JamaicansMusic.com

FANS OF reggae singer Ky-Mani Marley may get more than they bargained for when they read his autobiography, which is scheduled to be released today in the United States by Farrah Gray Publishing.

Marley, son of reggae legend Bob Marley, is at odds with the publishers, whom he accuses of changing the book’s original title and going sensational to help spur sales. Dear Dad: Where’s The Family In Our Family, Today? The Story the Marley Family Apparently Doesn’t Want You to Know, is the title of the book. Its working title had been Dear Dad: The Marley Son Who Persevered From The Streets To Prominence.

In an interview with The Gleaner Wednesday, Marley said he was considering legal action against Las Vegas-based Farrah Gray.

“I’m not happy about it, I’m very hurt,” Marley said. “All I wanted to do was tell my story, not cause any conflict.”

dad’s birthday release

Dear Dad, which was done by Ky-Mani and a ghost writer, has been released on the day Bob Marley would have celebrated his 65th birthday.

But according to a press release from Farrah Gray, Ky-Mani’s revelations are likely to dampen celebrations.

“The Marley family is so outraged over the publishing of this memoir they lodged a campaign of intimidation over Ky-Mani Marley as the author of this book. They also demand that he confirm and showcase such distortions during his interviews and the highly awaited book tour,” the statement read.

Ky-Mani said he showed an early draft of the book to his sister Cedella Marley, who had no problems with it but who added that parts of the final product disturbed him.

“There are things like Rita not liking me and cutting me off financially after my father’s death,” he told The Gleaner.

Ky-Mani Marley was born in Falmouth, Trelawny, in 1976. His mother is Anita Belnavis, a leading Jamaica table-tennis player during the 1970s who had an affaire with the married Marley.

indifferent relationships

The book focuses on Ky-Mani’s early life in Falmouth and south Florida, where he and his mother emigrated to in the early 1980s. He revisits an impoverished childhood and reflects on an indifferent relationship with his father’s legitimate children and widow, Rita.

He says his fortunes changed considerably in 1994 through a financial settlement from the Marley estate.

Bob Marley, who died from cancer at age 36, has been the subject of several controversial books. The most infamous was 1995’s Marley and Me, written by his former manager Don Taylor.

Rita Marley also caused a stir with her No Woman No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley, which was released in May 2004.

Like his brothers, Ziggy, Stephen, Damian and Julian, Ky-Mani Marley has focused on a music career and has done fairly well. He has recorded four albums, the first being Like Father, Like Son which was released in 1996.

His last studio effort was Radio which was released, in 2007.

He also starred in the low-budget action films Shottas and One Love. His Living The Life of Marley reality show first aired on BET in 2007.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100206/lead/lead8.html

ANY number of theories may be advanced for the revulsion expressed in Jamaican music for those who cooperate with the authorities, whether agents of the state or owners/controllers of capital.

With the creators of the music - especially the performers and songwriters - generally coming from the lower classes, which had restricted access to the legitimate avenues of income generation, maybe it is a case of the illegal being seen as the accepted way of getting cash or assets.

Or it could be that the densely populated communities and often crowded homes of especially the urbanised setting lead to a lack of private space and hence a dependence on the silence of onlookers to protect the privacy of individuals.

There could also be the friction between and in communities, where the police are not trusted, hence the person with an illegal firearm is seen as a protector - and someone to be protected by silence.

Whatever the cause or causes, there is strong revulsion against the ‘informer’ in Jamaican music, who is one of several characters sentenced to death in the lyrically exaggerated dancehall setting. (Among the others down for dancehall execution are child molesters, ‘idle shottas’, rapists, petty thieves and, of course, homosexuals).

The revulsion against those who see too much did not start with dancehall music. In the Trojan Records release Peeping Tom, Toots and the Maytals lament the ever-present peeper with:

“Tom round the corner, Tom in the tree

Tom round the lane, Tom up the hill

Tom in the house, Tom down the street

Everybody cry out for Peeping Tom.”

