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2009 Festival Performers
Subject to change without notice.
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Fab 5, formed in 1970, is Jamaica's pre eminent popular band, whether measured by record sales at home, hits on the charts, frequency of engagements or major awards won over the years. Their twenty-one albums have been as successful as their singles, and their multi-award winning soca album "Yu Safe" was probably the most popular album produced in Jamaica in the decade of the '80s. Their most recent original reggae CD "Dugu-Dugu" once more proves the band’s versatility, while the follow-up to "Fab 5 Live... Part 2" has been outselling the original. A ska album "Fab 5 -- Ska Time" (the bands 21st album) is newly released and has been getting great reviews. The busiest band in Jamaica, Fab 5 are in great demand not only for concerts and dances but also in the studio where they are the leading creators of commercial jingles for radio and television, dominating the airwaves and earning a string of prestigious awards, including four golden microphones. They have been the chosen band for almost every national and state occasion since the mid-1970s. They have taken their authoritative brand of Jamaican music all over the world. They have shared bandstands with many of the great and famous names of modern popular music, including: Ray Charles; Dizzy Gillespie; the Grateful Dead; Rick James; Linda Ronstadt; the Neville Brothers; Roberta Flack; Fats Domino; Peter, Paul & Mary; Joe Jackson; The Chi-Lites; Skeeter Davis (with whom they are currently working on a recording project); the Drifters; Miriam Makeba; Bob Marley; Jimmy Cliff; Marcia Griffiths; John Holt; Freddie McGregor; Judy Mowatt; Ken Booth; Chuck Jackson; The Mighty Sparrow; Aretha Franklin; Gladys Knight; Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes; Jerry Butler; the Manhattans; Ray Goodman & Brown; and the Delphonics. They have performed at the Kool Jazz Festival and the New Orleans Jazz Festival and for Japansplash and have entertained a live audience of one million at an anti.nuclear concert in New York's Central Park. They have triumphed not only with the music of Jamaica but also with their own compositions of soca, the music of the Eastern Caribbean. At different times and in diverse settings, they have enchanted audiences with soul, funky, rock, jazz, disco and classical music. Musicianship, dedication, integrity and discipline are the hallmarks of Fab 5, who have earned and retained the respect of the music industry, critics and general public over the past thirty-one years and are all set for continued success in the future. The band comprises three 1970 foundation members . manager Frankie Campbell (bass); Harold (Jr) Bailey (guitar, flute and saxophone now part-time) and; musical director Grub Cooper (drums and lead vocals), as well as - Sidney Thorpe (keyboards), 1979; Donovan Lee Palmer (Keyboards), 1991; Samuel Grant (trumpet); Romeo Gray (trombone); and Glenroy Samuels (guitar) all 1995. [to top] |
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Kathy Brown, standout Jamaican pianist, jazz instrumentalist and medical doctor, routinely captivates audiences with pleasing jazz arrangements and delightful piano riffs The Aries born musician, who, incidentally, has an academic familiarity with the French language, plays with verve or, as the French says, joie de vivre, with energy and love of life. And the reviews confirm these sentiments. American Christopher Porter, writing in the reputable Jazz Times, described the pianist's 20-minutes performance at Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival 2005. "The multitalented Dr. Kathy Brown, a jazz and reggae pianist, played a really fun but too-short set, mostly consisting of standards such as 'Caravan' and 'Afro Blue'." Two years later, on the same international show, and on a night headlined by American contemporary jazz vibist Roy Ayers, Jamaican Gleaner newspaper writer Adrian Frater noted, "Although not attracting top billing, it was the charismatic and musically charged Dr. Kathy Brown who stole the spotlight as the 2007 Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival ended its two-night stopover at the Half Moon Shopping Centre in Montego Bay." Routing her way to Jamaica's biggest jazz festivals, inclusive of the Ocho Rios Jazz Festival and, more recently, the Port Royal Music Festival, the pulchritudinous pianist made stops at smaller shows and venues, for instance the Jamaica Pegasus' Jazz in the Gardens, and Jazz on the Green series, Red Bones Blues Café, Christopher's Jazz Cafe and other shows repetitively. The jazzy MD's musical journey took her into the operations rooms of some veritable Jamaican recording studios, including Marley's Tuff Gong, where, after a succession of setbacks and a near miscarriage owing to a crashed computer disc, she delivered the labour-intensive first CD aptly named Mission: A Musical Journey. The 9-track CD features clever interpretations of great works of jazz and reggae standards, for example, Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage, and Bob Marley/Peter Tosh's "Get Up, Stand Up". But, it also contains Brown's own compositions, "Mission" and "Latin Groove". Kathy Brown’s CD, according to a Jamaica Gleaner review, captures many of the influences on her personal journey from the classical and folk music she heard at home [in the early days] through to the African and Latin music she reached out and grab from US record stores. Ever since she walked into the Phillip Sherlock Centre for Creative Arts on the University of the West Indies (UWI) campus in Kingston, Jamaica and