 |  |
| Eddy Grant has been based in Barbados in recent year |
Eddy Grant is preparing for his first tour of South Africa.
The Guyana-born singer has been promoting his latest album 'Road to Reparation'.
Grant said he was looking forward to finally performing in South Africa after following political and social developments over the years.
One of his hits "Gimme Hope J'oanna" (Johannesburg) has become an anti-apartheid anthem.
Last year he performed at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday concert in London's Hyde Park.
It was on that stage that he debuted with backing musicians from the band that supported the late South African reggae singer Lucky Dube.
They have remained with him since and will back him at next month's concert in Cape Town.
Rose blossoms with age
Calypso legend Calypso Rose has released a new album which she says is aimed at taking her music to a more diversified international audience.
"The arrangements on this album are open to a wider scope of listeners," Rose, now 68, said in an interview.
She uses the release, "Calypso Rose" to revise several traditional calypso and faster-paced soca classics culled from her extensive catalog, with strains of R&B and Caribbean-flavoured jazz.
The album was released in October in France on the Maturity Music label.
It will be released in other European countries in March, and the U.S. release is scheduled for May.
"This is a whole new chapter opening up for me in my senior years," The New York-based Rose told Billboard/Reuters.
Rose, who was a pioneer for women calypsonians, returns to her native Trinidad in February to perform at several carnival shows.
Rihanna concert gets go-ahead
The Ministry of Culture in Malaysia has given permission for a concert by Rihanna take place after the singer agreed to tone down her outfits.
|  |
| Malaysian rules forbid skimpy outfits |
Hardline Muslims had urged the authorities to ban the 13 February concert because the Barbadian singer's stage costumes and dance routines are "too sexy".
Moreover, the conservative Pan-Malaysian Islamic party (PAS) said that concertgoers would also contribute to an outflow of local currency to the United States, where the Barbados-born singer is based.
Concert organisers said earlier that Rihanna will shun skimpy outfits when she performs in Malaysia next month to conform to the Muslim-majority country's strict rules on performers' dress.
A ministry official said they saw no reason to prevent the concert once the singer followed the rules.
Government guidelines demand that female performers be covered from the top of their chest, including their shoulders, to their knees.
It was also reported that Rihanna cannot jump or throw kisses to the public.
The Malaysian concert is part of her "Good Girl Gone Bad" tour.
Shontelle gets the T-shirt
Emerging Bajan songstress Shontelle is poised to make her mark on the British music scene.
Her US and Internet hit 'T-shirt' is due for release in London next month, just ahead of the album from which it is taken, 'Shontelligence'.
T-shirt is a R& B ballad aimed at teenage girls and ladies missing their men.
In an interview with the London Sunday Times, Shontelle said: "I've had hundreds of letters from women saying how much they relate to the lyrics.
I've heard from women whose partners are in Iraq or Afghanistan, who say they listen to the song in their husband's T-shirts and it makes them feel better."
________________________________
|  |
| The Motown sound has influenced Caribbean music |
Motown has gone down in history as America's most successful independently owned and black run record label.
The entrepreneurial spirit of its founder, Berry Gordy, continues to inspire soca star Machel Montano.
"I relate to the Motown scenario. I think someone like Berry Gordy realised that he had to put these many talented people in a certain area and have them live sort of a lifestyle of producing music of a high quality,” he told BBC Caribbean Magazine.
The Trinidad and Tobago national who runs his own music company, HD Records adds: "I think I see ourselves, meaning my HD family, as running parallel to that in a different time; we are coming from the Caribbean and we represent soca music."
The Jamaica experience
Another Caribbean star whose style is firmly rooted in the Motown tradition is Rita Marley who founded the I-Threes vocal group.
Before finding fame as a backing singer for Bob Marley & The Wailers, she was in a trio called The Soulettes.
|  |
| Rita Marley: a soft spot for the Supremes |
Rita confessed to a particularly soft spot for The Supremes:
Surprisingly for some, one of the key players in Caribbean music in the so-called ‘early days’ was former Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga.
He founded the West Indies Limited Recording label(Wirl) back in 1951 - a full eight years before Berry Gordy set up Motown in Detroit in 1959.
Despite Jamaica's confidence in its own evolving musical identity, Mr Seaga says that some concessions were made to the production of Jamaican music in the wake of Motown's global success:
“There is a feeling that the ska was slowed down in rhythm to coincide with the type of rhythm that was coming out of Motown.
“Some feel it was a tribute to Motown because it was a black label where an African American entrepreneur had created a black label with black musicians.”
According to the former record label executive, "Ska ran for four or five years and then it was overtaken by the rock steady."
|  |
| Edward Seaga: former prime minister and ex music industry executive |
Mr Seaga, who was to go lead Jamaica politically, pointed out that “this phenomenon was something that was highly regarded in Jamaica as a breakthrough and that the music was slowed down for that."
Missing the Motown magic
While Berry Gordy's creative far-sightedness has been acclaimed, Monserrat's Arrow wonders why the Caribbean doesn't have its own 'region-wide Motown’.
"I looked at it and said it's a pity we didn't have an equivalent of that in the Caribbean,” the Hot Hot Hot star lamented to BBC Caribbean Magazine.
According to Arrow, had the Caribbean had a Berry Gordy equivalent, island music collectively, whether reggae, soca, calypso would have had a larger universal influence.
“I always felt that outside of reggae music, the other aspects of Caribbean music have not been fully exploited to international levels.”
Arrow is among a handful of Caribbean soca artistes who have had big international hits.
___________________________
Jamaican Parrots Under Threat
The Black- and Yellow-Billed Parrots are only found in Jamaica and live in what was a remote part of the island.
However, deforestation and development in the area are contributing to a growing trade in their sale as pets for local and foreign collectors.
--BBB Caribbean.com
No comments:
Post a Comment