Lifestyle: Damian Marley "Frees Up" a former prison as a Pot Farm

Damian Marley has announced that he, in partnership with Ocean Grown Extracts, is converting a former 77,000 square foot California State prison into a cannabis grow space that will cultivate medical marijuana for state dispensaries.
"Many people sacrificed so much for the herb over the years who got locked up," says Marley, 38, noting the poetic justice of turning a prison that once housed non-violent drug offenders into a cannabis cultivation facility. "If this [venture] helps people and it's used for medicinal purposes and inspires people, it's a success."

Damian Marley Opening Colorado Weed Dispensary

By that measure, the prison-to-pot farm initiative is already a triumph. With their purchase of the Claremont Custody Center in Coalinga, CA for $4.1 million, Marley and his partners instantly relieved the economically-challenged Central Valley town of its roughly $3.3 million debt. The venture will also generate 100 jobs -- in an economically stagnant region plagued by an ongoing, historic drought and descending oil prices, both of which have damaged the region's traditional farming and oil industries -- and will generate an estimated million dollars in annual tax revenues for Coalinga.

The new business began "in a very organic way," says Dan Dalton, Marley's longtime manager. "Cannabis is something that's around Damian every day with friends, family and with his Rastafarian faith. We've watched people who have sacrificed their lives for it. That injustice has motivated us to be advocates as well as knowing that there are healing properties in cannabis."

Marley today also announced the introduction of Speak Life, a proprietary strain of cannabis he created with Ocean Grown. The strain is based on the company's lauded OG Kush, but altered genetically with the help of a Ph.D trained chemist at who helped cultivate the unique breed.
"The OG has always been my favorite," says Marley, who met with the chemist while making Speak Life. "When they introduced this strain of OG I really loved it and loved its consistency." The bud is a hybrid made of 70 percent indica and 30 percent sativa, and is hand-watered and trimmed.
Marley and his partners are prepared for the "green rush" should California's Proposition 64 -- which would legalize cannabis for adult recreational use -- passes in November, as the polls seem to indicate. And California isn't alone in reconsidering marijuana's legality, either. Voters in seven other states will choose whether to legalize recreational and/or medical marijuana -- Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada could approve the use of recreational pot; Arkansas, Florida, and North Dakota will decide on legalizing medical marijuana, which a status the plant has been assigned in 25 states and the District of Columbia.

Music: for Bob Marley's band, "Everywhere is War"

ARAM SINNREICH

09.18.16 12:01 AM ET

Bob Marley spent his brief, extraordinary life promoting peace, unity, and the Rastafarian ideal of “one love.” His family and former band members have been at each other’s throats ever since.

The latest installment in a long line of legal and public relations battles over Marley’s life and work comes in the form of an acrimonious legal dispute for the rights to the name The Wailers, originally used in 1963 for Marley’s own band. Though Marley succumbed to cancer in 1981 and his Wailers co-founder Peter Tosh was murdered a few years later, the third original member of the group, Bunny Wailer, continues to tour to this day.

The present dispute has nothing to do with Bunny Wailer, however. Instead, it’s a “bakkle” with several members of Marley’s mid-1970s backing band. On one side: bassist Aston “Family Man” Barrett and guitarist Al Anderson; on the other: a touring group called The Wailers, which has been playing Marley’s music with a rotating set of members for decades.

Until a few months ago, Barrett himself was a member of what he now calls “the sham Wailers.” They maintain a healthy touring schedule, playing about 200 shows a year to sizeable audiences around the world, according to their official bio. Barrett was the last member of that touring band to have actually played with Bob Marley, and now that they’ve parted ways, he and his fellow plaintiffs argue that the band has no right to continue using the Wailers name.

Disputes over popular and profitable band names are as old as the recording industry itself, from classic groups like The Drifters to rock-era titans like The Doors to more recent examples like LMFAO and One Direction. These cases can often get nasty, to the point where the legal battle does more to tarnish the band’s image than any half-assed greatest hits tour possibly could. Take the case of the Beach Boys. When the band announced its 50th Reunion Tour in 2012, singer  Mike Love let his cousin and bandmate Brian Wilson know he wouldn’t be invited by releasing the news to the press. Even the name The Wailers has been the subject of past disputes; a decade ago, Barrett and his bandmates successfully defended a suit by members of a Seattle group with the same name founded in 1959.

What makes this case strange isn’t the what; it’s the how. Band names are too short to copyright, and too useless to patent, so typically they are protected via trademark—the same species of intellectual property that keeps Starbucks, Gucci and The New York Yankees safe from counterfeiters and wannabees. Yet neither party in this case owns the trademark to The Wailers, and a brief review of public records shows that, in fact, nobody does.

Bob Marley’s estate, which operates through a company called 56 Hope Road Music, owns a trademark for recordings and apparel using the name “Bob Marley and The Wailers,” but that’s not quite the same thing. Everyone on the planet knows that Bob Marley has joined the great jam session in the sky, so there’s little chance that someone might buy a ticket to see The Wailers expecting to see him chanting down Babylon in person. Without a “likelihood of confusion,” there are no grounds for a trademark infringement case—which probably explains why the Marley family itself hasn’t stopped The Wailers from touring under the name. Similarly, guitarist Al Anderson, a plaintiff in the current case, holds a trademark for “The Original Wailers Featuring Al Anderson,” but that’s a pretty specific mouthful, and therefore unlikely to hold up as protection against the use of the far more general name “The Wailers.”

