Mel Cooke - photo

Brian Schmidt of IRIE FM utilised Tuesday evening's launch of Reggae Month 2012 to put forward the matter of creating areas where music is given freer rein, with government representatives present at 56 Hope Road, St Andrew.

"We can't have an industry that is not at home at home. That makes no sense," Schmidt said, laying down a challenge to Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna and State Minister in that Ministry, Damion Crawford, who were both present.

"We must fast-track the legislation this year around zoning," Schmidt said, emphasising that to not do so would be detrimental to the business of music.

"You cannot have a business based around music and culture and you cannot express it," he said.

Hanna picked up on the issue, noting the reach of reggae that she has seen pull people to Bob Marley's Nine Miles, St Ann, home, which is in her constituency, and how people she has met abroad have spoken about the music's power.

Crawford connected reggae with the government's employment initiative, the hope being that it "is firmly placed in the JEEP so we can take some of the young people out of the struggle".

However, he put a challenge to the makers of music, saying that in some measure people do not understand it - not necessarily the language, but what the issues are. He made a distinction between rebel music and just fighting, the former having a vision for the society.

February is officially designated Reggae Month, but this year it is off to an early start with two events in honour of Dennis Brown in downtown Kingston on Sunday.

There will be a symposium on the late Crown Prince of Reggae at Liberty Hall, King Street, and, in the evening, a tribute concert on Orange Street outside 'Big Yard' where he once lived, at the corner of North Street.

Performers on that show include Damian and Stephen Marley, Tarrus Riley, Cocoa Tea, Junior Reid, Beres Hammond, Half Pint, Jimmy Riley, John Holt, Ken Boothe, C-Sharp, Kurfew, Raging Fyah and Uprising Roots.

The symposium and concert are part of a dense Reggae Month calendar outlined by the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association (JaRIA) at the Bob Marley Museum, 56 Hope Road, St Andrew, on Tuesday evening.

expansion

JaRIA vice-chairman Charles Campbell also announced that the organisation's annual Wednesday concerts, which will run on five nights throughout February, have been moved from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts to Emancipation Park, New Kingston.

Though that would seem to indicate an expansion in the scope of the concerts, there was a persistent thread of concern for Jamaica's hold on its popular music throughout the event.

Host Ibo Cooper, JaRIA's chairman, pointed out that as a nation, Austria has done a superb job in preserving and disseminating information about the music and life of composer Beethoven and "today the world is taught about Beethoven".

"Our children should not know more about Beethoven than Bob and Peter and Bunny and Dennis," Cooper said.

Mary Isaacs ran through the list of awardees for the showpiece Honour Awards, slated for Saturday, February 25, at Emancipation Park.

The honorees, also covering the deceased, runs from the 1950s with sound system operator Tom the Great Sebastian to the 2000s with Digicel Rising Star champion Romain Virgo, with Clement Dodd, Duke Reid, Laza Morgan and Mavado, Copeland Forbes and the Jamaica Federation of Musicians (JFM) among the individuals and institutions.