At the beginning of the 1980s the reviled persona was named outright in dancehall, but not in the context of cooperation with the police. Lady Ann’s 1983 Informer spoke about the interference with her intimate relationship with:

“Certain bwoy ‘pon de corner, informer

Certain bwoy ‘pon de corner, informer

‘Ca ‘im a fight ‘gains’ me an’ me lover”

However, her chant of ‘murderer’ is more an exclamation of dismay than a lyrical judgement. Lady Ann deejays:

“Say informer inna de area - murderer

Him and a-watchin’ and a-peepin’ - murderer”

In the late 1980s, singer Admiral Tibet issued the general warning “leave people business alone/leave people business and mind your own”.

By the early 1990s, though, with digital dancehall well under way after the Sleng Teng rhythm-making revolution and an explosion of persons recording, the informer was squarely in the lyrical cross hairs and many a deejay hit out against them.

The death sentence was proclaimed liberally, but in New Gun deejay Bounty Killer not only delivered the judgement, but also declared lawmen off-limits. In the chorus he deejayed:

“New gun with shot bad bway a burs’

All informa, a dem a dead firs …

To be a informer that is not a nice work

Yu time no deh far yu life it don’t worth

A dead yu ago dead an go unda de eart’

Cause yu inform pon man a Park Lane an Dunkirk

Bout dem rob bank an butt up bank clerk.”

He went on to define the informer and make his position on the law officers clear:

“Informer give information

To police personnel an soldier man

I no sey yu fe shot policeman

Dem a do dem work an policeman no wrong.”

Canadian deejay Snow took up the ‘informer dem’, though in a less menacing way, as he simply referred to the informer and stated that “you know a Daddy now dem a go blame”.

The ‘informer’ was also despised in the workplace setting, with the same judgement being passed. Heading past the mid-1990s singer Wayne Wonder did his own ‘Informer’, this one about the ‘hustling’ on a work site:

“I’m in a factory working

Hustling on the side

See the informers lurking

Trying to break my stride

How you fi stop man hustling

Trying to swallow my pride

I gat pickney fi feed an a ooman a breed

An you nearly mek me lose my life

Informer muss dead.”

And the informer has continued to get flayed lyrically in dancehall, popping up even in the live clash setting.

At the much-vaunted clash between deejay Vybz Kartel and singjay Mavado at Sting 2008, when Mavado, who was on stage first, saw Kartel coming on stage in a soldier uniform, he announced to the crowd - and Kartel - that his rival was an informer.

# Intimacy despises ‘informer’ too

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

While the vast majority of songs about ‘informers’ concentrate on interaction between perceived snitches and the long arm of the law, there is a sprinkling of songs about those who insert themselves in relationships.

So while Lady Ann’s 1983 Informer is one of the early dancehall songs which introduce the term to the public, it is also one of the songs which address the ‘informer’ in the context of an intimate relationship which is ‘getting a fight’. At the start she deejays:

“Certain bwoy ‘pon de corner, informer

Certain bwoy ‘pon de corner, informer

‘Ca ‘im a fight ‘gains’ me an’ me lover

‘Ca ‘im a fight ‘gains’ me an’ me lover”

Then comes the defiance, as the opposition strengthens the bond between the couple, as well as the implicit statement that it is none of the intruder’s affair as no law is being broken - and they are not a law officer in the first place anyway. She deejays:

“We used to move close but now we move closer

Him inna Clark’s me inna roach killer

Certain bwoy nuh love dat an’ go tell me fada

Is not a dreadlocks an’ is not a policeman

Is not a soldier man an is not a babylon

It was a informer - hail Jah, man

It was a informer, eh?”

And Lady Ann also points out just how close the informer gets physically and his or her determination to disparage the lovers:

‘Im stand upon me gate, ‘im pose like a bate

An’ anything me try Jah Jah know ‘im underrate

Informer inna de area - murderer

Him and a-watchin’ and a-peepin’ - murderer

Informer inna de area - murderer

Him and enuff chat chat him - murderer.”

