Winter Reggae In Paradise
II
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Cramer's
Beach
Stage Setup
Jahcob Seed
Jahcob Seed
Sly
Ankh Watep
Ikahba
Dezarie
Kenny Byron |
The trend of Jamaican music lately has been to re-record old
tunes or to create new songs using a riddim from days gone by.
St. Croix ripped a page out of Jamaica’s songbook this past
weekend at the 2nd annual Winter Reggae In
Paradise festival, doing a modern-day rendition of a
selection made famous by Gregory Isaacs in the mid-80’s:
“Private Beach Party”.
While the turnout of people from ‘foreign’ was fairly decent
considering the lineup was not announced until just 3 weeks
before the event, what was sorely lacking at this event was love
and support from the local Crucian massive. Clearly the rains,
the lack of sponsorship this year and inadequate promotion
contributed to the dismal turnout. The festivities that brought
Cruzian Christmas to an end the day before (which included an
early morning Jouvay) certainly didn’t help matters. But to
this writer, it was the lack of artists who regularly play in
St. Croix that contributed the most to a lack of turnout.
In 2006, Ronnie Benjamin, Sr. performed at WRIP.
While it had been 16 years since his last concert in St. Croix,
the elder Benjamin had been extremely popular there “back in the
day”. His appearance last year brought out a whole generation
of people that were nowhere to be found for WRIP II. I
believe Pressure was the only artist to perform at this
year’s festival who had done any concerts on the island since
the last festival.
The music got started at around 6:00 with Jahcob Seed, a
6-piece band that includes brothers Ludrick, Boone
and Kadaf Lake. The hour-long set, which included “Lost
From Creation” and the title track from “Heed Deh Call”, was an
excellent beginning to the night’s music. Most of the songs
were of newer materials, including my favorite selections
“Babylon Waters” and Earth Food”, which will be on Jahcob Seed’s
next album.
Unfortunately, neither the bass player nor the drummer for
Root One was on the premises at their appointed time, which
resulted in my biggest disappointment of the night – Neither
Mada Nile nor Junior Daniel would perform. Having
interviewed Mada Nile the day before, I knew she was very
excited about her set. She did her best to stay strong and
enjoy the music in spite of her visible disappointment.
After a brief set change, the Afrikan Roots Lab,
consisting of Sly on Drums, Ronnie Benjamin on
Bass, Edmund Fieulleteau on Guitar, and Antoine on
Keyboards took the stage. The 1st ARL artist
to perform was Ankh Watep. He got things rolling with a
new tune called “A-1 Sound”, before moving into the selections
“Out of Control” and “Massive Hysteria” from the Talkin’ Roots
compilation. He capped off his brief but moving set with “Jah
Have Mercy”.
Next up was Ikahba, whose new album “Blood Sweat and
Tears” will be on the streets soon. His 45 minute set included
“Let Jah Take Control”, “War Monger”, “Sight It Already” (Jah
Mek Us), “Empress”, “Wha Happen To Dem” and “Blood Sweat And
Tears”.
Dezarie was the next Afrikan Roots Lab singer to
grace the stage. Just prior to her set, Bogle took the
microphone and reasoned with the people about the people of VI’s
lack of support for VI reggae. The full text of Bogle’s
speech appears at the end of this review.
Dezarie’s rendition of “Hail Jah” always gives me goose
bumps, but on this night, the water was not just falling from
the skies. That song alone was worth the entire cost of my
trip, but she sang for another hour or so including “What A
Morning”, “Sing Out”, “Set The Flame”, and “Rastafari”, and new
tune in which Dezarie’s incredible vocals hits new
heights.
