Thu | Mar 28, 2024

Stories by Melville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

Published:Thursday | January 3, 2019 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

Bass guitar player, vocalist and bandleader Lloyd Parks lists the original members of the We the People band with a smile that is simultaneously gleeful and wistful. In 1975, Franklyn 'Bubbler' Waul was on keyboards; Winston 'Bopee' Bowen was the...

Published:Sunday | December 23, 2018 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

Instead of serving up musical cheer at Emancipation Park, this year, singer Tarrus Riley served up dinner to residents of the St Thomas Infirmary in Morant Bay yesterday. The 2018 Tarrus Riley and Friends Christmas concert that was slated for last...

Published:Monday | December 17, 2018 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

While the Jamaican theatre season opens on Boxing Day with the curtains going up on a slew of new productions, playwright Basil Dawkins will put Maas Mat Comes to Town on stage at the Little Little Theatre, Tom Redcam Avenue, St Andrew, a day after....

Published:Tuesday | June 19, 2018 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

Shaggy and Sting sit on motorcycles for the cover art of their collaborative album 44/876 and they continue to be at full rev as once again, it tops the Billboard Reggae Albums Chart. Also holding firm is the number two self-titled set by Iration....

Published:Tuesday | June 12, 2018 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

Augustus 'Gussie' Clarke is not one to do things in small measures. For example, in the 1990s, his Music Works complex on Windsor Avenue, St Andrew, was a multi-studio facility at a time when producers in Jamaica were generally dreaming of setting...

Published:Wednesday | May 30, 2018 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

On his debut album Kontraband (launched officially last Friday at the Bob Marley Museum), Kabaka Pyramid focuses extensively on protest messages. That can be an over-hackneyed approach and wear very thin very quickly, but not in this case. Kabaka...

Published:Sunday | May 27, 2018 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

The depth of Redbones' connection with musicians and their live presentations, was underscored not only by the extended, diverse line-up which closed off its four-event Best of the Best series well after 3 a.m. yesterday but more so the brief...

Published:Tuesday | May 22, 2018 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

In a context where the Billboard Reggae Albums Chart is often dominated by non-Jamaican performers, the listing valid up to Saturday, May 26 stands out with its high proportion of Jamaican vocalists.Half of the top 10 entries feature the voices of...

Published:Wednesday | May 16, 2018 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

At first, you wait on the lead (and film's title) character Kinto to speak, then you accept that he will not and neither will most of the characters in the short film which was screened at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts,...

Published:Tuesday | May 8, 2018 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

Saturday night's cameo by Beres Hammond, when he was called on stage by Marcia Griffiths to do Live On, is not the first time the beloved singer has sung briefly at a Startime concert. In addition, the concert's organiser, Michael Barnett, says...

Published:Friday | May 4, 2018 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

Two days ago, I had the distinct pleasure of receiving a guided tour into the childhood memories of singer Errol Dunkley (OK Fred, Black Cinderella), who showed The Gleaner's team some of the places he lived as a child. The first was at 32 Pink Lane...

Published:Wednesday | May 2, 2018 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

I approached the Integrity Project CD with a mixture of interest and trepidation befitting someone who believes in communication through popular culture and supports the project's objective, as had been previously explained to me, yet with the...

Published:Wednesday | April 25, 2018 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

Anica Wood has lived the healing power of dance. The trauma of an older relative questioning the purpose of her dancing made Anica quit the Wolmer's Dance Troupe before she became a teenager. She would be in her third decade before resuming formal...

Published:Sunday | April 15, 2018 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

In the Indeep song Last Night a DJ Saved my Life, it is the person playing the music who plucks a woman in the throes of heartache from sadness, causing her to rejoice "last night a DJ saved my life with a song". In real life, DJ Marlon 'The...

Published:Friday | February 2, 2018 | 12:00 AMMelville Cooke/Gleaner Writer

The Bob Marley Museum at 56 Hope Road, St Andrew, remains the top tourist draw in the Jamaican capital (although, strictly speaking, it is not located in Kingston). Up to the turn of the current decade it was the only game in town, as far as...

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