Without a trademark to dispute, the plaintiffs in the present case have resorted to an amalgam of state laws as the basis for their suit, which was filed in Virginia. These include the right of publicity (using Barrett’s name and likeness without permission in marketing materials), unjust enrichment (making money at the expense of other parties), and defrauding the public (creating false expectations regarding the band’s personnel). Each of these arguments likely has its merits, although Barrett’s name and likeness no longer appear on the band’s site at Wailers.com, except for a brief note clarifying that he no longer has any affiliation with the band.

Yet the legal whole is less than the sum of its parts; in the words of veteran New York intellectual property attorney Mark Kaufman, the legal strategy “sure sounds like a way to try and circumvent federal trademark law.” In other words, Barrett and company are effectively trying to protect a trademark that doesn’t exist, by cobbling together a bunch of claims under state laws whose consequences might approximate the federal one they’re avoiding. To put it even more simply: They seem to be trying to shut down (or at least rename) The Wailers by any means necessary.

While the plaintiffs’ legal claims might be tenuous, their moral footing is on firmer ground—at least, in the eyes of some educated observers. That’s because this case is about more than simply whose name appears next to an entry in the federal trademark database, or whether consumers can reasonably expect to see the same personnel that appeared on a 40-year-old album when they buy a ticket to see a concert.

What’s really at issue in this case is a larger philosophical question: who deserves the credit for a great cultural legacy, and who should participate in its continuing financial and reputational success? In our culture, we celebrate individual achievement. Visionaries from Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs have been hailed as uniquely gifted wunderkinds, revolutionizing technology, business and culture through sheer force of will and radical imagination. Our legal systems reflect this bias; copyright depends on the existence of anauthor, and patent requires an inventor. Anything else is just considered “folklore” or “common knowledge.” In reality, of course, for every titan of industry and great artist we celebrate, there are dozens, hundreds or even thousands of nameless contributors without whom the invention or artwork in question could never have come to fruition.

Bob Marley’s music is no exception to this rule, and of all the under-appreciated contributors to his work, perhaps the one most deserving of recognition and remuneration is Aston Barrett.

“Family Man’s iconic sound was a huge part of The Wailers’ appeal,” says Vivien Goldman, Bob Marley’s first biographer and currently a professor at NYU. She should know; Goldman was in the studio with Marley, Barrett, and the rest of The Wailers when they recorded the album Exodus, which includes bass-driven classics such as “Natural Mystic” and “Jamming.”  Therefore, she says, “what Family Man wants, Family Man should get.” Goldman points to Barrett’s losing battle against the Marley estate in 2006 for a percentage of the lucrative royalties to his recordings as evidence that he is still due a share of the spoils for his share of the work. In fact, Goldman says that Barrett should be credited on nearly even footing with Marley himself as the architect of the sound that continues to bring positive vibrations to reggae lovers from Kauai to Karachi.

“I know how Bob completely relied on Family Man through the whole arc of their music together,” she recalls. “Bob would have wanted Fam to participate in his legacy.”

Whether the courts agree with this assessment remains to be seen. After a hearing in Virginia Beach Circuit Court on August 31^st, the case remains open. In the meantime, Bunny Wailer, The Wailers and The Original Wailers Featuring Al Anderson (recently redubbed The Wailers Reunited, and featuring Aston Barrett on bass) all continue to perform widely, each group bringing its own take on Marley’s musical legacy to festival and club audiences around the world.

With any luck, Barrett and The Wailers will resolve their differences amicably, and there will be no more trouble marring Marley’s musical memory. 

Like the man said, time will tell. 

National Affairs: Long-haired Freaky Kids and Hope Road

Its 1976.

A generation ago.

He was a youngster, not as young as Zavier's three years mind you, but still very much a minor..

His parents, devout Ratafarians, has no doubt faced their own levels of persecution, this being 1976. Despite the meteoric rise of the "Gong" Bob Malrey and the increasing adulation abroad, Rastas  at home were still the collective public enemy - facing intermittent harassment from Police and unmitigated contempt from the "better" classes, whose own ranks were being thinned out by the deepening Socialist experiment, and the rampant violence.

Still, the parent of Jahboukie Myton(thanks Fragano Ledgister, from Facebook, for supplying the name and year), had high hopes and aspirations for their boy, that even within the entrenched divisions of this society, that he might find a place in a "good school" and thus get the critical leg-up needed to progress beyond their clearly humble station.

I don't at this moment know or recall the name of the school involved, but young Jahboukie was denied access solely on the grounds that, like his parents (and probably several others in his community), HE WORE DREADLOCKS. The parents took their protest to the media, and very soon, it was enough of an imbroglio to demand the attention of the then Prime Minister's wife, Beverly Manley who, along with her husband, had been robustly pressing to end the kinds of social injustice typified in the Myton case, and no less so here.

With Mrs Manley's help, Jahboukie was ultimately enrolled at the Jamaica House basic School (on the grounds of what was intended to serve as the official residence of the Prime Minister, and located - you guessed it! - on Hope Road, a hefty stone's throw southward from the Marley residence

Now, to the present, where even colleagues of mine, individuals more than old enough to have witnessed the struggle of "long-haired, freaky people" are siding with the administration of Hopefield Prep School, a school whose location a hefty stone's throw from Bob Marley's former digs on Hope Road offers a remarkable irony.

The school, as reported in the Jamaica observer (good work, Kimberly Brown) had the temerity to not only deny the child enrolment, but, to reply to the mother's protestations with insidious comments about "head lice" (over and above being untidy and dirty) .

