Posted : January 31, 2003 HAPPY MARDI GRAS We would like to make you aware of the new CD and video, "Happy Mardi Gras " by Louisiana's own Henry Turner Jr. And Flavor. It is in it's second year of promotions and is becoming a seasonal favorite. If you hear and enjoy the song and video keep in mind the band is open for Mardi Gras parties and parades. Please go to www.Spanishtownparade.com and take a look at the band in the mist of Mardi Gras performing the song. If you would like to know more about the band or if you are not familiar with us, please go to the flavor website at www.icorp.net/flavor/ and get some insight on Flavor.

Posted : January 22, 2003 NEWS FROM BLOOD & FIRE New Blood & Fire release due for February 2003 is Ja-Man All Stars' "In The Dub Zone ". This is a set comprising of two albums, namely "Ja-Man Dub" and "Kings Dub", produced by Dudley "Manzie" Swabie in 1977 and 1980. The CD also includes 4 b-sides originally issued by the producer on his Ja-Man and Manzie imprints in the same period. This reissue follows on from "129 Beat Street : Ja-Man Special" ( BAFCD 023 ) which featured a selection of Manzie's classic roots vocal productions of the time. The second part of the CD is "Kings Dub" containing the dub versions of General Echo's first LP "Rocking and Swing".

Posted : January 15, 2003 NEWS FROM MIKEY DREAD. The first single from Mikey Dread's CD "Rasta In Control" will be released in April 2003 and it will be "Inna Foreign" on 7 inch. Then we will re-release Rod Taylor's "His Imperial Majesty" on 7 inch and later on 10 inch as well as Earl 16 and the Roots Radics featuring the late Jackie Mittoo on "One God One Destiny" on 7 inch. In the pipeline is a killer King Tiubbys Tribute Dub album with King Tubby speaking. No one on this planet has any known recordings of the Dub King actually speaking except Dread At the Controls so this will be released after all the King Tubby's albums have been released and the market is not so saturated as I have his voice preserved on tape which is the main ingredient to add to his dub mixes he did for DATC in the late 70s early 80s and this way even 100 years from now his voice will still live on within reggae music. Thanks to the good old tape recorder. Also expect a few of the CDs like "Best sellers with bonus tracks", SWALK w/ bonus tracks and for the first time on CD "Dread at the Controls" originally released by me as "Evolutionary Rockers" in the 70s. Trojan re-titled it as "Dread at the Controls" but only had the rights to release it on vinyl only. Currently gearing up to hit the road across the USA in February and March promoting "Rasta in Control". Tour dates will be posted at www.mikeydread.com The entire Dread At the Controls catalog will be released in Jamaica and USA/Canada on Dread At the Controls label and Distributed in UK and Europe by Lighthouse Records.Contact Richard by Email: firewolf@lighthouse.uk.net or Josie at: Josie@lighthouse.uk.net Currently working on the first Mikey Dread DVD, DATC merchandising and finding a reputable Booking Agent in Europe to handle live concerts and bookings. Interested? email us: dreadatthecontrol@yahoo.com Dread At the Controls Inc PO Box 9112 Coral Springs, Fl. 33075 USA Jah Bless Mikey

