Quickies

Bacchanal Fridays goes live tonight

Today, the Frenchmen team up with Bacchanal Jamaica to present Ricardo Drue, Fadda Fox, Dei Musicale and DJ Franco at the Mas Camp, National Stadium.

Charmain Franklin, Bacchanal Jamaica director, said, "This is going to be our first band night for the season, as the ID Nation band from Antigua will be appearing courtesy of Drue, and they plan to give Soca lovers an exciting live performance."

Ricardo Drue, a Miami-based Antiguan soca artiste, is well known and respected in the Caribbean. Ricardo established his reputation by working with a number of soca stars. He joined the popular Image and Company in 2009 and toured with them for two years. He later joined Roy Cape All Stars.

A prolific songwriter, his work includes Water Pump (featuring Kes), Rub up on It (featuring soca queen Claudette Peters), J'Ouvert Jam and Single to Mingle. Barbadian soca star Fadda Fox has Duckin to his credit.

Jamaican DJ Franco grew up in a household that played a lot of calypso. It was no surprise that spending four years at UWI St Augustine in Trinidad would deepen his appreciation and intensify his love for soca.

Since 2010, he has been producing a series of mixed tapes entitled Soca Advantage, each featuring the latest soca hits for that year..

Bunny Wailer celebrates 70th birthday

The Hon Neville O'Riley Livingston, OJ, CD, aka Bunny Wailer (Jah B), surviving founding member of The Wailers, achieves his milestone 70th Birthday on April 10. Bunny Wailer has spent 55 years in service of the development and preservation of Jamaica's musical genres.

Jah B's 'earthstrong' activities support the inauguration of Rastafari Month Ocean Sea Conservation rights, ganja rights advocacy, and the inauguration of the restoration of the Bournemouth Beach Park Entertainment Complex on Norman Manley Boulevard, East Kingston.

The events include a dinner, dance celebration launch of the WailerSka Lifestyle Brand, today, celebrating The Wailers and Skatalites. Tomorrow is a beach clean-up community interactive day and session with the One Love One Step Initiative (football-fashion-yoga).

On Thursday April 20, there will be the launch of the RASPECT Cause Campaign, a Jamaica-South Africa collaboration on ganja rights for which Bunny Wailer is the ambassador.

On Saturday April 22, there will be the Bunny Wailer/Wailers Tribute One Love Concert, celebrating the 39th anniversary of the One Love Peace Concert at the National Stadium in 1978.

All events are free to the public, except today's dinner-dance and the One Love Concert on April 22.

Culinary Champs starts today

The first Regional Culinary Championship, organised by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), will be served up today in the northern region. Budding chefs will showcase their culinary talents and compete in several categories, including Special Diets (Live Cooking), Fruit and Vegetable Carving, Sweet Treats, Mixology, Dutchie Dash, and Hot-off-the-Grill. The featured competitors will be primarily from St Mary, St Ann, and Portland.

The Northern Region Culinary Champs will be held the St Mary's Anglican Church, Port Maria, starting at 9 a.m. In addition to the live competitions, it will feature farmers' market, sponsors' booths and giveaways, a kiddies' village, and outside broadcasts.

The central regional champs follows on Wednesday, April 12 at the Kendal Camp Ground in Manchester. The eastern region is next, on Friday, April 28, at the Mico University College in Kingston. The Western Region Champs will close out the competition on Wednesday, May 3, at the Hollis Peter Lynch Auditorium in Montego Bay, St James.

The Jamaica Culinary Arts Competition is Jamaica's premier culinary competition and specialises in showcasing the creative talents of Jamaicans in the culinary arts, while promoting healthy lifestyle and wellness. The competition also seeks to encourage innovative and creative use of local foods, and to stimulate creative talents, and to provide opportunities for exploring the economic potential of local foods.

Nesbeth reflects on European trek

Reggae singer Nesbeth is back in Jamaica following a tour of Europe. Running from late February to the first week of April, the tour saw Nesbeth playing in eight countries, with stops in Berlin, Dussledorf, Zurich, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Almere, Vienna, Helsinki, Paris, Brussels, and Ghent, among other cities

"Though not my first time in Europe, this is the first time I am doing a tour of this magnitude, and I am happy to say the response from the fans have been overwhelming. They are very appreciate of my music, and what is even more interesting, is to see some of my other songs like Guns Out, Board House, and Ole Gangalee enjoying immense popularity in that space.However, My Dream was the clear favourite of the masses. In some cases, I had to sing it multiple times before departing the stage".

Nesbeth also made stops at a number of media outlets, including Studio Brussels (the number one radio station in Belgium) to talk career updates amid promoting his latest single, New Gangster.

Bugle's Ganja remixed

Armed with a brand new album, Bugle, after doing a solo gig in Phoenix, Arizona, has teamed up with internationally renowned producer and disc jock DJ Henry Fong for the remix of Ganja. It is the lead single from his sophomore album Be Yourself and features Shaggy.

According to Bugle "The song has been doing very well, especially in North America, and DJ Henry Fong heard it and contacted me, explaining that he was interested in doing a remix. That is a major boost for the record. He has a lot of clout globally, especially in the world of EDM, so that can only help to push the record and the brand further".