Needless to say, when pressed by the journalist, the school reverted to the old standby: "No comment [at this time]". But to go from "head lice" to "no comment" is like trying to bring  vehicle from 100mph to zero within 20 feet, with a brick wall at the other end. Imagewise, things go splat!

So now the administration is clearly circling the wagons in the hope that this storm, like so many before it, will prove momentary and blow over without too much being extracted from the school, like say, an apology or worse, damages from a lawsuit.
word is, also that they have refunded the unquestionably hefty enrolment fee to the mother and have said that now - having been publicly exposed in their discriminatory practice - they will NOT  be accepting the child under any circumstances, even if the mother does relent and cut the child's hair.

Now, fence-sitters, anxious to avoid conflict, will say, there's no big deal; if that's the school rule, you simply find somewhere else.

Defenders of the school are saying rules are vital to preserve order, and that the school's policy was communicated to the mother beforehand (one wonders whether their acute sensitivity to head lice was similarly communicated to her).

On reading this missive, those same defenders will argue that Zavier is not a Rasta child and therefore is not being discriminated against, that as a boy, he must look the way the other boys do at the school.

Such arguments reaffirm the sad truth that we have not moved very far over the course of a generation. That it is still PERMISSIBLE  and DEFENSIBLE for a school in Jamaica, under the oversight of the Ministry of Education (as I believe all schools are now said to be, whether "private" or not) is inexcusable. With one nasty comment, and one dismissive wave of the hand, we are transported right back to 1976.

let's clear. Rules have purpose and  are vital to nay organization. Bu those which do not serve the primary purpose MUST be challenged


I have no idea where Jahboukie Myton might be right now, 40 years down the line from his defining moment. But I strongly suspect that a wry smile (and maybe a sigh of resignation) may be on his lips.

What will the next generation yield, if we fail to stand with this mother now?

Jamaican giants and more head to St Kitts

The 20th Annual St. Kitts Music Festival  kicks off today June 23 and runs through June 25, 2016 at Warner Park Stadium, Basseterre, St. Kitts.

Concerts and events during the three days will include 50 Cent, Damian Marley, Morgan Heritage, The O’Jays, Tarrus Riley, KES The Band, Deanna, Dexta Daps, Marcia Griffiths, Leroy Sibbles, Dejour, Mod Stoney, Malik Mustafa, I-Mark, Rodney, Crucial Bankie, El Mayor Clasico, Bacchanalist Crew, LAX, Shanna Raymond, Nicah B, K-Jah, Nu Vybes Band International, Small Axe Band International, The Original Burning Flames, and The Original Bouyon Pioneers, among others

Muisc: Ju-Ju [Marley] hits the road in the UK this summer

Jamaican reggae star Julian “Ju Ju” Marley announced his first ever UK tour with full live

band. The tour dates are set between August 16 and 21, 2016.

Punch touring is bringing the internationally acclaimed roots reggae superstar Julian Ju Ju Marley to the UK THIS August for his first nationwide tour. Grammy nominated Marley will play hits like Boom Draw, Systems, Lemme Go and violence in the streets, complete with his full band and support from Jamaican roots artist Iba Mahr.

Julian is the son of international music legend Bob Marley and along with brothers, Ziggy, Stephen and Damian he has continued his fathers legacy with quality music and energetic live shows which has seen the message of reggae being pushed to the four corners of the world.

Punch CEO Ammo Talwar MBE says “Julian Marley has many modern musical influences, but has in his heart the authentic roots reggae sound that his father made world famous. This will be an unmissable tour for fans of conscious reggae and those wanting to see real reggae royalty live on stage.

Music: Lefsetz "catches Fire" with Bob

Outspoken music commentator Bob Lefsetz recaps his slow burn to appreciating the music of Reggae King Bob Marley in this latest instalment of his letter


I heard this today on No Shoes Radio, Kenny Chesney's Sirius station that for some reason I can only get on my XM receiver but not my Sirius one. It's channel 62, I caught the press release somewhere and tuned in, I LOVE IT!

People's sensibilities are wider than the narrow channels programmers put them in. And listening to No Shoes you'll hear stuff as varied as "Paradise City," Bryan Adams, Pete Yorn, live Chesney takes and this.

Off of "Natty Dread," Marley's third album on Island and the third to mean absolutely nothing in America.

I had no idea how to pronounce it. Reg-GAY, like man on man love, or Reg-GIE, like the guy in the Archie comic books? And how would I know otherwise, I was living in a cultural black hole, Middlebury, Vermont, in the seventies, when we only got one snowy TV channel, never mind any FM radio other than the college station. No, I learned about Bob Marley and the Wailers, about reggae, in the press.

And there was a big campaign. I remember reading a story about reggae in the library. That's where you went to study, your own room was reserved for fun, and writing papers. Actually, you only went to the library freshman year, because then you realized it was a social scene, and if you actually wanted to get any work done you were better off claiming a classroom, they were plentiful and empty at night, I'd climb the stairs in Munroe Hall and have a space unto myself.

But if you wanted to read magazines, you had to go to the library. I'd sit in a carrel and catch up on popular culture, back before Google, before 24 hour TV news, before information was plentiful, when you depended upon "Time" and "Newsweek" to catch you up.

It was like looking through a telescope. Out there somewhere was a scene and I was not a part of it.

I didn't buy "Catch A Fire," which was a mistake, because shortly after release they changed the cover, it no longer opened in imitation of a lighter, it didn't move at all. You had to buy vinyl early, to get the disc in color, to get the gatefold cover, as time went on the label would want to save money and you could no longer get the original.