In the early 1990s Chatty Chatty, Tony Rebel presents a number of situations in which the informer pokes an unwanted nose. Among them are situations involving marijuana, a gun and an assumed relationship. It involves the relationships that are a part of the family which departs from the nuclear set-up:

“Pon mi father side me have a little sister

Come check mi yesterday from down a Manchester.”

The public space becomes an arena for them to be spotted and the conversation misconstrued:

“Mi an her a reason me say Pon a comer

You run gone a mi yard gawn tell me lover.”

Still, the lover is not hasty, enquires and dismisses the informer:

“When you tell her what she look like from the description

She just say a Rebel sister that man.”

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20091004/news/news2.html

LOS ANGELES (AP):

Michael Jackson, the sensationally gifted child star who rose to become the ‘King of Pop’ and the biggest celebrity in the world only to fall from his throne in a freakish series of scandals, died yesterday. He was 50.

Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Ed Winter, the assistant chief coroner for Los Angeles County, confirmed his office had been notified of the death and would handle the investigation.

The circumstances of Jackson’s death were not immediately clear. Jackson was not breathing when Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics responded to a call at his Los Angeles home about 12:30 p.m. local time (3:30 EDT, 1930 GMT), Captain Steve Ruda told the Los Angeles Times. The paramedics performed CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda told the newspaper.

Tragic end

Jackson’s death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music’s premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

His 1982 album Thriller, which included the blockbuster hits Beat It, Billie Jean and Thriller, remains the biggest-selling album of all time, with more than 100 million copies worldwide. He is also known for touching ballads such as Gone Too Soon, dedicated to his friend and AIDS victim, 18-year-old Ryan White.

The public first knew him in the late 1960s when as a boy he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson Five, the music group he formed with his four older brothers. Among their No. 1 hits were I Want You Back, ABC and I’ll Be There.

He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched voice punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequinned glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks second only to his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.

“For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don’t have the words,” said Quincy Jones, who produced Thriller.

Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. In fact, he united two of music’s biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie.

But as years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure, a middle-age man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice.

Jackson was preparing for what was to be his greatest comeback. He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13. He was in rehearsals in Los Angeles for the concert, an extravaganza that was to capture the classic Jackson magic: show-stopping dance moves, elaborate staging and throbbing dance beats.

Olivia Grange, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture
I am saddened by the passing of Michael Jackson this afternoon. I remember when Michael Jackson visited Jamaica in the 1970s as a member of The Jackson Five. He was just a youngster. He and his brothers performed at the National Stadium in Kingston; they visited Tivoli Gardens; and Mr Seaga hosted them at a reception.

Ibo Cooper, Founding member of Third World and lecturerat the Edna Manley College-School of Music
Michael Jackson is a very important part of the history of American popular music because he has been a child star and maintained his career for so long. The negative parts will get buried in history but the music will always be there because the records will be there and the music will be played.

Coco Tea, Recording artiste
One of the greats has passed. He is one of the greatest ever lived. He excelled in music and he and Bob Marley have been at the forefront in making music to make black people are more recognised. A lot of the things he has done, no one else will ever do. It’s a very great loss to the music industry.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090626/lead/lead1.html

On Saturday evening, co-organiser of the Kingston on the Edge (KOTE), Omar Francis, sounded like a happy man at the fourth event in the urban arts festival’s third staging.

Considering that KOTE 2009 had started the previous night at Redbones Blues Café, Braemar Avenue, New Kingston, the fourth event has come up remarkably quickly.

It is a measure of how compact the festival is; after multiple events at more than 20 venues across the capital, it ends on Saturday, June 27 with a party at a so far undisclosed location.

There was no trouble finding the venue for the opening, though, Francis estimating about 400 persons turned out for the kick-off event at Redbones. The audience turned out at different stages - the early birds taking in the art and sculpture on the lawn and the documentary Why Do Jamaicans Run So Fast? (which will be featured at the American Black Film Festival in Miami Beach, Florida, June 24-27), the later folk targeting the music of gas money and Michael Sean Harris along with the Devices Band and some dropping in at odd times to socialise.

