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Posts tagged as “Jamaica”

University of Michigan Economist Susan M. Collins to Become President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

University of Michigan Economist Susan M. Collins to Become President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

By goodblacknews on March 7, 2022

University of Michigan economist and executive vice president of academic affairs Susan M. Collins will be the next president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, taking office on July 1.

Collins will be only the second Black president and first Black woman to head one of the 12 Federal Reserve banks in the century-plus history of the institution. Raphael Bostic, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta president, was the first Black person ever to lead a reserve bank.

“It is an honor and an inspiration to serve as the Boston Fed’s next president,” Professor Collins said. “Throughout my career, I have been driven by a commitment to leveraging research, education, and public service to improve lives. I look forward to helping the Bank and System pursue the Fed’s dual mandate from Congress – achieving price stability and maximum employment.”

Dr. Collins added that “I am also inspired by the portfolio of important and innovative work underway at the Boston Fed,” Collins said. “I am delighted with the opportunity to lead such a dynamic organization, engage with its talented staff, and work with its constituents – to understand their economic challenges and help explain the work of the Fed in the economy. It will also be a pleasure to return to Greater Boston and New England.”

MUSIC MONDAY: “African Unity” – A Collection of Reggae From Around the World (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “African Unity” – A Collection of Reggae From Around the World (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on July 19, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy Monday, you all! This week’s playlist celebrates reggae music from around the world.

Reggae originated in Jamaica in the 1960s. It is deeply linked to Rastafari, Afrocentric thought, and promoting Pan Africanism. It is the nation’s most impactful export.

Over the decades, reggae has traveled with Jamaican immigrants, and its message and popularity has spread cross the globe.

Today there are reggae performers from every corner of the planet. In the United States, Latin America, Europe, the UK, Asia, and Africa you will find reggae artists thriving.

Here’s a collection of established artists like Linton Kwesi Johnson, Steel Pulse, the late Lucky Dube, and Alpha Blondy. Also included are emerging artists like Awa Fall, Los Cafres, and Matthew McAnuff.

Hope you enjoy this collection of classics and new music. And as always, stay safe sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: “Dream Land” – A Tribute Playlist to Bunny Wailer and the Wailers Legacy (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Dream Land” – A Tribute Playlist to Bunny Wailer and the Wailers Legacy (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 8, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Bunny Wailer, born Neville O’Riley Livingston, died on March 2nd. He was an original member of The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, and a lifelong standard-bearer of reggae music.

“The Wailers are to reggae what the Beatles are to rock ‘n roll and pop music,” according to Jamaican music-business veteran Copeland Forbes.

This collection is devoted to the work of The Wailers, and the solo work of Rita Marley, Peter Tosh, and of Bunny Wailer himself.

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In the 1960s The Wailers hit their initial stride with Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One label, often called Jamaica’s Motown. They recorded for several producers, including Leslie Kong and, most notably, Lee “Scratch” Perry.

I’ve included several of those songs, and ones The Wailers went on to release on their own Wail ‘N Soul ‘M and Tuff Gong labels.

By 1974, Tosh and Wailer both would leave the group for solo careers. Bob Marley would use The Wailers name for his backup band.

Hope you enjoy this collection of music by greats artist done together and separately.

Stay stay, sane, and kind, you all. Until such time.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
R.I.P. Reggae Legend Bunny Wailer, 73, Founding Member of the Wailers with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh (VIDEO)

R.I.P. Reggae Legend Bunny Wailer, 73, Founding Member of the Wailers with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on March 2, 2021

Bunny Wailer, a founding member of the Wailers and a reggae music titan whose career spanned seven decades, died today at the age of 73, according to the Jamaica Observer.

Wailer’s manager Maxine Stowe confirmed that Wailer died  at the Medical Associates Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica (via the Jamaica Observer). No cause of death has been named so far, but Wailer had been in and out of the hospital since suffering his second stroke, in 2020.

Wailer, born Neville Livingston — before adopting his famous moniker — was a member of the original Wailers trio with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.

https://youtu.be/R2rmFRHhwoA

To quote from Rolling Stone:

While Marley and Livingston were being mentored by Joe Higgs, “the Godfather of Reggae,” they met Higgs’ fellow student Peter Tosh; the then-trio ventured to Kingston. Soon after, they were joined by singer Junior Braithwaite and backup vocalists Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith. Following a string of name changes that included the Teenagers and the Wailing Wailers, the Wailers aligned with Coxsone Dodd’s sound system and Studio One label — which employed songwriters and producers like Lee “Scratch” Perry and Jackie Mittoo — and released the Marley-penned “Simmer Down,” a Number One hit in Jamaica.

Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith soon departed the Wailers, leaving the nucleus of Marley, Livingston, and Tosh intact; that trio recorded the band’s debut LP, 1965’s The Wailing Wailers, a collection of tracks the band recorded during the mid-Sixties. The Wailers then went on hiatus as Marley married his wife Rita and joined his mother in Wilmington, Delaware; during this period, Livingston served a yearlong sentence for marijuana possession. However, the three principle Wailers reunited upon Marley’s return to Jamaica.

While Marley and Tosh served as the Wailers’ primary singers and songwriters, Livingston played an indispensable role in providing harmonies to the trio’s songs. The Wailers next teamed with Perry and his Upsetters for 1970’s Soul Rebels and 1971’s Soul Revolution; around that time, Livingston wrote and recorded one of his signature songs, “Dreamland,” a track he revisited when he released his solo LP Blackheart Man in 1976.

To read more:

MUSIC MONDAY: “Roots, Rock, Reggae” – a Bob Marley Collection in Honor of his 76th (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Roots, Rock, Reggae” – a Bob Marley Collection in Honor of his 76th (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on February 15, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Earlier this month was the 76th anniversary of the birth of Robert Nesta Marley.

It is hard to overstate his impact on popular music and culture. Marley was a Rastafari icon, and he infused his music with a sense of social consciousness and spirituality.

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He is still a global symbol of Jamaican music, culture, and Pan-Africanism. He co-founded The Wailers vocal group with Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Beverley Kelso and Junior Braithwaite.

They created early ska and rocksteady in the studios of legendary producers Coxsone Dodd and Lee “Scratch” Perry.

Marley would go on to bring reggae music to an international audience, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Rolling Stone has ranked him No. 11 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Here’s a collection includes his many classics, early recordings, live performances, and remixes, and dub reworkings. This playlist is a testament to the lasting impact of Bob Marley.

As always stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: “Nothing Comes Easy” – A Celebration of Dub Reggae (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Nothing Comes Easy” – A Celebration of Dub Reggae (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on November 16, 2020

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Dub has become its own genre of electronic music. Though it grew out of reggae in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Dub reggae started as a “version” of an existing song. The cuts were achieved by significantly manipulating and reshaping the recordings, often through the removal of some or all of the vocals, with the emphasis on the drums and bass. They were usually pressed on the B-sides of 45 RPM records.

The dub version is often made for a DJ to “toast” over. That tradition continues to this day across many music genres.

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Dub was pioneered by recording engineers and producers like Osbourne “King Tubby” Ruddock, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Errol Thompson, and others in the late 1960s. Augustus Pablo is credited as one of the pioneers and creators of the genre, and for bringing the melodica to dub.

The “Roland Space Echo” was widely used by dub producers in the 1970s to produce echoes and delay effects. These artists, especially King Tubby, Scientist, Lee Perry, and many that would follow, look upon the mixing console as an instrument itself.

This collection brings together early pioneers, and tracks by current artists. Enjoy! And as always, stay safe, sane, and kind.

(A note to the Spotify adherent: This collection will benefit from going to your “Advanced Preferences”, and setting your crossfade to its maximum of 12 seconds. Lean into that Dub-stylee.)

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: “I Can See Clearly Now” – A Playlist Tribute to Johnny Nash (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “I Can See Clearly Now” – A Playlist Tribute to Johnny Nash (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on October 12, 2020
[Photo: American singer and songwriter Johnny Nash poses in a park in London, 1972. By Michael Putland / Getty Images]

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Johnny Nash had no particular episode of personal hardship in mind when he composed “I Can See Clearly Now” in the early 1970s, though over the years it has struck a firm chord with generations who appreciate its feeling of new hope emerging from the despair: “I can see clearly now the rain has gone / I can see all obstacles in my way / Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind / It’s gonna be a bright, bright, sunshine-y day.”

He died last week at age 80.

Nash was American but spent time living in Jamaica in the mid-1960s, and the island’s influence on his music came to the fore in 1968, when his rock-steady compositions “You Got Soul” and “Hold Me Tight” were Top 10 hits in the UK, helping to kickstart a period of mainstream interest in reggae that remains to this day.

His reggae-fied version of Sam Cooke’s “Cupid” made it to No. 6 in the UK the following year, followed by “Stir it Up,” written for him, and later reclaimed, by his friend Bob Marley. That was a UK No. 13 in 1972, only months before the release of “I Can See Clearly Now.”

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This playlist includes many of Johnny Nash’s recordings, songs by him, Bob Marley, and other early reggae artists, plus many of the cuts that dominated the radio in 1972 alongside Johhny Nash’s enduring song of hope.

Hope you enjoy this tribute collection. Next week I’ll be back with a more “seasonal” offering.

Until such time, stay safe sane, and kind… and vote!

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC MONDAY: “Time Tough”- A Tribute to Reggae Legend Toots Hibbert (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Time Tough”- A Tribute to Reggae Legend Toots Hibbert (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on September 14, 2020

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

This September 11th also marked the passing of one of the fathers of reggae music: Toots Hibbert.