But I bought "Burnin'" and didn't understand it whatsoever.

You see there was a whole scene, with no radio airplay whatsoever, there was no frame of reference, I dropped the needle and just didn't get it.

But I kept buying and not understanding, until the release of "Live!," which finally captured the energy, all those tracks buried in studio production suddenly made sense. "Trenchtown Rock" taught me when the music hits you feel no pain. And despite still receiving no airplay, I now got it, I danced around the apartment with my hands in the air, that's the power of the sound.

And the fourth track in that 1975 Lyceum show was "Lively Up Yourself." But this iteration was totally different from the studio take I'd previously been unable to understand. The downbeat was deeper, Marley was unconstricted, he was closing the audience one by one, but didn't need their energy to display his, he was on fire.

That's right, Bob Marley & The Wailers had finally caught fire.

Most radio still missed it. There were no AM hits. What youngsters can't fathom today is the hit was irrelevant, if you listened to Top Forty you were out of it, all the action was over on FM, on the AORs, and although there were pockets of adherence, radio was still local, you never heard reggae in L.A.

But the tour buzz became deafening. Kinda like today's EDM shows. But instead of ecstasy it was all about the spliff, the marijuana, not the knock you over your head make you comatose stuff of today, sensimilla had just started to make inroads, but dope that made you high and instead of putting you to sleep made you want to experience the joy.

The English had always loved reggae. It had broken there earlier in the decade. But despite "My Boy Lollipop" being a smash here in the sixties, despite Johnny Nash having a big hit with the incredible cut in Jamaica "I Can See Clearly Now," despite "The Harder They Come" playing for over a year in cinemas, most people were clueless as to Bob Marley.

And then he died.

And soon everybody knew. It took people that long to catch on. Kinda like punk. Just when it looked like it was gonna fail, it was gigantic.

"You're gonna lively up yourself and don't be no drag"

It's noon. I'm on the 405. It's the studio version. But I'm immediately enraptured, I'm reminded of when the sound was enough.

"You lively up yourself for reggae is another bag"

We didn't go to the show for the production, certainly not to take photos, although as time wore on we wanted to be seen.

But home was a disaster, those who stayed in their residence were losers. It was all about going out, until broadband and Netflix and everything was reversed.

The movies were a religion.

Food was burgeoning, certainly in the metropolis.

And everybody went to the show.

Unlike today, you knew who was in town. Radio promoted the concerts, the paper listed them all, you lined up for tickets and if the act was famous you had a hard time getting in, if they were not you could see them up close and personal.

And it was all about the sound. It infected us. It made us move our feet, twist our bodies, love our brethren, all in thrall to the ringmasters on stage.

It was a religious experience.

"You rock so, you rock so"

Like you always did before.

MTV made it about what you saw as opposed to what you heard. No talents like J. Lo could have whole careers. Studio trickery could make anybody a star.

But there's still room for a band that can lay down in the groove and penetrate people's souls.

That's why people went to Fare Thee Well, it's what the Dead ethos is built upon.

But Bob Marley was for black and white, for everybody, he took this narrow sound and made it universal. Took a long damn time, but the sound has never died. You hear that reggae beat and your mood changes, your body starts to dip, you cast aside your everyday life and you move closer to the flame. Burnin' from an era when the earth was not run by nerds, but the cool people, who were more about feeling than bucks, who wanted to live a life far from the corporations, one based on instinct, exploration and communication.

You've got to lively up yourself.

Don't be no drag.

P.S. Later this afternoon I heard Busy Signal's reggae version of Phil Collins's "One More Night" on No Shoes Radio. Check it out, I'd never heard it before, the reggae beat adds a whole 'nother flavor: http://spoti.fi/1rV3yWw


--

Brands: Skip Marley covers The Gap

Next generation Marley family member and musician, Skip Marley has been included in the GAP clothing company’s new online social media promotion campaign promoting their ‘1969 DENIM’ clothing line with people that “live the spirit” of those known for the style they wear, Jamaicans.com reports.  “The Gap asked me what makes me feel most alive,” Skip explains about the video ad while shooting in the sunshine of California.

“Music Is Life” cited the young artist and that his grandfather Bob Marley and his uncles have preferred to be outfitted in denim spanning the generations.  Skip has had a impressive start to 2016 with stellar performances in Jamaica at the One Love Fest and Marley71 Celebration, the GAP’s 1969 Denim campaign and now he is prepping to shoot a video for his updated version of his grandfather’s classic “Three Little Birds” used in Sandals’ “No Worry” global ad campaign.

Music: Andrew Tosh extends the Mystic

"I've been singing away my heart since basic school," recalls
Andrew Tosh, the tall, slender third son of reggae legend Peter
Tosh.

Born on June 19, 1967 in Kingston, Jamaica, Andrew seemed
preordained for a life in music. Among his earliest memories are
trips to the countryside of Westmoreland on the rural western end
of the island. There, along the lush banks of a swiftly running
river, he and his father would sing songs together - not just
Peter's militant compositions, but also pop classics by the likes
of Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Kenny Rogers. Andrew notes that
"Peter always knew I would do something in the music business, so
he encouraged me to study piano, 'cause he knew I loved it. From
the start it was inside me to sing and play instruments." The first
song he learned was Peter's composition "You Can't Blame the
Youth," and from that point forward, he says, "I knew that my
heartbeat was music and one day it would just be music out of my
mouth, and writing and singing my own songs."