KOTE is organised by Enola Williams, Beatriz Pozueta, Carolyn Lazarus and Francis, who said, “We knew there was a great deal of interesting stuff going on, and we wanted to make sure people know it. Like Michael Sean Harris, people did not really know about him, but he rocked the show. People were amazed.”

Comfort zone

Adding, “It is about exposing what is there, but also getting people outside their comfort zone.”

The quartet also found itself venturing outside of what it is accustomed to, as none had organised anything this big before. And it is growing, Francis saying that this is not only in terms of the audience, but also the scope of KOTE in terms of “the breadth of what is shown.”

In some ways, it has also developed into something more than what they first envisioned. Francis said that the festival has become edgy, somewhat on its own, “but that’s OK.”

About three quarters of this year’s KOTE events are free and, where there is a charge, it does not go over $1,000 (”unless we go crazy and decide to charge for the closing party”). Francis says the objective is to make the festival accessible to the public. “It is not for the greater of ourselves (the organisers) or making a profit,” Francis told The Gleaner.

“It is not about us doing something, it is everybody working together. That’s why it has been so successful.”

‘Working together’ includes persons doing things for KOTE that the organisers would not have requested. And there has been support on the marketing side from the Public Sector Development Programme of the Visual and Performing Arts Cluster, organised through Jamaica Trade and Invest.

Corporate sponsorship

While there has been a little corporate sponsorship, Francis says, “We are trying to shy away from it. Sometimes there is a little too much corporate sponsorship. Art is the bottom line. We stay away from anything that might detract from that.”

Among this week’s KOTE events that Francis is looking forward to (and he says that the other organisers would probably have different ones), are ‘Dance on the Edge’ and ‘Theatre on the Edge’, set for Monday and Wednesday evening respectively at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, UWI, Mona. Then there is the festival of 10-minute films at Redbones on Thursday night.

“We are happy with the standard of the art that we have been getting,” he said. “We are batting a very good average at the moment.”

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090622/ent/ent2.html

“I have always been a diva … I have just not had the attitude,” declared Jamaica’s queen of the dancehall and first female deejay to win a Grammy, Lady Saw.

There was reason for Lady Saw to reiterate or prove her statement to The Gleaner on Wednesday night just before she gave a scintillating and riveting performance at the Reggae Sumfest launch at Devon House in Kingston.

Without any deliberate effort, the unmatched first lady of dancehall easily confirmed Digicel’s reason for choosing her as one of its ambassadors, leading their 2009 ‘Digicel Dancehall Divas’ campaign when she set off sparks at the well attended and much anticipated run-up to the greatest reggae show on earth.

Settling all arguments, Lady Saw who donned new look couture was rippling, tantalising and seductive, even ladylike just as her name implies.

Cleared all arguments

Sharing the spotlight with dancehall’s reigning fashion diva, D’Angel, the two cleared all arguments, giving the audience a sneak preview of what will take place in the Second City come Sunday, July 19, when the multimillion-dollar festival kicks off.

Unwrapped from life-sized Barbie doll boxes, and later unleashed on the crowd, Digicel used the two to electrify an audience that was left wanting more.

The mobile giants have always been supportive of Jamaican culture and, in particular, Jamaican music and this year they plan to wow and engage Sumfest lovers with their ‘Divas of Dancehall’ campaign, Wayne Miller, head of marketing at Digicel, told the audience.

“We are committed to promoting our music and Brand Jamaica, both locally and internationally. The partnership between Summerfest Productions and Digicel is a synergy designed to deliver to patrons and experience to remember,” added Miller.

For D’Angel, her incredibly rewarding trip to the front row as one of Digicel’s brand ambassadors was met with great enthusiasm. “I have been a diva since birth,” she boasted to The Gleaner, flashing that famous smile.

Wearing skin-fitting spandex tights, drop-dead gorgeous shoes, heavy-looped earrings, a high-waist belt, red Neahlis blouse, carried off by a rhinestone inside get up, the diva said just being on the same promotion with Lady Saw was a lifetime achievement for her.

“I can’t pay for this,” she admitted, “but it boils down to what you stand for in life, this will serve to make me stronger.”