Posted : December 21, 2002 SAVE REGGAE! ROBERT LEE BUILDS AN ARK OF NOAH FOR 'ROOTS MUSIC'. Recently Dutch (quality) newspaper NRC Handelsblad had an article on Jamaican reggae-singer Robert Lee (now living in the Netherlands), associated with Dutch reggae-hip hop group Postmen. The article was written by Hester Carvalho. What follows is the translation done by Souljah, who notes that one is free to spot the errors she made ;-) The old reggae, the real one, is threatened with extinction, according to Jamaican reggae-singer Robert Lee. On his CD, recorded in the Netherlands, it's clear that reggae can still be melodic and sensual. In Rotterdam-West, on the corner of two streets lies Wow Pow-studio. In this pointed-piece-of-a-pie-formed building are offices, control-rooms, rehearsal rooms. The reception room for guest is under construction. This studio is the headquarter for the Rotterdam 'black' music scene. Here musicians like Def Rhymz, Postmen, E-Life and Sonny D build the fundamentals for their new songs and CDs. Here hip hop, reggae and dancehall are made. The man behind this enterprise is Surinam-born 'Bigga'. Bigga is considered the musical Godfather of the neighborhood. He brings musicians together, and children in the street are invited to rehearse in the studio. Bigga relishes Rotterdam talent Now he even has a Jamaican under his wings. Robert Lee, hailing from Kingston, by coincidence once came to Rotterdam, eventually behind a microphone at Wow Pow. Bigga recorded a song with him. This song was heard by leadsinger The Anonymous Mis of Postmen, who called Robert Lee in Jamaica to say he'd like to work with him. This phonecall resulted in the CD "In Fine Style". "In Fine Style" shows that reggae still can be melodic and sensual, even when most songs coming from JA sound like metallic-mating-season-crying. This CD is now slowly released in whole Western Europe. Here in the Netherlands "In Fine Style" was received enthusiastically: magazine OOR chose it as one of the best albums released in 2002, and Lee lately was one of ten receivers of an "Essent Award" for starting acts. As a result he will be performing in January at the Noorderslagfestival in Groningen. Mixing-desk. One afternoon in December Robert Lee lets me join him in the studio. Rapper Sonny D is sitting behind the mixing-desk with 4 associates mixing his latest recordings. Lee makes a few appointments and steps outside. First we meet Bigga, a large guy in a blue coat, one hand holding a cell phone against his ear, the other embracing Lee. Then we enter old-Dutch-style Cafe Populair with vitrage and a billiard. Lee knows the neighborhood well. He lives a few blocks away he indicates, with his lady and child. His whole life nowadays is lived within 1 square kilometer of Delfshaven in Rotterdam. A Jamaican doesn't just show up in Rotterdam. Especially not one who already was successful in his home-country as a dancehall-singer. Under the moniker Mr.Lee he triumphed even from Japan to Canada. The real purpose of his presence in the Netherlands is more than just recording a CD. Robert Lee wants to save reggae, more precisely 'roots-reggae'. This form of reggae, known from legends as Bob Marley, The Heptones, Mutabaruka, Burning Spear and others is threatened with extinction, according to Lee. Lee himself therefore is like a modern Noah trying to build a 'Black Ark' to keep roots music floating. In the Surinam guys from Postmen he found related souls. Like Lee they try to put spirituality and melodic seduction in their music. "But back in Jamaica nobody listens anymore to singers like Bob Marley and Junior Reid" Lee says "They think it's boring. The younger generation only wants to listen to dancehall. Because it's about bling-bling and fling-fling and champagne and beautiful women. It's music about haves and have-nots, all lyrics are just about who's having enough money to sport the right haircut and shoes, and who hasn't" he says "It's music about money, meant to make money with. I was quickly bored by that subject." Robert Lee (34) was born in the neighborhood of Waterhouse, in Kingston, Jamaica. In that area also musicians like Black Uhuru, Wailing Souls and singers like Junior Reid and Half Pint were living. Close to his home was the famous Black Ark studio where Lee 'Scratch' Perry invented roots-reggae, and where around the corner King Tubby had his studio, where he developed the echoing dub-reggae. Lee sang in his youth together with friends like Half Pint and Junior Reid, who later became well-known reggae singers. In the meanwhile he went to school, and to church. He didn't smoke weed. Lee was kept short by his parents. "I loved leaving town, into the countryside. We had family members with a farm. I liked milking the cows and feeding the goats. Reap corn, that kind of stuff. I am not a town-person." Afros. One of the songs on the CD "In Fine Style" brings back memories from that time. In "Fallin' Rain" Lee sings about a woman going out of his life, and leaving him desperate: "Cause from yuh gone mi not even pick pon di farm/ all the goat dem a dead fi hungry inna di burn". Lee incorporates the country-atmosphere on purpose in his songs. "Nowadays young people don't even know what a farm looks like. That's why I tell them about it." Lee calls a function of music: recalling eras gone. "I still love to hear songs about the seventies, about soulpipes and afros. I had them in those times, and there's not enough recall of that in these times." His CD "In Fine Style" shows that melodic reggae easily coincides with modern instrumentation. Like for his own band Postmen, Anonymous Mis embroidered the reggae-schwung with layers of keyboards and uplifting female harmonies. The 'roots'-element is mainly in the fluent melodies Mis and Lee came up with together. And in Lee's singing, high and seductive crooning, like Gregory Isaacs twenty years before him. The rhythm has the ancient movement of baby-holding mothers, a plough on an acre, a ship on the waves. But Lee never looses attention, because his tempo is just a bit faster than traditional 'stoned' sounding reggae. That the ideas of Lee and Mis so much resembled each other, is because of their shared cultural background, according to Lee. "The first song I wrote in the Netherlands was "Fawaka" which is Surinam for "How Are You?" The lyrics are almost completely in Sranan-Tongo, which Bigga taught me. It's my salute to the Dutch-Surinam population. Jamaican Patois and Sranan-Tongo are quite related." Robert Lee talks like he sings. His intonation is melodic, and words seem to be pronounced with a thick tongue. "Them" becomes "Dem" and "Ask" becomes "Ax". It's the way of talking the soulsinger Otis Redding was reprimanded for by his record company when he recorded the song "Respect". "I can also talk proper English, I learned it at school. But I want to stand out as an authentic Jamaican singer. That's my identity." That same identity also caused trouble for Lee lately. When he left Jamaica in 1998, Lee went to Birmingham, England. There he moved in with family, and studied information technology. But he didn't get a visa. As described in his song "Peaceful": "Back in England I got in trouble with the embassy/ They never wanted me to go to another country/ But I've got places to go and people to see/ Dem refuse the visa dem seh mi a yardie (they say I'm a yardie, a hustler - this is Hester Carvalho's translation/interpretation)." About the actual situation living in the Netherlands he isn't really commenting "I'm staying here temporarily" says Lee. Killer song of the CD "In Fine Style" is the song "Stress" in which, totally in style with this trying for spirituality, takes a closer look at modern life, to conclude we all suffer from stress, tension and being exaggeratedly busy all the time. "My heart goes out to the people who are living a stressful life" he sings, accompanied by the upful sounds that mark this whole CD. No better antidote to stress than his "Stress". This shows Lee adapted quickly to his new environment. He want to save roots-reggae and save the stressed Dutch souls for downfall at the same time.

