JAVAA receives $150,000 from Merritone
Published:Thursday | December 23, 2021 | 12:05 AMSade Gardner/Staff Reporter
The life insurance policy for members of the Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes and Affiliates (JAVAA) will be maintained thanks to a $150,000 donation from the Merritone sound system.
A handover ceremony was held at Our Place on Hillcrest Avenue in Kingston on Monday. The amount represents part proceeds from a three-day online birthday celebration held for Merritone’s Winston Blake a month ago. Blake was a founding JAVAA member.
“We’re really grateful because the insurance was more or less lapsing, and we want to keep the insurance because that is very crucial at this point for the 100 persons we have on it,” Frankie Campbell, JAVAA’s chairman and Fab 5 band manager, told The Gleaner. “Unfortunately, about 70 per cent of the 100 on the insurance aren’t paying their dues, so the money used to come from Fab 5 before the pandemic. Most of this money, now, will be going towards that plus other little projects.”
HOME FOR SENIOR MUSICIANS
JAVAA also received a donation of $40,000 from businessman Eric Cyrus Jr (who conceptualised Blake’s birthday gala), as well as funds from silent donors. Campbell said the organisation is working towards a home for senior musicians, a Walk of Fame and a Hall of Fame.
“We want to eventually start a home for musicians, even if it’s a four-bedroom situation, but it’s very expensive as you can imagine with a practical nurse and cooks and other people that would be there on a daily basis,” Campbell said.
“The Walk of Fame is supposed to be at Emancipation Park on the sidewalk. It’s easier because the musicians, singers or deejays don’t have to be in the business for 40 years. You can be 20 years in; once you’ve achieved a certain standard. There’s a lot of space on the sidewalk, so it would be a great tourist attraction where people can come and see when the person started in music and what they did.”
The Hall of Fame will be situated at the Ambassador Theatre in Trench Town, which JAVAA, through the help of a contractor, will be renovating as another tourist attraction. A third JAVAA members’ album is also in the works. Above all, Campbell is focused on the well-being of members.
MUSICAL SCHOOL ROOM
“We’ve been giving them care packages, and of course, if we have enough money, we can actually help them financially with a little ‘smalls’ here and there because some of them are really suffering at this point… We really appreciate any likkle help we can get, and even though we’ve been doing pretty well, we still want more people to come in and give.”
Merritone accepting the call coincides with their cultural and philanthropic legacy, thoroughly articulated by the Jamaica Music Museum director, Herbie Miller. In his own essay, Miller described Merritone as an institution that has functioned as a “musical schoolroom”, educating people on social and political contexts for more than seven decades while serving as an advocate for equality through the spaces they create. The Merritone generosity gene is the icing on the cake.
“I feel good; my Christmas is made,” Merritone chief Monte Blake told The Gleaner. “It’s always a joy in giving, and I know it’s genuine. I know Frankie. Sometimes it’s not JAVAA; it’s his money that goes into it because these people are not making any money, and it’s just tough out there. It’s tough for me. My grandma always tell me – and I didn’t always agree with her – if you have a plate of food and somebody comes, you take some out the plate and share, and that’s how we’re cultured.”
The evening saw the likes of Charmaine Limonious performing songs that complemented the occasion, including a cover of Johnny Reid’s People Like You. Bagga Case also gave a soulful performance of songs, including Mek The Christmas Catch You in a Good Mood. Both singers are JAVAA members.