Published:Friday | May 8, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
Today, The Gleaner starts two features in its Saturday publication that will focus on the international scope of the island's popular culture. They are On The Road, which notes some of the overseas performance dates by Jamaican-based artistes...
Published:Wednesday | May 6, 2015 | 11:50 AMMel Cooke
Editor's note: This is the first publication of Music and More with Mel on a Thursday. The weekly column, which was started in December 2014, was formerly published on Saturdays. Its primary focus is Jamaican popular music, with an occasional...
Published:Tuesday | May 5, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
Donovan Watkis has organised an event for tonight at Usain Bolt's Tracks and Records in The Marketplace, Constant Spring Road, St Andrew, as he reflects on his past and thinks about the future he intends to chart.Standing by itself, the show's name...
Published:Friday | May 1, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
It may be an indication of just how much we take the American influence on Jamaica - including our popular music - for granted that The Tamlins' take on Baltimore is an enduring hit in the country.With its strong horn line, at points alternating...
Published:Friday | April 24, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
For many years, Startime, known for a long time as Heineken Startime with its long-term sponsorship by the beer brand, was the only regular large-scale outdoor vintage concert in Jamaica. Then, in October 2000, Stars R Us joined the party, the two...
Published:Friday | April 24, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
Percy Sledge, who died at 73 years old on April 14, was a perennial favourite in Jamaica, doing concerts here over several years. The true testament to his appeal, as is the same for all enduring artistes, is that he could come and do the same...
Published:Thursday | April 23, 2015 | 4:54 PMMel Cooke
Advisory 1: If you have had your fill of articles ranting against the annual carnival road march through urban St Andrew, there is no need to read any further. Just sigh or do a 'kiss teeth' and dismiss the article with a flick of your wrist, or put...
Published:Friday | April 24, 2015 | 10:36 AMMel Cooke
It would be somewhat of a stretch to call Booyaka! a series. Today's staging at the beachside Wickie Wackie venue near Bull Bay, St Andrew, is not the first time that it is being staged - the first outing was seven or eight years ago. Still, despite...
Published:Monday | April 20, 2015 | 4:03 AMMel Cooke
The Fabulous Five Incorporated Band is not unused to fusing music and vocals with other performers. As a self-contained showband, along with their own material such as Asking For Love and Yu Safe, they regularly present a range of Jamaican popular...
Published:Friday | April 17, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
In the aftermath of Barack Obama's whirlwind visit to Jamaica, The Sunday Gleaner revisits a set on which Cocoa Tea utilised the United States president's clarion call to his nation and the world.On the cover of his 2009 - and as he put it then ...
Published:Friday | April 17, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
Today, The Sunday Gleaner begins a series looking at the vintage concert scene - or, rather, the lack of one - as the stage show presentation of artistes from Jamaica's older performers is a far cry from the heady days of the mid-2000s when there...
Published:Friday | April 17, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
As promised last week, today we look at some reasons why what passes for the Jamaican music industry should move towards a more formal structure. While the topic is always relevant - and always thorny - this time around, it is prompted by a State of...
Published:Monday | April 13, 2015 | 2:14 PMMel Cooke
Owen 'Blakka' Ellis and Dr Michael Abrahams literally drew a long bench for their extensive onstage conversation at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, into early afternoon on Sunday. For much of Fun and Joke Aside, the two were seated on...
Published:Thursday | April 9, 2015 | 5:27 PMMel Cooke
Jamaica has a storied history of political activism - or at least commentary - in song, from Peter Tosh's determination to "fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid" through to Supercat's off-hand "we no 'fraid a Ronald Reagan who a run America" in...
Published:Friday | April 10, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
As producer and sound system operator, Lloyd 'King Jammy' James dug into his memories at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus, on Thursday, April 2. He eventually - and inevitably - came to the Sleng Teng riddim.He spoke as part of a...
Published:Friday | April 10, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
The decade before the Sleng Teng riddim was made, Bob Marley and The Wailers played concerts at the Lyceum in London that were recorded and released as the Live album. By 1985, Bob Marley had been dead for four years and a beat had come out of...
Published:Friday | April 10, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
I attended two events over the past couple of weeks that have stirred thoughts about the structure of this business of Jamaican popular music. One was the State of the Music Symposium at...
Published:Thursday | April 9, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
United States President Barack Obama was high - in the air, that is - when he put in a late request to visit the Bob Marley Museum at 56 Hope Road, St Andrew, on Wednesday night.Yesterday, it was revealed that it was only 10 minutes before Air Force...
Published:Sunday | April 5, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
The tall figure leaning forward, listening intently to a question from an audience member and a hint of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth complementing a near beatific expression, was almost irreconcilable with the renowned fierce sound...
Published:Friday | April 3, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
Sixteen years old is a landmark age in a young lady's development, very often marked by a special party. It is not surprising then that the age makes its way into popular songs, or that these tracks centre around a budding love life.Primary among...
Published:Friday | April 3, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
Poet Ras Takura released his debut album, Food War, in New York last month during his trek of the United States (US) East Coast. In January, deejay Gavinchi Brown got the news that his EP, The Gavinchi Code, was on the Billboard Reggae Chart while...
Published:Friday | April 3, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
'Simplicity we use to survive Many find it difficult because them ignorant and hype"- Sizzla. I am not sure if it was Ibo Cooper or Steve Golding I heard use the term 'simplexity' - a combination of simplicity and complexity, obviously - to sum up the...
Published:Friday | March 27, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
In a short space of time, there have been a number of notable changes in the compact-sedan segment of Jamaica's new-car market. Nissan and Toyota have introduced the refreshed Versa and...
Published:Friday | March 27, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
I read about the proposal to make Olympic Way an entertainment hip strip with a mixture of resignation and irritation - resignation because it may be the beginning of a pattern that I expected, but despite those expectations, I am still not pleased...
Published:Thursday | March 26, 2015 | 12:00 AMMel Cooke
All Saints Primary School in Kingston has a striking name and a reputation for having been the educational institution for several outstanding personalities from the area for several years. Tomorrow evening in the hall of the St Andrew Parish Church...