Artistes

From July 19-25, Summerfest Productions will take over Montego Bay for the 17th staging of the annual Reggae Sumfest, which has attracted the likes of the ‘doctor’ Beenie Man, six-time Grammy Award winner Toni Braxton and Rhythm and Blues singer and songwriter, Ne-Yo, Nas, Damian ‘Junior Gong’ Marley, Inner Circle and the reigning prince of Reggae, Tarrus Riley, Jah Cure, Coco Tea and Morgan Heritage.

Dancehall Night, the biggest of them all, will see the likes of Bounty Killer, the high-riding dancehall ‘Gully Gad’ Mavado and his Alliance counterpart and top-flight artiste Busy Signal, the controversial female artiste, Spice and her cohort, Vybz Kartel, and the dancing dynamite Elephant Man at the Catherine Hall venue on Thursday, July 23

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090619/ent/ent1.html

An energised Yendi Phillipps brought Jamaicans through an hour-long excerpt of what happened when the Digicel Rising Stars audition train steamed into the tourism hub of Ocho Rios in the parish of St Ann.

The popular television show, ‘Digicel Rising Stars’, stopped in Ocho Rios as the fourth stop in its search to find Jamaica’s next star.

After a long audition process, it was time to find the top ten contestants from Ocho Rios who would then face Jamaica’s voting public, and yes … it was difficult.

bowled the judges over

It was Mark Bradford who crossed into the top 10 field first when he belted out Jimmy Cliff’s Many Rivers To Cross to which Clyde Mckenzie said: “Vocally, nobody can touch you.” Next, it would be Jody Ann Hamilton, whose take on the Fugees’ Killing Me Softly bowled the judges over.

Baby D made it into the top 10 next, after Anthony Miller said she has “one of the most distinctive voices”. She sang her way into the coveted spot with a gospel tune, before Stacheal Smith sealed her top 10 spot with Natural Woman by Aretha Franklyn. McKenzie said she was a pick for one of the spots because she has an ability to convey what she’s feeling, using song.

‘Little, but Talawa’ were Miller’s words when Lady Toya crooned her way into the top 10 with Tina Turner’s Simply The Best and Nadine Sutherland whooped and cheered, clearly approving Donielle Goddand and her rendition of One Night Only. Yes, Goddand too would get a top 10 spot.

’strong lungs and good pipes’

Jah Maine, according to McKenzie, has “strong lungs and good pipes”, and evidently this is why the judges gave him the nod for one of Ocho Rios’ top 10 spots after he sang Bring It On Home. Sutherland solemnly said, “You want this, I know”, when she listened to Beyoncé’s Listen, sung by Sashoie Grant.

Then ‘Hutchy’ sang about a Red Dress, and Miller commented, “You want one of the spots, and you delivered.” Rounding out the top 10 was Denile West, who copped her spot with My New Lover, My New Friend.

On Friday night, ‘Digicel Rising Stars’ will reveal the top three contestants from Ocho Rios on TVJ, and as the show producers say, the only way to ensure your favourite makes it is to ‘vote, vote, vote.’

http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20090618/ent/ent2.html

Since February, Guinness has been celebrating its 250th anniversary with, among other things, a series of road shows held in towns right across Jamaica where patrons have won many prizes and surprises.

But among the thousands of people who were winners, there were a few who benefited more when they went home with brand new Kawasaki Ninja motorcycles.

Latoya Thomas from Portmore was out celebrating on March 27 after winning the title of ‘Netballer of the Year’ from her employers.

When she and her boyfriend attended the road show at Ken’s Wildflower, her only intent was celebrating the night away with him.

Thomas was so happy she won she ran out of her slippers as she dashed to the stage to collect her prize from Kingsley ‘Ragashanti’ Stewart.

very grateful

And while winning these motorcycles may not have changed their lives, it has certainly made them happy. “Me and my crew are very grateful,” said 19-year-old Chenny McKenzie. “We are very thankful.”

McKenzie, from Old Harbour Road in St Catherine, and six of his friends had attended Passa Passa on April 27. The barber by day and dancer by night was not thinking about winning the motorcycle when he pooled their money together to buy buckets of Guinness. “I didn’t even remember about the bike,” he said.