Throughout his elementary and high school days in Duhaney Park
on the outskirts of Kingston, Andrew was constantly pulled to the
forefront of the class and made to sing lead. At 14, in emulation
of his father, Andrew began to ride a unicycle too. Although Peter
was often on the road, performing tours that remain to this day
reggae's most lengthy and successful ones, Andrew spent much of his
childhood living in Peter's house, especially between the critical
ages of 12 and 15.

His first recording came in 1985, when he cut a song he wrote
called "Vanity Lover" for Neville Lee's Gorgon label. A keen
observer of the vibrant music scene in Kingston, Andrew was
checking out some of the new talent at that city's famous Skateland
dancehall on the evening his father was murdered - Friday,
September 11, 1987. "I felt my father's spirit come right there at
Skateland where I was," he says, "and the spirit said leave that
place right now." The impact of the elder Tosh's passing made an
immediate and life-changing impression. "I tell myself that Peter
Tosh is gone and it's my need to carry on. Not for want, and not
for the lust of fame and the glamor and want to be rich. No, for
the love of my art and the love of my people, because love carry no
color. Love is love and that's what Jah say, make a joyful noise
unto Me."

Ironically, the first glimpse the public got of Andrew's
nascent talent came when he sang at his father's funeral in the
National Arena in Kingston. His version of Peter's "Jah Guide"
stunned the mourners. "I was astonished myself on stage," he
recalls. "The other song I did was 'Equal Rights,' because everyone
is crying out for peace but none is crying out for justice. When I
came down off the stage, I couldn't stop crying."

Late the following year, he tested the international waters
with a pair of memorable performances in Southern California,
including a show-stopping turn on the stage of Burbank's Starlight
Amphitheater, the site of the final appearance together of Bob
Marley and Peter Tosh. Was he nervous? "I felt elevension," he
laughs, engaging in some of the crafty wordplay for which his
father was notorious. "It was way beyond tension."

From that point, Andrew began working under the guidance of
keyboardist Keith Sterling and his bandmates, Fully Fullwood and
Santa Davis, the bass and drum team from Peter's most ferocious
backing group, Word Sound and Power. Andrew began to tour, wowing
audiences in Europe as well as North and South America. He has been
especially successful in Brazil, where he has appeared several
times in Sao Paulo, Rio, and Curitiba. His first album, Original
Man, was a mixture of his tracks and those of his father. The
follow-up, Make Place for the Youth, indicated a new maturity to
his song-writing, and was well received, earning him a Grammy
nomination.

Currently, he has some new tracks as he seeks to fully assert his own identity and legacy, even while preserving the indelible mark left by his illustrious Dad.

Music: Long "Awake" Julian Marley comes forth with new album, single

Its been almost 10 years since he released his debut album, Lion in the Morning, in 1996. His second

album, A Time and Place, came out in 2003. His previous album, Awake (released in 2009), was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Reggae Album category.

Now Marley scion Julian Marley arrives with his fourth disc, yetto be titled, but already with a single out - "Lemme Go". The album is a product of the Ghetto Youths International imprint that Julian co-owns with his famous siblings, Stephen and Damian (aka Jr Gong).

Live Music: heavy Grooves, Light Mood at Cafe Delite

There are jam sessions, and then there are legendary jam sessions. With some perseverance, we may (and they deserve it) soon be able to file the Wednesday night experience at Kingston's Cafe Delite under the latter.
Certainly bassist/convenor Paul "Smiley" Madden, and the most recent support duo of Chris Tyrell on drums and Alex Martin-Blanken on keys laid down sufficiently robust grooves - whether on "Mercy Mercy" or Bob Marley's "Heathen". Add in the "not too shabby" (OK, the marvelous) vocals of Alex's wife Christine Fisher - including a near tear-inducing "The Way We Were"(Streisand) and you have a live date definitely in need of wider recognition, even with the likes of Benjy Myers in the house.


localjoe.myorganogold.com

Economy: Katalyxt Conference has the "Juice", Judy and more

Business consultancy Katalyxt continued its public advocacy role initiated at the prior launch of its infokat.com service into a full-fledged, all-day business conference at Kingston's Knutsford Court hotel.

It was an eventful day that included  a "condensed" version of the Tru-Juice story, from present CEO Peter McConnell, and a creative industries panel featuring Sister Judy Mowatt, one of the I-Three backing corp, who are as legendary in their own right as the great Bob Marley whom they supported in his tours around the world and on wax.

Mowatt related the experience of losing the rights to the master of her landmark "Black Woman" album owing to the fac that she signed a prohibitive agreement at an early age in her career. The now gospel minister, who still very fondly remembers her time with the reggae legend,  closed the proceedings with a rousing rendition of "Ordinary Servant" and "Love is Not Blind"

The day also included repeated challenges to the finance industry and the emerging venture capital community to seriously take on board the needs and opportunities of the small business sector, and entertainment and agriculture businesses in particular.


localjoe.myorganogold.com

Culture: Small Axe vs big Empire, a look at reggae's role in deconstructing colonialism

 

Prof Bill Schwarz

The last time this writer heard Bob Marley described as the "saviour of a generation" it was from an Anglo-Jamaican who had grown up in Brixton and who actually placed the Gong just behind "Crown Prince" Dennis Brown in that regard.

So it was especially poignant to hear, on Thursday evening last, a similar description, coming from a white British academic. Prof. Bill Scwarz, who studied English and History at York University, before going on to the Centre for Contemporary Studies at Birmingham. 