Midnite was the last segment of the
Afrikan Roots Lab portion of WRIP II. An entire year having
lapsed since last hearing them, I was well ready, especially
because I was anxious to hear what the new lineup of musicians
would sound like. With Gainde on bass, Edmund
Fieulleteau and Kenny Byron on guitar, and Ankh
Watep on keyboards, Vaughn rolled into “Zion
Pavilion”. Edmund was the guitar player during
Dezarie’s 2005 tour, and Kenny
played guitar with the Benjamin brothers when they first took
the name Midnite. While Ron’s bass on songs like
“Proceed”, “Jah Feed I” and “Great Zimbabwe Walls” was
excellent, it was no replacement for his amazing organ playing
which is the epicenter of Crucian roots music. To me, the
essence of Midnite is the power that is generated from
Vaughn’s words and lyrics molded with the simple mastery of
his brother’s keyboard sounds and amazing harmonies. At times,
I could hear bits and pieces of that from Ankh Watep, but
in general, the vibes were not nearly as sharp as I have seen
Midnite deliver. Of course, this was their first concert
together as a unit, and I am certain that things will gel in the
15 concerts they will give prior to my seeing them in Long Beach
next month.
At one point during the music, Vaughn called Jah Rubal
up to the stage, and he proceeded to chat “Ganja Man” on the
Proceed riddim. Towards the end of the set, Vaughn
passed the microphone to the slew of chanters gathered in one
corner of the stage. First Massiah belted out “Come Hail
Jah”. He was followed by Revolution and then Volcano’s
“Senseless Killing”, Basa singing “Visions Of Zion” while
the band played the riddim to Merciless. Ras Calle was
up next with “Jah Stranga” and Sekhu finished out the 30
minute segment with “Ganja Weed Burning”. Midnite finished
their music off with Bushman, and were called back on the stage
to sing “Mama Africa”.
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Cramer's
Beach
Jahcob Seed
Mada Nile
Edmund
Ankh Watep
Ikahba
Dezarie
Ankh Watep |
Jah Rubal |
Massiah |
Revolution |
Volcano |
Basa |
Ras Calle |
Sekhu |
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Dean Pond
Katalyss
Pressure &
Revalation
Revalation
Pressure |
After another brief set change, MC Bogle
introduced the Dub 340 Band, which is comprised of
Dean Pond on Drums, Ryan Wilson on Bass, Jerry
Simon on Guitar, and Katalyss and Jason Farmer
on keyboards. This is one band with a BIG sound to them.
Though I had heard both Ryan and Jerry perform
before on dozens of occasions, each of them played way beyond
their prior levels. Dean Pond is one TUFF drummer, and
Katalyss’ boards added a rich texture to the music.
After an intro song, Bogle introduced Iba who
began his 30-minute set with a nice nyah-flavored song “Free”.
Revalation was the next artist to take the stage. I was
very impressed with the one song this artist had delivered at
the I Grade Showcase at Club 54 a few nights
earlier, but the Dub 340 Band took Revalation even
higher. He started his set off with a nice acapella before
tearing into “Fire Burning”. Revalation has an excellent
stage presence for such a young artist, and definitely impressed
me and lots of others in attendance. Though many enjoyed some
of his dancehall tunes, I was most appreciative of the
more roots flavored tunes like “Things
And Times” and “Live It Up Right” the latter of which will be
contained on the forthcoming Studio 340 compilation
“Total Oneness”. After his set was finished, MC Bogle
bawled out “Me ago break all the rules. Me no care if the
promoter fire me, but Revalation come back pon stage and give
the people one more tune. Let him go.” Revalation
gladly obliged and sang “Brighter Days”.
Pressure closed out WRIP II with a strong hour-long set.
Buss Pipe featured songs from “The Pressure Is On”, along
with selections from his upcoming albums with Studio 340
and Jamaican producer Don Corleon. Pressure
showed his great musical versatility jumping from songs like
“Love And Affection” to wicked chants on “Ganja” and “Ancient
Woman”. Buss Pipe blessed the people with a big new
ganja tune he just recorded entitled “Weed Is My Life”. He
closed out his set at around 2:00 with “Everything Will Be
Fine”, but the people wanted more, so he returned for a “Zion Is
Home” sendoff, and the curtains were closed on the second annual
Winter Reggae In Paradise festival.