He said they planned to sell the motorcycle and use the money to acquire a car which they will use to provide taxi services. The proceeds will be shared by him and his friends, he said.

Another winner, 29-year-old Robert Dove from Bethel Town, Westmoreland, also plans to sell the motorcycle which he at the Guinness road show in Cambridge, St James, May 30. “Mi no want it fi bruk me up,” he said, laughing, while explaining that he is a cab driver and owns his own car so he will save the money from the sale to take care of his two sons who are attending school.

He revealed that he had previously won $10,000 from Guinness promotions.

enjoying the vibe

Kemoy Roach, a 21-year-old waitress from Chocolate Hole in Junction, St Elizabeth, could easily consider herself the most fortunate of all the winners. She attended the road show at Junction Square in St Elizabeth with no money at all. “A friend bought me a bucket (of Guinness) and gave me the ticket,” she said. “It was great. We were there enjoying the vibe.”

The ambitious young woman wants to use proceeds from the sale of the bike to acquire land in St Elizabeth on which to build a house.

Gareth Geddes, brand manager for Guinness, said he was thrilled with the success of the Guinness 250th anniversary celebrations.

“This anniversary is not only a time for us to celebrate but for us to give back to our very loyal customers. We owe it all to our consumers,” Geddes said.

http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20090618/ent/ent3.html

The annual Meadowbrook United Church (MUC) fund-raising concert known as A Feast of Music had its 28th staging on Sunday evening. Several hundred people attended, some for the 28th time.

Those faithful patrons - about 10 of them - raised their hands at the bidding of the emcee, Evon Thompson, halfway through the concert, held in the Jamaica Pegasus hotel ballroom. But when Thompson asked who was having a good time, practically everyone answered.

The two-hour-long concert was indeed delightful, featuring, as it did, a clutch of top drawer musicians performing high-quality classical and popular works. Instrumental music was provided mainly by the Touch of Elegance (TOE) ensemble, with saxophonist Jeffrey Brown supplying three items in his set, Fly Me to the Moon, Stay With You and Wonderful World.

Vocalists were mezzo-soprano June Thompson-Lawson, tenor Rory Baugh and cabaret singer A. J. Brown. The ‘feast’ was not only musical: also entertaining the large audience was the church-based dance troupe, BASIS Performing Arts Ensemble, a 10-girl group which did two short pieces.

Success for basis

Last year, BASIS won the Junior Champion Dance Group of the World title at the World Championships of the Performing Arts held in Los Angeles, and the audience was told that the troupe plans to enter the competition again this year. According to the printed programme, BASIS is “a multifaceted ensemble focused on the training and development of young talents in the performing-arts industry, while encouraging spiritual growth and social responsibility through service”.

The young group’s aim is clearly a reflection of the broader goal of the church. Its minister, Reverend Dave Spence, writes of the concert:

“The proceeds from this venture will provide a significant source of support for the various programmes in the communities around our church. In this 50th year of the church’s ministry, we have launched the MUC Community Development Fund. This fund will be a lasting legacy from this generation of the church to the next. Our aim is to increase the principal of the fund so that the future of our community engagements will be secure.”

Light-hearted evening

Among other ventures, the fund supports a sports programme, a mini-stadium, scholarships and bursaries, the performing arts programme, a community marching band and a counselling and care centre.

The organisers of the concert evidently wanted a light-hearted evening. This was apparent even in the first half of the concert which was given over to classical works; all the items fell into the ‘easy listening’ category.

Bizet’s popular Grand March, from his opera Aida, was the first item by the Paulette Bellamy and Jon Williams-led TOE. The ensemble returned halfway through the first segment of the concert with Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, from the oratorio Solomon.

Exquisite playing

As a group, TOE’s playing was exquisite, and certainly Baugh and Thompson-Lawson could not have asked for better accompanying musicians for their songs. While singing solo, as the two sometimes did, they were aurally delightful; but when they sang together, they were even more entertaining, thanks to their dramatisation of the songs.