heard jazz for the first time, and since Jill Gibson, master piano tutor at the Jamaica School of Music, imparted to her the preliminaries of jazz piano, Brown whet her awareness listening intently to Bob James, Joe Sample, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock's earlier works, Chucho Valdes, Monty Alexander, Kenny Barron, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Michel Camilo to name a few influences. Kathy Brown, who founded her jazz band, Kathy Brown & Friends, in March 2002, categorizes her style of music as World [Beat]; music that people anywhere can appreciate. She makes the point, "It is not just jazz, reggae or pure anything, it is true crossover that reaches out to different music style, and [so] people around the world will most certainly appreciate it". Long becoming a staple on the jazz circuit at home, the multi-genre pianist, from the outset, envisioned doing live performances beyond her island shores. "I am more about live performing [and] for this reason I want to take my music outside of Jamaica to places like New York, Canada, Europe, Japan and Africa". That intense yearn to perform overseas was duly accomplished, and to great success, on August 5, 2007 when the Jamaican jazz pianist gave a scintillating one-hour performance at the Harbourfront Centre in downtown Toronto, Canada. Undaunted by the events of a maiden overseas performance, and supported by a band only just acquainted with her music, Dr. Kathy Brown entranced the large turn out of West Indians, Canadians and tourists in attendance at the weekend-long Island Soul Festival. There, broadcaster Ken Stowar, host of Global Rhythm on University of Toronto radio station CIUT 89.5 FM, in a live radio broadcast/webcast during the performance, described Kathy Brown's 60-minutes set succinctly, "A wonderful one-hour performance". The CIUT program director added, "Everyone seemed to have been listening very intently... they were paying extra close attention to Dr. Brown". It started at age 5, little Katherine Brown, the daughter of UWI lecturers, was relentlessly deluged with classical and folk music at home in mid-island Jamaica. Then, she was already singing and whistling before tiny fingers pattered the unignorable family piano. "I grew up in a home where the sound of music was ever-present, on tapes, on LPs and you hear your father playing [piano] downstairs, and older sisters were also playing". Almost naturally, the little girl sidled to the piano and began to play by ear even before being signed up for lessons in classical piano. Growing up, that insatiable drive to master the instrument led Brown to pursue music as elective in High School (Jamaica) Ivy League College (USA) and during her medical studies at the University of the West Indies. Quick to differentiate between the medical and music careers, the tenacious keyboard player has definitively defined her music and sound. "My music is definitively a crossover between jazz and indigenous forms of music whether it be reggae, Latin and afro-Brazilian styles". Yet, it is as a consummate jazz pianist, with or without her Friends band, that she shines brightest, evidence by the rave response of the Jamaican audiences and the media. Supplementary to Brown's solo gigs are two constant companions, the Kurzweil K2500X and her Roland KC-500 amplifier that provide musical karma to many a corporate, weddings and other social events. Extra-curricular to making a living as pianist and medical doctor is her multifunctional role as a musician, singer, and arranger with the highly acclaimed University Singers and, simultaneously, training the EQS Baptist choir. Kathy Brown, whose resumé includes sharing the stage with Jamaica's great guitarist Ernest Ranglin, famed trumpeter Mickey Hanson, Japanese multi-reedist Hiroaki Honshuku, and veteran bassist, producer Glen Browne, is an intensely passionate and exceptional jazz pianist who seeks to make her own name outside of homeland Jamaica. Consequently, since Toronto, Kathy Brown's musical journey searches for a pathway to perform in places like New York, Europe, Japan, and Africa, even as the other major Jazz and Music Festivals of the Caribbean (St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Kitts, Tobago) remain a destination yet to be traveled. [to top] |
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Feeling the rhythm with each tap, drummer Desi Jones speaks to his audience with each performance. A musical son of Sonny Bradshaw, Jones is also a key member of the popular backing band Skool. Although an expert drummer, Jones began his musical journey with a recorder at the Institute of Jamaica Junior Centre. It was at the centre that he first discovered drums - the conga drums - under the direction of his teachers Mackie Burnette and Mr. Lewis. His love for drumming came from watching other drummers while growing up. "Locally, my mentors were Calvin McKenzie, Tony 'JJ' Smith and Leroy 'Horsemouth' Wallace. Like most drummers in Jamaica I was also influenced by Sly Dunbar, whom I consider to be the greatest rhythm innovator from Jamaica. While a member of the Salvation Army Kingston Central Corps I was taught the trombone by Bandmaster John Mills. While in the Salvation Army band the young people started a gospel/ pop/reggae band and I became the drumset player," Jones said. However, his biggest break came when he joined forces with trumpeter Sonny Bradshaw. "At CARIFESTA 1976 in Jamaica I was introduced to Mr. Sonny Bradshaw by Dean Fraser. I was playing congas for the Eddie Thomas Dance Group at the festival and the drummer for the Sonny Bradshaw Seven met in an accident. Sonny took the chance and allowed me to play for the band that