Jovexx

Can a mere singer/songwriter draw in and concentrate the kind of emotional power that without warning stop a community, in the midst of whatever it is doing and stop old women on the way to church, stop a hairdresser in her shop, stop the young crocs and the killy in their tracks, turn young potential gun men into drummers, let a con man for a day become his better self, stop the prostitute about her business, make other singers and deejays afraid  -- with powerful vocals, soul and genuine lyrics from the heart? Believe you me, I know one such artist and as the title suggests… his name is Jovexx or as his mother knows him Jovian Jackson. You may have already started hearing some of his songs on the radio, maybe you are an early adopter from facebook or instagram, one thing however is certain, you will know Jovexx, he will be a household name in Jamaica, and amongst the pantheon of Montego Bay’s major icons, Queen Ifrica, Tommy Lee Sparta and Jah Cure.

Do pop music lyrics matter? Do reggae and dancehall lyrics matter? Should culture-watchers and pop vulture be giving them the kind of rigorous, deconstructive attention now reserved for the high arts, great literature and an occasional movie? Most of the activists in the street I know believe that these songs and the words in them matter immensely. Cultural analysts should not be left behind. If movies are now our novels, then reggae and dancehall music lyrics may be the closest thing we have nowadays to a mass-marketed poetry, shaping attitudes and emotions for an audience that is, to say the least, extensive.

So when you hear lyrics like “mi agree seh life too hard but mi nah sell mi soul fi nuh round of applause, many live them life in the fast lane, but mama seh it never too late fi Jah Jah fall rain, so mi jus agwaan wait mi turn, time is the key the more you live the more you learn, a just the life weh we live, thanks we a give” or this verse from another song… “we keep holding on, all when the storm and the pressure is on, mi draw fi mi Bible and chant a Psalm,  and when one door close mi carry on, oil and powder them set fi man, the most always kept mi strong, them seh mi nah go mek it but them is wrong, a just my time me waiting pon”

His songs are melodic and filled with bluesy voice and his carefully wrought tales of characters in contemporary Jamaica, that the average person who seeks meaning in the face of society’s evils and havoc can readily identify with. When Jovexx belts a line like “mi nuh sorry mi live a garrison, mi never sorry the way mi born poor, so tell them we proud a weh we come from, ghetto yute haffi make it I sure, is like dem nuh see it seh we a human being, nuffa we pain dem ignore…” I have seen men and women eyes well up with tears.

The way I view this Artiste, it is as though he is a bridge between the Seventies folk and cultural movement and the more socially conscious folk and arts musical revival of the today which Chronixx and Protoje are hailed for. Jovexx's strong convictions, which are relayed in the lyrics to every song in catalogue paint a vivid picture of the struggles that young people, particularly those in Montego Bay, are experiencing now. His message resonated so strongly that he has already amassed a wide following. Jovexx’s stunningly captivating voice is front and center. Whether his lyrics are hopeful or chilling (often both within a single song), this material has a depth and substance well beyond his years. I know this for a fact not hype or fluff talk.

I have known Jovexx since 2014, I met him while assisting another artiste with his career. On our way from a video shoot in Lucea I got into his vehicle. On the way back to MoBay, someone played a riddim in the car, but he started Singjaying a song that sounded beautiful, so I asked him to sing it again, but he said “Rasta, if you never ketch it pon you phone it lost in the wind, caah mi just a mek up supm and gallang pon the riddim and right now mi a drive and mi frass so them lyrics nah come back again!” And I have watched enough Documentaries on true genius and been blessed to have rolled with a few, to know when I am in the presence of it. Plus I’d like to believe the genius in myself recognizes it in another. But as fate would have it, being the way I am, I never wanted to run in on someone else bandwagon. Plus rolling with artistes was proving a little unrewarding since the artiste was rolling with at the time would rather by gunmen 20,000 hennessy at the parties than pay for his bio or help getting a known director from Kingston to shoot his video, nagging industry friends in high places to get him on Morning Time etc etc etc.

But as fate would have it. One Friday morning March 2016, I come down the road in Paradise just in time to see Jovexx stepping out of his car as Stumpy urged him forward, “come in mi artiste, buy wi a liquor and sing song fi mi caah yuh haffi buss, a you alone mek me eye full a water and goosebump tek mi… come in come in” That morning when I asked about the music he was lukewarm as in unsure of where it was going for him. Anyway under the influence of Stumpy he belted out quite a few songs, there was a magic in that moment and I was glad I remember to take out my phone and press the red dot on the video camera… I left the road roughly 12 midday, posted the video of the four songs… when returned in the evening there was more than a million views on Facebook, women and men messaging me from California, New Orleans,England, Italy, producers from Kingston, Twins of Twins, my inbox was more than I could navigate.