Their duets were the amusing Comic Duet for Cats (Rossini) and Lehar’s Love Unspoken. Alone, Thompson-Lawson sang pieces by Rossini, Dvorak, Cole Porter and Diack. Baugh’s solo items included songs by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Donizetti. He also sang the pop song My Way, made popular by Frank Sinatra.

Before the final item, Somewhere, powerfully delivered by all three singers on the show, Brown, in a crisp white suit, energetically entertained the audience with four listed songs. Then, after he was summoned back by the applause, he performed a medley, which included My Girl, Sitting on the Dock of the Bay and Stand By Me.

He had many in the audience singing along or dancing in their seats. Smiling faces indicated that the good mood generated by the show prevailed as the audience left the ballroom, some probably thinking ahead to next year’s concert.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090616/ent/ent2.html

Thirty-three years after it was made, Bunny Wailer’s classic, Blackheart Man, album, has been given a crisp digital remastering and is being reissued, initially via download, Zojack Worldwide handling the arrangements.

Some of the songs are longer than when they were first released in 1976 as Bunny Wailer, who told The Gleaner he is responsible for the project, has added dub tracks to some of the original songs (”So you can get a little bit for your money, a little bit more for your listening,” Bunny Wailer says). Apart from those additions, the songs have been kept strictly original, with the sound being improved.

The track listing has been kept the same, so the 10-track Blackheart Man starts out with the title track and continues with Fighting Against Conviction, The Oppressed Song, Fig Tree, Dream Land, Rastaman, Reincarnated Souls, Amagideon (Armageddon), Bide Up and This Train.

Wailer says, “We start out with the most current medium, which is downloading, that is where everything revolutionise in the whole business, so there is the first approach to get the Blackheart Man and the whole Bunny Wailer catalogue back in the streets.”

Clean-up process

The reissued Blackheart Man will eventually be available on CDs and vinyl as Wailer says, “We intend to get it back out in the streets through all them mediums.”

Along with the reissuing is a drive to stop unlicensed persons from using his material, “so is a clean-up process dem a gwaan wid right now in order to get the road clear, so when a one a deal with it it a come through one source.

“My whole thing now is to put my stuff forward in the streets under more control and at the same time independence; me a try maintain that while at the same time mi can clean up mi stuff, get them more up to date, sounding better,” Wailer says.

“I haven’t tampered with them in any way, like add any instrumentation. All I have done is improve the sound that is already there.”

Blackheart Man is Bunny Wailer’s first solo full-length project, but he points out that it is not “just a Bunny Wailer album, but it is like the most outstanding reggae classic of this time, coming from Bunny Wailer. It sort of exceptional compared to other albums of the same nature, reggae-wise. It is really, really exceptional and I personally don’t think I could better the album, Blackheart Man, because all of that is my life’s history up to that point.

“To relive, go back and reverse history fi come back with suppen better than Blackheart Man, I don’t think that woulda work. I would a go haffi live another life period leading up to the nex, one about the same amount a time whe the Blackheart Man lead up to. So I don’t think them things ago happen again,” Wailer says.

“I will make good albums, yes, for I have made good albums - Liberation, Protest, Struggle, My Father’s House, Rock and Groove. All them album is really good album - Marketplace. But Blackheart Man is really an exceptional album, as to the valuation of the message and the amount of people who have received that message and have made themselves better people through them lives within the spiritual and cultural settings that the Blackheart Man exhibits.”

Wailer points out that in many places where he has travelled, people have told him about the profound effect that Blackheart Man has had on them and he also sees people in their teens singing songs from the album word for word. And he says, “I too learn from the Blackheart Man.

Inspiration

Although it come outta my mout, me still have to sit down and listen and learn, because is inspiration a come from the father himself.

“Blackheart Man has strengthen I to maintain I spiritual being.”

Wailer plans to reissue his catalogue in the same chronological order as the albums were released originally. And he believes that he is off to a good start with Blackheart Man, based not only on his judgement, but also the assessment of those who have heard the remastered set.

“I am satisfied that everybody feel good “bout it,” Wailer says.

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