Speaking at a Lecture organized by the Institute of Caribbean Studies at the UWI Mona, Schwarz was even more pointed, stating that Marley had "saved a generation of Black Britons from suicide" owing to pressures heaped upon them by the white racist power structure in the two-decade aftermath (up to Marley's time) of the mass migrations of the 1950s and early 60s.

Schwarz eloquently added that in reggae and Rastafari, the black community found a "new mode of memory" one that was indeed critical given the given the trend towards a massive "forced forgetting" imposed by the demands of a then fading imperialism.
He cautioend however, in the ensuing question and answer session, that the memory and the nostalgia toward empire had hardly faded in Britain and that old modes of thought still resonated, even among the youth. 

As a corollary, he urged the audience not to construe multiculturalism - a social phenomenon first advanced and argued for by the late Jamaican academic, Stuart Hall - to mean racial or cultural harmony or some kind of "Obama post-racial" kind of society in Britain. He pointed out that violence against Black youth remained at alarmingly high levels, and - in answering another question - posited the view that in the post-Marley msuical era, there did not seem to be another obvious saviour (nor the obvious desire for one) emerging.   

His expansive discourse also touched on the role of religion and various belief systems in the Deconstruction of Colonialism ( or in the preservation of it, depending on one's view)

Prof. Schwarz has also taught Sociology and Politics at Warwick, Cultural Studies at the University of East London, and Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, and arrived at Queen Mary in 2004. I am an editor of History Workshop Journal.

National Affairs: Jamaica Farewell, my perspective on the Presidential visit

Leonard Thomas photo

Leonard Thomas photo

It was not the largest public turnout, nor even the most robust; greater crowds greeted the then newly freed Nelson Madela when he and (then) wife Winnie made Jamaica one of their first post-Apartheid stops. Jamaica's own Usain Bolt, returning after smashing his own world records in Berlin, had to crawl through molasses-thick crowds that amassed at the international airport in Kingston and stayed with his mini-motorcade all the way to New Kingston's Pegasus Hotel.

Yet there was a discernibly different energy to this visit, a sense of history that set it apart from the two foregoing examples. It was more than the interval - 33 years - between the the previous Presidential visit and this one, more even than the fact that this was a Black president coming to a predominantly Black country, and the country which offered to the world the greatest Black nationalist/Pan-Africanist yet seen, in the person of Marcus Garvey (more on him later)

Much of what made the Obama visit unforgettable can be encapsulated in two moments, one

NY HeraldRecorder/AP

"unscheduled" and the other organized almost to the minute. As hard as it is to believe that none of the Jamaican co-ordinators even suggested it, the visit to the Bob Marley Museum was the kind of communications and social masterstroke n which Obama built his two successful election campaigns and even his administration as a whole. Eschewing the kind of formal gathering in Government halls or ritzy hotel ball rooms, the President made a point of paying public homage to the man billed as the "first Third World superstar" Leaving himself, ostensibly in the hands of the tour guide, Obama seemed genuinely awed and gratified to be in the 'House that Bob Built". It was, by any measure, magic and the international media picked up on this aspect of the visit as if the coming deliberations with Jamaican PM Simpson-Miller and the visiting CARICOM heads was all hogwash and hot air.

"Beast Mode" the Obama vehicle makes its way up Hope Road

His next triumph came the next day, further up the long dual carriageway (and minutes above the US Embassy complex. On the campus of the University of the West Indies, the President held court with arguably his natural and most sympathetic audience: students and young adults. Before enduring all manner of questions (from the inane to the inspired), Obama gave a typically polished yet relaxed preamble and announced two significant initiatives: the Young Leaders of America project -a regional initiative aimed at offering young social entrepreneurs and others opportunities to intern with companies in the US among other activities, and an energy fund to support clean energy initiatives. The latter is interesting as the President's visit put him just outside the worst effects of the  disgusting  and calamitous fire at the Riverton landfill, the latest - but largest - in a long series of mishaps at the city's major refuse dump.

The visit yielded the expected communiques and joint statements of the kind that the general public absorb next to nothing from even as they observed in rapt attention from bars, banks and supermarkets. It also served up controversy, none initiated by Obama himself, but one episode which continues to simmer even as the President enjoys the Panamanian hospitality (hard to ignore the irony that Jamaicans, as detailed by Olive Senior in her book "Dying to Better Themselves" were an integral part of the labour force that built the Panama Canal, now being expanded).

In preparation for the visit, the Jamaican Government embarked on the kind of infrastructural "sprucing up" - road-repair and other urban beautification - that typically attends the impending arrival of important foreign visitors. It seems to be the Jamaican way, never mind that aid roads had lain unattended and threatening the life, limb and undercarriage of many Jamaican motorists. But in this case, an extra step of "sanitization" was taken. Crab vendors at the southern end of the broad ring around the National Heroes park (itself formerly a horse racing park, still known to older residents as "Race Course") were high-handedly and unceremoniously removed, their livelihoods disrupted, and their dignities assailed in public view.

A large, but sadly not well-sustained outcry ensued, with some quarters countering that the vendors - some established for over 40 years and counting local politicians among their customers - were there without formal permit and without the kind of sanitary conveniences and inputs that might make the granting of such permits moot. The latest on that situation is that Kingston Mayor Angella Brown-Burke has publicly informed the vendors that they may, in the wake of the President's jet trailed departure, they may return to their "Race Course" roost.

Another controversy still emitting some heat concerns the remarks from "New Reggae Revolutionary" Chronixx. In an Instagram post, the already revered singjay led with a reminder of the ongoing issue of a full pardon for the aforementioned Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey who was found guilty of mail fraud and deported from the United States at the height of the global growth of his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Against an image of Garvey in his famous regalia, Chronixx opined "this man still have a criminal in the United States, and we glorifying some waste man!"       The term is roughly equivalent to "punk" or even to "scoundrel" or "wastrel".

