In 2010, musician, beat-maker, and producer Michael ‘Askelle’ Fairman was a final-year student at The University of the West Indies, pursuing a first degree in liberal studies while getting his feet wet in the music industry. After a decade of...
United Kingdom-based vinyl collector and re-presser Alex Caramellino, also known as Jah Fingers, is lamenting the fact that Jamaica seems to be in a deep sleep as far as the viability of the vinyl records industry is concerned. “In the ‘60s, ‘70s,...
When the 27th staging of the Caribbean American Heritage Awards (CARAH) takes place virtually on Friday, November 20, among this year’s awardees will be Judith Veronica Mowatt. Popularly known as ‘Judy Mowatt’, or simply ‘Sister Judy’, she will be...
It is perhaps only too easy to attach the ‘celebrity pastor’ tag to popular, cutting-edge leader of the Emmanuel Apostolic Church, Portmore and Slipe Road assemblies, Bishop C. Everton Thomas. But that title is one which the Singing Bishop eschews...
The family of legendary music producer, ‘Bunny Striker’ Lee, will be honouring his wishes to be laid to rest next to his mother at the Dovecot Memorial Park and Crematorium in St Catherine. “They were extremely close, so the two of them will be in...
With tomorrow being celebrated as National Heroes Day, Maxine Stowe, the manager for iconic reggae singer Bunny Wailer, says that there needs to be a special status conferred on a certain calibre of artistes, who have been recognised by the state...
One of the executors of the estate for reggae icon Toots Hibbert is now officially seeking legal advice. This was confirmed to The Sunday Gleaner by Ian Wilkinson, QC. “My firm, Wilkinson Law, has been retained by an executor of the estate of the...
The year 2020 has been challenging at best, calamitous at worst. After nine months, the world is ready to usher in 2021, maybe without even glancing at Christmas, which seems to have the Grinch hovering somewhere in the background. The music...
If music was a person, strong chances are it would be named Beres. Periodt (with the ‘T’ at the end for emphasis). The first sentence of this illustrious reggae singer’s biography on Wikipedia states: “Beres Hammond, OJ (born Hugh Beresford Hammond...
For those who, perhaps, had been wondering what happened to dancehall legend Shinehead, it is simple. He has spent time taking stock and now has “more wisdom to match [his] big mouth”. Actually, Shinehead is still “a legal alien”, he’s still...
In the ‘60s, a young, white English boy had what could be called a galactic musical experience that has taken him on a journey that has been just out of this world. Five decades later, that boy, who is now a man, is being honoured for being an...
Last Thursday, Reggae Queen Marcia Griffiths, resplendent in a black knee-length jacket-and-pants outfit, which popped with a Jamaican necktie and yellow inner blouse, was beaming as she accepted her Jamaica Reggae Icon award from the Government....
With the conversation about the removal of colonial imperial statues coming to life, the Bunny Wailer Foundation feels that now is a good time to insert the Wailers statue project into this narrative, albeit in a positive way. ‘The Wailers Monument...
Sweet Sensation is a song which reggae singer Yvonne Curtis has made her own, and has included in her repertoire for decades. Therefore, it was only right that when she did her second music video recently, that was the song she chose. “ Sweet...
In 1964, Millie Small made one of only two or three trips back to her homeland, Jamaica, and it is an occasion that is engraved in singer Dennis Alcapone’s heart. He was fortunate enough to have actually seen the sensational My Boy Lollipop singer...
Carl Livingstone, the older brother of Bunny Wailer; Danny Livingston, his younger brother; Cedella Marley Booker; Asadenaki Livingston, Bunny Wailer’s son; and Maxine Stowe are some of the persons who feature in Blackheart Man, a mini-documentary...
In 2011, Bushman Sings the Bush Doctor: A Tribute to Peter Tosh, was produced in collaboration with Penthouse Productions and released by VP Records. The artiste, Bushman, agrees that the album, all 12 tracks – among them Bush Doctor, Legalise It,...
Merritone Disco is in celebration mode, having reached the biblical milestone of three score and ten, and for them, their mantra accurately sums up their modus operandi: ‘Things of quality have no fear of time.’ Or, as owner Monte Blake puts it,...
Producer Mikie Bennett, in a recent interview with The Sunday Gleaner on the influence and impact of Vybz Kartel on the music, noted that the controversial dancehall artiste is the “most dominant figure we have had in dancehall in many years”....
Friday’s passing of elder statesman of reggae music Bob Andy has plunged the industry and legions of fans worldwide into mourning for a giant whose decades-long, storied career led to him being bestowed the title “music royalty”. A singer,...
With three months to go before the annual July 1 celebration of International Reggae Day (IRD), conceptualiser Andrea Davis, while not jittery, has said that the COVID-19 pandemic will have an effect on how the day is played out. She is more...
The arrival of coronavirus on a global scale was the catalyst that prompted a tsunami of cancellations of entertainment events worldwide, and in Jamaica, it started intense conversations about the staging of two major calendar events: carnival and...
Bob Marley and the Wailers’ militant Get Up Stand Up, the opening anthem from their 1973 iconic Burnin’ album, remains as relevant today as it was over four decades ago. It has been embraced as the definitive rallying cry for oppressed people to...
Zac Jone$ is another entertainer who has a zany spelling to his name – a dollar sign at the end instead of the letter ‘s’ – however, that trait doesn’t translate into his music. The California-based Jamaican rapper is as upstanding as they come,...
The humorous, youthful-looking Patricia Chin, affectionately known as Miss Pat, has dedicated six decades to building the careers of reggae music and its stars, but at last Sunday’s Reggae/Black History Month Grounation 2020 series, the VP Records...