Robert Lee

Posted : December 13, 2002 RAS RECORDS MAKES COMEBACK WITH LIVING LEGEND BUNNY WAILER. After surviving what he says has been a "tough year", Gary Himelfarb aka Dr. Dread of Washington DC's RAS Records says the company is eyeing a big comeback in the new year. He is confident a new partnership with Bunny Wailer, one of reggae's legends, will result in exciting times for the label he started 23 years ago. RAS Records recently acquired the rights to re-issue Bunny Wailer's catalogue with Shanachie Records, starting in 2003. Shanachie, based in New York City, has distributed nine of Bunny Wailer's albums for the past 17 years, a list that includes the Grammy winner's "Time Will Tell: A Tribute to Bob Marley" and "Crucial! Roots Classics". The all-reggae company also has plans to release "The Living Legend", a DVD of the singer's career, which contains footage compiled by the 55 year-old Wailer himself. Bunny Wailer has recorded for RAS in the past. His first album for them was 1993's "Just Be Nice" while the second, "Hall of Fame: A Tribute To Bob Marley's 50th Anniversary", was released in 1995 and won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album the following year. Source : Jamaican Observer. The song "That's Me" is the new single from Jah Bunny's upcoming CD (album) "Crossover" that will be released early 2003. As a worldwide exclusive the Reggae Vibes crew offers the opportunity to listen to this brand new tune (courtesy of Barry York of Circulation Music). Just click on the speaker below Bunny's pic.