day. Later in the year I was offered the job and I took it," Jones said. Wide range Musically, Jones' style runs the range of reggae, jazz, Latin and Jamaican traditional beats. It was this diversity that led him to playing with the Skool Band since 1988. Skool has provided backing for numerous artistes, one of the main ones being the legendary Jimmy Cliff with whom they have travelled the world. Jones says that he has toured all continents except for Antarctica, gaining inspiration along the way. "I get inspiration from the knowledge that with just a simple beat I can make people dance. The drums can also make a person's mood change from joy to sadness," he said. With that in mind, Jones strives to continue improving his technique day by day, since music is his passion, having never wanted to pursue another course. According to Jones if you have the passion and drive for music then go for it; strive for the best. Although he has never released a solo album, Jones, say he has "produced, arranged and played on a number of CDs for Mutabaruka, Carlene Davis, Peter Ashbourne, Skool Band and (the album) The Art Of Reggae Drumming". Jamaica Gleaner : Sunday | June 24, 2007 |
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Cecil 'Sonny' Bradshaw is truly a Jamaican treasure. Born in Kingston 'Under The Clock', (the term used to described those born in downtown,Kingston), Sonny was exposed to the piano before age 10 and although he could master it, his pet instrument eventually became the trumpet. After attending Central Branch All Age School he went on to Kingston Technical High School. His fascination with radio led him and a few of his friends into experimenting with radio communication. Their effort resulted in the group successfully being able to establish radio contact with radio stations in North America and Europe and indeed the whole world. His love for music saw the young Sonny trekking across the city to attend musical events spearheaded by great musicians such as Milton McPherson, Redver Cooke and Eric Deans until he started playing in an organized manner. In 1950 he formed the 'Sonny Bradshaw 7', and became a major force in live music. In 1959 Sonny joined the staff of the newly formed Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) and became a founding member of the JBC Orchestra, along with the likes of Carlos Malcolm. Out of the JBC experience was born the famous popular afternoon radio programme 'Teenage Dance Party', founded by Sonny in 1959. He stayed with the programme until 1964 when the infamous JBC strike resulted in Sonny and other colleagues being made redundant. His next move took him to Jamaica Welfare Services, where he spent quite a number of years making invaluable contribution towards social and cultural development. Sonny championed the cause for musician's welfare through the formation of the Jamaica Federation of Musicians, serving as president for 14 years. The Jamaica 'Big Band' and the annual 'Ocho Rios Jazz' series were the brainchild of Sonny. Perhaps, the greatest asset of Sonny lies within his head and the longer it takes the powers-that-be to recognize and harness his great knowledge for the documentation and preservation of Jamaica's cultural heritage, it is the worst off the nation will be, culturally. Fortunately, Sonny's contribution was recognized when the Order of Distinction (OD)was bestowed on him by the government. Photo by Winston Sill/Freelance photographer [ back to top ] |
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Inducted into the Jamaican Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997, Marjorie Whylie has devoted her life to exploring and expanding on the musical roots of her homeland. Her compositions, which include "Mountain Women," "Ni Woman of Destiny," "I Not I," "Blood Canticles," "Drumscore," "Caribbean Canvas," "The Black Widow," and "Journeys Beyond Survival," are a pastiche of indigenous Jamaican folk, African polyrhythms, European art music, and classic jazz. The one-time acting director of the music department at the University of the West Indies, Whylie is the leader of the National Dance Theatre of Jamaica singers, for whom she arranges song suites and composes interludes and music for dance choreographers. She has worked extensively with artistic director Rex Nettleford, composing and arranging such full-scale masterpieces as "Myal" and "Gerrehbenta." A much-respected musicologist, Whylie has lectured and conducted workshops in England, continental Europe and North America and judged music competitions in the Eastern Caribbean. In addition to performing with the Whylie Wrhythms Band, Whylie continues to play solo piano and sing in prestigious Jamaican hotels. ~ Craig Harris, All Music Guide [ back to top ] |
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Myrna Hague is a singer, actress, journalist, vocalist with the Jamaica Big Band and the Jazzmobile, member of the board of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, past tutor of the Jamaica School of Music and winner of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union Song Festival 1990. Myrna has won the Jamaica Music Industry Award for jazz several times as well as the Jamaica Federation of Musicians Award and Special Merit Award, 1993. Myrna has made numerous television and radio appearances as well as international tours including the Birmingham International Jazz Festival. She has also appeared with Andy Hamilton, Kenny Baker, Ernie Ranglin, Monty Alexander, Branford Marsalis and Dizzy Reece to name a few. Photo by Winston Sill/Freelance photographer [ back to top ] |
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Kathy Brown
Sonny Bradshaw
Myrna Hague