This time a resounding chorus of disagreement across social media and a public rebuke from Jamaican Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna, with whom Chronixx has previously exchanged some not too pleasant words. Though the singer, as he pointed out, never referred to anyone directly in his "waste man" remark, the timing the background and the general flow of sentiment made a strong case for the inference, and many expressed disappointment with the artiste, viewed as part of the new revolutionary yet progressive element that had been sorely missing from the island's globally-adored popular music.

Like the Riverton fire, the President escaped personal presence in this last firestorm (a former Jamaican Senator has, suprisingly, sprung to Chronixx' defence), but no doubt he will have been apprised by his aides, and no doubt the US Embassy will be taking a new, harder look at future visa applications from the singer and his Zinc Fence Redemption band. this is not meant to be mean-spirited, it is merely the truth informed by experience.

But for all these factors, President Obama's visit to Jamaica remains a watershed, a brief but deeply affecting experience for both visitor and host. with the end of his term just a little more than a year away, there are certainly moments from this trip that he will ponder long into private life, and likewise, the populace is universally agreed that even if the interval between this and future Presidential visits is shorter (there is already much private anticipation of the expected candidacy - historic if it proves successful - of Hilary Clinton), we shall not again see the like of Barack Obama on our shores, at least not as leader of the free world

Music: Protoje goes "Forward" into the Ancient Future with new album

Though he avoided the numerical theme of his previous two albums, roots revivalist Protoje maintained his musical progression as his latest "Ancient Future" took its place in his annals alongside "The 7-Year Itch" and "The 8-Year Affair" with a classy (except for the unacceptably late start) launch at Gardens of the Pegasus hotel on Monday night.

The 11-track disc features the production prowess of wunderkind Phillip "Winta" James, who has  manned boards and provided riddims for the likes of Damian Jr Gong Marley, Anthony B and the Mighty Diamonds. He reluctantly yet good-naturedly took the stage when acknowledged by his collaborator, who arrived for the occasion nattily dressed in a taupe suit.

He took the audience through several tracks, including the opener "Protection" and the heavy rotation track "Who Knows" which features fellow current roots star Chronixx.

This writer also finds great appeal in "Sudden Flight" "Who Can You Call" and the closer, "The Flame" all of which he smartly previewed in an excellent accompanying documentary that also included highlights from his recently concluded European tour.

A solid turnout of music, media and other interests turned out for the event, which continued into the night.

The album is now available via the usual channels.

Ching Pow: A [Cunning] Dancehall movie in "kickaz" guise

Ching Pow is a dancehall movie.

I find it important to start with that bit of overstatement,as there are some, well-intentioned and otherwise, who easily fall for the bait of writing it off based on the profanity and seeming crassness as well as the soft-core sex and other elements that contribute tot he producers' self-styled "NP" (No Pickney) rating.

Bruce Hart (right) with Twin of Twins

Those seeing the movie, which ended what is presumably a preliminary run Sunday night last at the "off-Palace" location of New Kingston's Theatre Place, will actually find a cunning mash-up of classic R-rated martial arts and contemporary dancehall expression, with thinly veiled (and sometimes not) social commentary that has a lot in common with the vintage National Gas magazine of the 1970s, just peppered with expletives - without which, I hasten to add, Ching Pow would STILL be funny.It is, in other words, a roundhouse kick to the gut of the falsely conservative.

Of vital importance to the full appreciation of what producer-director Bruce Hart and provocateurs Twin of Twins have wrought with Ching Pow, are the prologue and epilogue that bookend the main story.

And that main story centres around the kung fu staple of royal succession -this time with a Japanese as well as Chinese twist. The king is dead, the queen is presumed dead (though actually in exile), and their first-born son,(the character is actually given that name in the film, First Born) is working as a tout and pimp outsidea whorehouse, er that should be house of heavenly delights.

"First Born"

There is an honourable sensei, Master Bob (the Marley reference is, of course, obvious),  villain, Bad Muta (also obvious) an inscrutable blind prophet-teacher ad, naturally, a love interest, as well as the assorted expendables who provide fodder for the jokes and contribute to the body count.


Family, betrayal, megalomania and love - yes love in all its varied stripes are part and parcel of the narrative, but it is in the imposition of contemporary Jamaican dialogue, that Ching Pow really succeeds. Sound and visuals are so expertly melded, and the Twins - who provide the bulk (if not all) the voicings are so on-point with their expressions, that the film's conceit of disillusioned yardies transplanted to the Orient becomes not merely plausible, but readily acceptable. People all over this planet are ultimately motivated by and react to, the same things, regardless of the varied brushstrokes of culture and language: the guy wants to get the girl (and vice versa), the bad guy wants to run the world, and good somehow always conquers evil - even if "good" starts out as a egotistical, whoremongering "gyallis".

None of the above is even necessary to having a good time with this movie, provided your sensibilities are sufficiently fortified.  Ching Pow is just the kind of subversion that the country at large ought to be exposed to right now. It may not come to a cinema (God knows there are too few of those left anyhow) but here's hoping it comes near you....soon

Freedom Sells.....But Who's Buying?

That's how it must have seemed to Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco Miranda(actually born in the Canary Islands) as he embarked on his quest to rid Latin America of foreign (read "Spanish")domination and create a republic from the base of the Mississippi to Patagonia governed by rule of law and the respect for individual freedoms.