Bunny Wailer

Posted : December 11, 2002 TRIBUTE ALBUM PLANNED TO REPAIR DETERIORATING PETER TOSH MAUSOLEUM AND TO ERECT MUSEUM IN JAMAICA Plans were announced today for a tribute album to honor the legacy of Grammy Award winning reggae superstar, Peter Tosh. Tosh, who was tragically murdered during a robbery in his home in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1987, was one of the founding members of the famed Jamaican reggae band "The Wailers" (later "Bob Marley and the Wailers"), and later went on to pursue a successful solo career, producing a string of hits and earning a Grammy Award for his reggae album, "No Nuclear War," just after his death in 1987. Tosh was also an outspoken civil rights activist for his country, demanding government assistance for the poor, and centering his songs such social issues as anti-apartheid against oppression and equal rights for all. The album will not only pay tribute to the late artist, but revenue from its sales will also provide the funds needed for the repair and renovation of Peter Tosh's Mausoleum in Belmont, Jamaica. Also planned is the completion of the Tosh Museum, which was partially erected back in 1995, and construction of a medical clinic, a library, and a gift shop. The buildings will be erected on Tosh's burial site in Belmont, which is also the home of Tosh's mother Alvera Coke. Veteran promoter Mike Malott, who conceived the album project and is working closely with Tosh's son Andrew, plans to release the album on the Tosh family's Tosh-Intel-Diplo label. Although contributors are still being solicited, several artists have signed on to contribute a track to the album including million-selling reggae star Bob Andy, and international reggae great Lasana Bandele, who is also working on the project with Malott. Fellow Wailers founder Bunny Wailer is also expected to be featured, although not confirmed at press time. The Foundation is hoping to interest artists such as, Lenny Kravitz, Nine Inch Nails, Snoop Dog, and Carlos Santana as well as others to contribute their version of their favorite Peter Tosh song to be included on the album. Malott will seek memorabilia and signed photos from artists unable to contribute a track to the project. The items will be auctioned off with the proceeds going to the Peter Tosh Legacy Foundation. The concept for the album was conceived by Malott shortly after he and his fiancee moved to Negril, Jamaica in early September. Malott, a Peter Tosh fan, visited the burial site in Belmont. Badly in need of repair, the Mausoleum's cinder-block walls stood partially erected and unchanged for years. It had been vandalized, and several items including Peter's own grave marker had been stolen. Very little money had trickled into the estate since 1987. Malott contacted Peter's son, Andrew Tosh, whom Malott had promoted in the 90's, to discuss his desire to contribute towards the legacy of such a prolific and controversial artist. Malott discussed his idea for creating a Peter Tosh tribute album featuring top name rock & roll and reggae artists. The project would generate revenue needed to repair and restore the mausoleum, to complete the museum, and gift shop. Plans for a library and medical clinic had been previously proposed by brothers Andrew and David Tosh. Construction plans are currently being discussed with Norris Bell, a construction specialist from the nearby town of Sheffield. Malott has also recently formed a partnership with international reggae star Lasana Bandale to create the Peter Tosh Legacy Foundation, which will organize and oversee the renovation project. Bandele, who wrote and composed the hit singles "Living in Shacks" and "Storitela," and contributed to the CD "Reggae Celebrates the Grateful Dead," comes from the parish of St. James in Jamaica and now lives in San Francisco, California. The Foundation will also work to further Peter Tosh's dream to provide food to the hungry, medical assistance to the poor, and emergency funding and grants to assist in the start-up of Rastafarian-owned businesses in Jamaica. The foundation also plans to produce a three-day music festival honoring the late music hero in Belmont to coincide with the completion of renovation. The event would feature a wide array of top reggae and rock artists and will draw fans from all over the world. Worrell King, who heads up King of Kings Promotions based in Jamaica, will work with the foundation to produce the massive event. Malott, who has promoted several reggae shows and made several trips to the island since the mid eighties, is overwhelmed by the opportunity to do something that will impact so many lives and Jamaica in such a positive way. Along with preserving the legacy of not only Peter Tosh's name but his work as well, Malott exclaims that "I love Jamaica, and the people of Jamaica, I know I am at home here and I am greatly honored to have the opportunity to do this."

Peter Tosh

Posted : December 6, 2002 NORRIS MAN NEWSLINE VOLUME 1 Here's an update on the prolific Kingston-born singer/dj, one of Jamaica's most exciting young artists. On Stage : Norris Man locked the city with DJ Merciless in Bridgetown, Barbados over the weekend. Over 3000 Bajan fans turned out for this combination. Big up goes out to all eastern Caribbean massive! On December 28, 2002, Norris Man performs at East Fest, one of Jamaica's most popular holiday festivals, sponsored by Morgan Heritage. Meanwhile, Norris Man is tentatively set to join the Universal Message tour, (featuring Jah Messengers Anthony B and the Star Trail Crew, Junior Kelly and Chrisinti) in February 2003 at Ragga Muffin Productions annual Bob Marley Day Celebration in Long Beach. Stay tuned for information on Norris Man's connecting dates in San Diego, the Bay Area and other parts of the west coast. Here's what Norris Man has been up to for the last few months: On July 27, 2002, Norris Man made a vibrant appearance at the Vermont Reggae Festival, backed by the Benaiah band, featuring the smooth sounds of Jamaican saxophonist extraordinaire, Dean Fraser. In May, 2002, Norris once again captured the hearts of Trinidadians at the "Happiness" show at the Centre of Excellence in Tunapuna with famed percussionist Bongo Herman, Pinchers, George Nooks and King Kong. In Trinidad on the same tour, Norris made more appearances, surprising many fans at popular nightspots such as Coconuts in Port of Spain and Club Celebs in San Fernando, tearing it up with tracks like "Park Your Guns." For bookings and further information on Norris Man, contact: Colin McGregor Executive Producer, Jah Scout Records Ltd. Phone:(415) 282-4208 Email: colin@jahscout.com http://www.jahscout.com

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