In an article that appeared on the eve of this festival, one of
the organizers said the event is meant to be a showcase for the
artists, so that promoters from around the world could travel
and see them perform in their own home. If that is one of the
goals of WRIP, then it would behoove the promoters to get
the festival organized well in advance of the time allotted for
this year’s festival because ones and ones need to plan their
trip, especially around the holidays. This writer also believes
that more people would be attracted to come from foreign if more
bands that often play stateside, such as Batch, Ras
Attitude, Bambu Station and Inner Visions were
invited to showcase their music. If all the people who play
Cruzian roots music are united on the same stage for an event, I
have no doubt that the multitudes of lovers of this music from
the four corners will come together to partake in such a
unification session. – Daniel Frankston
Check out our WRIP II Slideshow
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Ryan Wilson
Jerry Simon
Iba
Revalation
Pressure |
Some Cruzial Words from WRIP Festival MC
Bogle: |
Some
Cruzial Words from WRIP Festival MC Bogle:
(Click on image to hear speech)
“I want to thank everyone for coming out and supporting. And
I was asked to come out and reason some more about what’s going on here on
our island, and how the people are not supporting our VI artists. Their VI
artists. Reggae is our culture. Calypso is our culture. But then on one
side we only want to support calypso. We don’t want to support reggae. How
can you awake at 5:00 in the morning, to awaken your children to go to
Jouvay, where they learn nothing but dance, and we naturally know how to
dance. And you yourself cannot come out to something like this, where you
can set an example and learn something about your culture, and take it back
home to your children. That is why today, some of the youths are not
interested in their culture. Because all they see is BET and MTV and all
those reality shows where you know not what’s going on. All the different
things that go against the philosophy of life, and the way Jah create
things. And then you have the television, or must I say, the
Tell-Lie-Vision, and then coming out into our community and portraying it to
others. Not forgetting the violence, because just when we thought we had a
peaceful festival, it showed last night that we still cannot behave our
self. Because amongst the children in the village last night, someone
thought it was cool to take someone else’s life. And we have no respect for
each other’s life. Because if you can walk up to a man and watch him in his
eye, and take a knife and cut his throat, or stab him in his stomach, or
take a gun and shoot him down, you have no respect for no one else’s life.
We are losing our people, and we must talk about this, and we must stop it.
"Reggae music is something that
teaches you something. A lot of things that I have known. A lot of things
that I did in school, and was able to pass my exams, I learned from reggae
music. And I’m sure a lot of you here have learned a lot of things from
reggae music. When you hear music from Midnite Band like Great Zimbabwe
Walls, how many of you here knew about the great Zimbabwe walls before you
heard that song from Midnite Band? So this is what I am talking about. So
I’m telling you, this is the time to release your youths to concerts like
these, and stop waiting to bring an artist from Jamaica to think that your
youths can learn something. We teach the same thing and more. And when you
come and support a show like this which is put on by people from this
island. Live here. Work here. The money stays here. It goes nowhere. But
when the artists come from abroad, they take the 10, 20 thousand dollars and
they leave the next morning without even purchasing a cup of tea. And if you
look around the grounds today, you don’t see any big banner that says none
of the corporate companies on St. Croix or in the Virgin Islands supporting
an event like this. So you must know that its brothers here that put their
hand in their pocket and take it out to put on a function like this. Some
people might say I talk too much, but that is a gift that Jah gave to me.
Some people get a gift to draw. Some people get a gift to drive. Some
people get a gift to fly. You’re not going to tell a pilot that he flies
too much. You’re not going to tell the Captain of the boat that he rides
the sea too much. So how can you tell me, who get the gift from Jah to
talk, that I talk too much. I don’t talk foolishness. I bring information
that is truth. I bring information that is truth like the Senators getting
$20,000 raise, the Lieutenant Governor $50,000 raise, the Governor $70,000
raise, while our schools have no books, and are in need of repairs. There
are no after-school programs for the youths. I must bun a fire. So if you
are with me, let me hear you say more fire! More Fire!!!” |