File

Michael St George

Hear mi nuh mi peeps, mi tek een a wicked lickle vibes last week and mi cyaan wait fi tell unnu bout it.

Yeah man! I experienced an entertaining and enlightening evening that was also a wonderful demonstration of the width, depth and dynamism of reggae music. It was also another timely reminder that steady rhythm and vibes still jamming real sweet. And good-good reggae music still a dub real hard - and it nah only gwaan a yard, it a gwaan said speed abroad.

Wonderful experience

The experience I'm talking about is a unique, multipurpose event I attended at a place called Club Seven-44 in Toronto, produced by Jamaican-Canadian poet and musician Michael St George and billed as a night with Dennis Bovell and Friends. The event was arranged around the visit of Bovell, who is unquestionably one of the true reggae maestros. An arranger/producer, engineer and bassist extraordinaire, he's one of the pioneers of the reggae music scene in the UK.

Through his Jah Sufferer sound system and his band Matumbi, Dennis Bovell was a key figure in the evolution of England's dub music and lovers rock scenes. He has played alongside all the major names in Jamaican and international reggae, and has produced for a range of artists from Alpha Blondy and Fela Kuti to I Roy, Thompson Twins and Sharon Shannon, as well as several dub poets including Linton Kwesi Johnson and Jean Binta Breeze.

Well last Thursday night, Bovell joined reggae historian and cultural critic Klive Walker in an open conversation about reggae music's historical development and its continued role in instigating creative social change. Bovell is a humorous, intelligent and engaging personality with a wealth of experience and a reservoir of interesting anecdotes. And Klive Walker, author of Dubwise: Reasoning from the Reggae Underground, is an incisive and analytic thinker who's also a human encyclopaedia of musical history. So between the two of them, and with the involvement of a fully engaged and enthusiastic audience, it was a delightful discourse. Trust me peeps, some good spirits was flowing - and I drank it all up ... both from the stage and by the bar.

The occasion was also the official launch of Fly Away a compilation reggae album produced by Michael St George's Fullstride Productions and featuring 12 Canadian artistes, with a guest appearance from Bovell. As a special treat, the appreciative audience was gifted with an evocative and captivating interpretation of one of the pieces on the album exquisitely delivered by dancer Jasmyn Fyffe. Of course, there were also some priceless live musical performances from Dennis Bovell himself, plus Errol Starr Francis, and others.

A worthy cause

And it was all for a worthy cause, as all proceeds from the event goes to Michael St George's pet project the Turn Around Project for the Arts (TAP), a non-profit venture that works towards empowering youth globally to find their identities as artists, educators and leaders. TAP has had a presence in Jamaica for several years and has positively impacted a number of youth especially from the communities of August Town and Portland, where the poet lived while he was growing up in Jamaica.

Trust me friends, it was really an evening well spent, mi nah lie! I left the event feeling intellectually aroused and spiritually inebriated. The combination of conversation and musical jam is a really rich experience and it reminded me of a similar vibe called Reasoning with Seasoning that was started by another contemporary musical maestro, Mikie Bennett at his Grafton Studio in Kingston. Unnu know if dat still a gwaan? I hope so, because we need more of these kinds of engagements, especially now, and especially a yard. Unnu nuh agree?

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