In the wrong hands this could have turned out to be wretched exercise in Latin civics, but director Luis Alberto Lamata spins his true-life tale like the finest of swashbuckling political adventures, whilst maintaining an intimate feel for his hero. Miranda (a commanding portrayal by Jorge Reyes) opens the film in a physical and emotional funk: confined to a prison cell by the very people he banded together on the road to freedom (including an ascendant Simon Bolivar), he has only his trusted Man Friday - Salim, to relay on.

In comes a local priest, with an offer to write the general's awesome and multi-layered story for the world and future generations to remember. The over-protective Salim smells a rat, but Miranda is lured by the offer to immortalize him and his journey in words and thus begins a breathtaking (if at times a tad lengthy) odyssey across late 18th and early 19th Century Europe: Spain, France, Russia, England. America's in there too, with  Miranda contributing to the American and French revolutions before turing his full energies tothe cause that ignited him in the first place: freeing his homeland.

Here, the film becomes slightly less compelling, as apart from a fateful landing with his troops on what is now Venezuela's east coast, there is little to occupy the viewer satisfactorily apart from the inner conflict that now racks the priest as he seeks to sort out his now complete admiration for the man he was initially send to deceive and disgrace (and even kill, but we give away too much)

The appearance of Danny Glover, as a terror-minded free Black, is another sore point. Though the exchange between the two characters provides some nice insights, the overall scene is so contrived as to suggest that Glover's presence was almost solely for the purpose of attracting funding (who knows, he may well have funded it himself, at least in part).

Still, there's no denying Miranda is a stylish and moving true-life account of one of the most charismatic, polarizing and seminal figures in Latin American history.
Bob Marley said "Now we'll find out who is he real revolutionary" He needn't have looked as far as Zimbabwe in the late 70s. History already offered up a bonafide example in nearby Venezuela.

JAMAICANS ON.......BEING JAMAICAN

New Documentary Celebrates the Uniqueness of Jamaicans

What does it mean to be Jamaican?

With the 50^th anniversary of Independence approaching ever closer and the prospect of another record medal haul at London Olympic Games ever closer to reality, interest in the Jmaaican brand is at an all-time high – and that’s saying something.

But, the question remains…..what defines” Jamaicanness”?  if such a terms can even be used.

It’s a question that has some hilarious answers, as fans, sponsors, media and well-wishers found out at the sneak preview of the One People documentary, held in Kingston on Tuesday evening at the Sir Phillip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts on the University of the West Indies’ Mona Campus.

Producers Justine Henzell(right) and Zachary Harding

Those attempting to unearth the answers are Zachary Harding(marketing vet and brother to dancehall super-producer Jeremy Harding), Justine Henzell (daughter of “Harder they Come” visionary Perry Henzell) and with Kevin McDonald, of the recent smash “Marley” docu-film serving as executive producer

The presentation began oddly enough, not with a Jamaican, but with an admitted expatriate, against the expansive vista of southern St Elizabeth, with the broad plain surrendering to high escarpment. Its an ideal summation of the seemingly disparate elements that make up Jamaica and the dynamic characteristics of Jamaicans, who feature prominently in the vox pop-type clips that follow

There was much accountability to corporate sponsors, including National Commercial bank, whose principal owner, billionaire Michael Lee Chin recalled his first job, cutting grass at Port Antonio’s famed Frenchman’s Cove resort.  The producers also approached William Mahfood of beverage makers and brand representatives WISYNCo) and a number of  other corporate titans.

Corporate sponsors Coca-Cola (repped in Jamaica by the WISYNCo Group ) used the opportunity to launch their own Jamaica 50 inntitiative of a younger orientation. Run Di Track is a competition that gives aspiring producers and “riddim-meisters” the opportunity to create the “next hot riddim” utilizing – if necessary – a specially designed mobile recording studio (which was on hand at the preview) that will run the length and breadth of the island to afford access ot those who might be otherwise denied.

The producers know, however, that the greatness of Jamaica lies way beyond the corporate suite, and so the audience heard from a wide spectrum of personalities, including two former prime ministers, athletes and entertainers ranging from Romain Virgo and Sean Paul to producers King Jammys and jack Scorpio. Much use was also humourously of the “Jamaican fabric”: expletives ending with  “claat” (cloth), with artist busy Signal explaining “its just an expression people.”

But of course, there was more august and reflective inputs from the likes of Ret. General Colin Powell, who quipped about the dual pronounciations of his first name (“Coal-lin” and “Caul-lin”) among his American and Anglo-Caribbean compatriots respectively, and Harry Belafonte, who made reference to Jamaican national hero Marcus Garvey, his own mother being a Garveyite.

Still, amid tasty BBQ pig’s tail and tall glasses of Coke,  the  night was about the sounds, looks and prefernces,  ackee and saltfish – itself a meal of dual ethnic identity , is still the dish of choice among Jamaicans across generations. It was really another embattled entertainer Elephant Man (Busy has his own problems with the US Federal Gov’t) ,who added a special Olympic-level dimension to the culinary treat: “Ele” seated comfortably in a studio in contrast to his present surroundings, took the audience mentaly to Central Jamaica, one of the epicentres of yam production and sales. On the famed Millrose Bypass, roast yam, sliced open and slathered with butter, is a perennial favourite. With favourite son Usain Bolt set to defend his Olympic crown in London on August 5, a day before Jamaica’s official Independence anniversary and the scheduled grand premiere of “One People” this could be the revival of the “yam craze” that Bolt initiated with his record-beating runs.