Starting out with the rock steady pioneer Clement “Coxcome” Dodd, The Maytals emerged as one of the earliest reggae hit-makers. Hibbert holds a firm spot in Jamaica’s musical pantheon as the first artist to use the word reggae on a record, “Do The Reggay,” and to bring the music to the world at large.

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Many likely first heard his songs covered by The Clash, The Specials, and other punk and ska artists. This collection features the Toots & The Maytals versions of “Monkey Man” and “Pressure Drop.” 

I have also included some of his many covers including “Country Road” and collaborations with Willie Nelson, UB40, The Easy Star All-Stars, Los Pericos and others.

Hope you all enjoy this tribute to one reggae and ska music’s most enduring founders. Have a great week, and see you next Monday.

Stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
MUSIC: Celebrating Jamaican Independence Day with Stevie Wonder Reggae Covers (LISTEN)

MUSIC: Celebrating Jamaican Independence Day with Stevie Wonder Reggae Covers (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on August 6, 2020

by Jeff Meier (FB: Jeff.Meier.90)

Jamaican Independence Day is celebrated every August 6th in honor of the date in 1962 when Jamaica gained its independence from England after more than 300 years of British colonial rule.

On the heels of Jamaica’s independence, Jamaican ska music partially shifted to celebrate the country’s newfound freedoms, eventually paving the way for the birth of reggae music, which has been the driving force of the nation’s music since then.

To enjoy the evolution of those sounds, you can check out the GBN playlists we posted earlier this year – Celebrating The History and Evolution of Ska Music and Celebrating Reggae Songs of Struggle and Peace.

All you faithful Good Black News readers may also remember that just a few months ago we saluted the amazing Stevie Wonder with a month-long series of themed playlists (see below). Well, believe it or not, we still had a few additional Stevie playlists we never got to share with you in May. So today, in honor of Jamaican Independence Day, we are showcasing “Stevie Wonder Goes to Jamaica – Reggae Wonder Covers.”

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Although it’s hard to remember a time when iconic reggae superstar Bob Marley wasn’t universally known, back in 1974, when Stevie Wonder first issued the song “Boogie on Reggae Woman,” Marley had yet to really break through on the U.S. music charts – and not that many people knew what Stevie was talking about.

Always one to infuse his music with innovative sounds, in the final years of the seventies when Stevie acknowledged reggae yet again with the smash hit “Master Blaster (Jammin’)” – in which he detailed “From the park I hear rhythms / Marley’s hot on the box” – the world had finally caught up with Stevie’s vision.

Later, in 1982, Stevie even wrote and produced the big R&B/reggae crossover hit ‘Try Jah Love” for Jamaica superstars Third World.

While Stevie was relatively early to jump on reggae sounds, reggae music had actually jumped on Stevie Wonder sounds even earlier. A longtime tradition of reggae music – particularly in the “lovers rock” genre – is to remake popular US chart hits in a reggae style.

Wonder’s hits provided fertile territory. From the late 1960s, all the way up through contemporary times, Stevie’s own hits as well as his compositions for others have yielded dozens of reggae cover versions, whether ballads or uptempo, more modern dancehall sounds.

Today’s playlist kicks off with Stevie’s version of “Master Blaster” and his Third World composition before heading into covers from today’s most known reggae hitmakers such as Wayne Wonder, Tanya Stephens, Sly & Robbie, Maxi Priest, Bob Marley scion Stephen Marley, as well as such legends as John Holt, Desmond Dekker, Dennis Brown, Toots & the Maytals, and Lee Perry & the Upsetters.

Finally, in honor of the “birth” of Jamaica’s independence from colonial rule, we close with Barry Biggs’ reggae rendition of Stevie’s classic “Happy Birthday,” which Wonder famously composed to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday as well as Black America’s fight for equal rights and justice.

Happy Birthday, Jamaica!

 

MUSIC MONDAY: Celebrating The History and Evolution of Ska Music (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: Celebrating The History and Evolution of Ska Music (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on July 27, 2020

Ska originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to reggae. It combines elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues.

Ska developed further in the 1960s when Prince Buster, Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, and Duke Reid formed “sound systems” to play American rhythm and blues and eventually recorded their own songs.

Most folks divide the history of ska into three periods: the original Jamaican scene of the 1960s; the 2 Tone ska revival of the ’70 & ‘80s, which fused ska rhythms with the faster tempos and harder edge of punk rock, and third wave, which involved bands from a wide range of countries around the world, in the 1990s.

RELATED: You Can Get It If You Really Want It: Reggae Songs of Struggle and Peace (LISTEN)

While primarily dance music, like reggae, ska music has often had social change on its mind. This collection spans all three “waves” and includes The Skatalites, Hortense Ellis, The Specials, Hepcat, and many other masters of the artform.

Do enjoy, and as always stay safe, sane, and kind.

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by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)