By Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Karen Rosen, Louis Manning (centre) and Hal Holness, Wisynco executives at the launch of the 2007 Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival last Friday at the gardens of the Pegasus in Kingston. - Colin Hamilton photos

The 'Art of Reggae' will get special treatment on the 2007 Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival, with Shaggy, Wayne Wonder, Luciano and Freddie McGregor among those performing in a 90-minute segment dedicated to the drum and bass heavy beat.

Details of the festival's 10th anniversary staging were announced in the gardens at the Jamaica Pegasus, New Kingston, to a substantial audience on Friday evening.

Running from January 21-27 in Montego Bay, St. James, the festival will feature Kenny Rogers, Michael Bolton, Earth, Wind and Fire, Monty Alexander, Abba and the Tribute, Christopher Cross, Robert Tompkin sand the New Stylistics, Juan Areco, Roy Ayers, Anthony Hamilton and Pieces of Dream, among others.

Rogers and Alexander are among the standout performers in former years who have been invited to help celebrate the anniversary, which will see the event's three major nights moving to a new venue, the Aqueduct at Rose Hall, having outgrown its previous Cinnamon Hill home.

Widest variety

Festival producer Walter Elmore of Turn Key Productions was proud to say that the "production team is 100 per cent Jamaican" of what Touchstone Productions' Marcia McDonnough said is "the premier festival in the Caribbean."

Paul Pennicook of Air Jamaica noted that "the festival has provided the widest variety of performers at any festival in Jamaica," having presented a plethora of genres.

With bands from the U.S.A. competing in the Jazz Fest Quest and hopefuls from Jamaica auditioning at the Coral Cliff in MoBay on December 17 and The Deck in Kingston on December 20, the festival also presents an opportunity for new faces to be seen.

The festival's three major nights, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, will cost US$60, US$65 and US$70 respectively, a pass for all three nights going for US$180.

It will not only be a matter of music, however, as Gordon 'Butch' Stewart and Michelle Rollins will be honoured at the event.

And it was not only a matter of talk at the launch on Friday evening, as Jessica Yapp played Linstead Market and One Love among other songs, to the delight of those gathered in the gardens.