios as though he is walking through the streets of St Elizabeth, the parish where he was born. His accent, also as...
The Wolmer’s Dance Troupe is less than one year away from celebrating 30 years of delivering productions that contrast with Jamaica’s rhythmic culture and character. It’s that time of the year when dancers, as young as four years old, get to...
In addition to playing an influential role in the global impact that Jamaican music has made, sound systems –comprising disc jockeys, audio engineers, emcees, sound technicians (oftentimes referred to as ‘box men’), and, in some cases, burgeoning...
It was certainly a special Friday the 13th when The Gleaner Company took over the St William Grant Park in downtown Kingston to celebrate the company’s 185 years of dedicated service to print media in Jamaica. Swaying to the tune of the Eastern...
DJ Kurt Riley has shown that he is not just another disc jockey who shouts catchy phrases on the microphone at parties and feeds off the energy of females going wild for soca and dancehall. Riley has been building up a solid résumé in music...
The musical styles in Dr Peter Phillips’ playlist are all over the place, from the nostalgic sounds of Bob Marley and The Wailers to new-era reggae and dancehall. Chronixx, Koffee, Dre Island, and Teejay +re not hitmakers who the People’s National...
Ikaya, whose given name is Kadian Blair, radiated a bright soulfulness when she burst on the local scene in 2001 as a featured vocalist on Capleton’s hit single, Fire. The singer demonstrated dynamic vocal range and showed impressive songwriting...
It has been scientifically proven that music has the ability to stimulate the body and mind; to catapult a person from one mood to the next in mere seconds. Music, whatever the genre, also acts as a relaxer – to reduce tension and anxiety – for...
It is normal for someone to tell a person to go listen to this song or that album because it is worth a few minutes of their time, or to listen to this group because they have amazing chemistry. What people hardly discuss is song titles. For...
Bob Marley’s 11th studio album, Survival, centred around the themes of Pan-Africanism and the upliftment of African people. However, the album’s theme could not be determined from just one song, says Julian Marley, “It was a movement; I don’t think...
“Reggae is experiencing a revival in South Africa,” says Zimbabwe-born Menelik Nesta ‘Don Dada’ Gibbons, an artiste whose popularity has seen him being nominated as Zim Hip Hop’s Best in the Diaspora and branded the official Mandela Artiste of 2017...
Jamaica Live, David White’s lively production, was illuminated by an astonishing dominant performance from international guests Don Dada and Seed Under from South Africa and Bonafide, a Jamaican reggae band based in Las Vegas. White also graced the...