Now this is not a promo piece, nobody asked me to write this, I am writing this because too many time great artistes come from Montego Bay and maybe the local papers missed them early or they waited for media in Kingston to validate them as artistes of substance, no not this time… The Mirror and Montego Bay needs to validate our own first, so before you read about him in The Gleaner or the Star or Rolling Stones Magazine, remember, you saw it first in your town, your newspaper, your own legend in the making… Jovexx, go check him on Youtube… from singing on the streets in Paradise to global studios, don’t be the last to know.

Songs written for Montego Bay City: A Musical Exploration of MoBay!

My Top 9 Montego Bay Songs

The history of Montego Bay Music and Montego Bay in Music is a very long and storied one. A history too long for this post I have intended... At this moment I wanna peep at songs written for MY CITY, Montego Bay City! Why investigate the city by song you ask? Well...rumor has it that there is a song for every city in America. Many such songs never get further than the city limits others became international hits. Gerard Kenny’s 1978 ode to his hometown ‘New York, New York - So Good They Named It Twice’ spelled the re-birth of America’s largest metropolis after it almost went bankrupt in 1975 and one year after a city-wide blackout shut it down for 25 hours. So the ethos and the brand and the identity of a city we see can be inextricably linked to song and music. In Jamaica the focus is mostly on Kingston, granted Negril gets some good mileage in "Cottage in Negril," and "I want to go to Negril", Linstead is indelibly etched into Jamaican memory via the folk hit "Laad What a Night.. what a Satiday nite!"

Memphis, Tennessee is touted to be mentioned in more songs than any other city in the world, “Walking in Memphis” by Marc Cohn is the one that readily springs to most people’s minds, and coincidentally is the song that inspired me to write a million unsung Mobay songs... but here are some songs titled and inspired by Montego Bay

Before Kartel ever did the Mobay Anthem there was Crazy Chris' anthem... "Welcome to the Second City". A song that marked the fact that western Jamaica was taking the dancehall by storm and never step back from the limelight. This lyrical story is a gritty tale of the guns in the community of Montego Bay, its edgy, rough and raw!

Hezron has this year join the list of artistes that are championing Mobay!

In this next grimy song, by Vybz Kartel though not from Montego Bay, takes us on his detailed and "informative" tour of crime ridden Mobay communities as well as listing all the dons much like a crime noir novella!

 

Popcaan, while in Kartel's tow, seems to have picked up some affection for the second city as well!

 

This Montego Bay song by Queen Ifrica is to The Montegonian, the definitive Montego Bay song. Folksy, yet reggae and pop-ish, it has strong lyrics, vivid site choices in the city, it is grassroot and has local authority!

 

My next favourite Mobay song is by none other than the lyrically profuse and verbose, Lij Tafari... This Montego Bay talent I think is easily on par with Damian Marley lyrically, and is as fresh as Kabaka Pyramid and Protoje.

 

Bobby Bloom as a North American came to Jamaica and found his inspiration in which city?

The rest of the songs that follow are covers of Bobby Bloom's song and give unique and various sonic signatures to the song that make it somewhat their own...

 

 

 

Western Jamaica's Burgeoning Conscious Community

When one thinks of poetry, dub, culture, history and the arts in Jamaica, most people think Kingston, Edna Manley, Red Bones Cafe, The Ranny Williams Centre, Reggae revival, Jah 9, Protege, Jesse Royal, Kabaka Pyramid, Chronixx, Damian Marley...

Stretch your brain now and see if you can think of any Western Jamaican musicians in that vain... I am willing to bet you couldn't think of any or know any. You do know they exist though right? It is time you know artistes like... new western Jamaican artistes Mentor, Lij Tafari, Lusion, Jovexx, Antwain, Marley Fire, I-Mara, Raydaar, Teacher Dee, Naphtali/Omar, Okonko, Kempo and The Young Jamaica Ensemble these are names represent a western Jamaican authentic arts and reggae musical experiences to be had, if one is going to say they are an adept aficionado of western Jamaican music. Other names like Kolumbo, Mycus Chip and Fury echo of the quasi-street conscious ethos of Jah Vinci's calibre, with shades of both dancehall and reggae in their game. This generation of artists is worthy successors to Montegonian reggae and culture legends like White Mice, Jah Cure and Queen Ifrica. With regard to dub poetry, names bubbling in the local market are Blabber, Kofi Kulcha, Skripcha, Marley Fire, Venise Samuels amongst many others.

This crop of artistes offers cultural enrichment and entertainment that isn't available elsewhere in Jamaica. The hub and foundation of much of the stunningly beautiful music being made in Montego Bay, with amazing insights and great beats, is created in The People's Arcade and Coomb's Lane. Upcoming studios like Skull Yard and foundation studios like Victory One, Vidal and Half-a-Dread are helping to propel both new artists while keeping grounded with foundation artistes. Out here, being produced in the west are songs to dance and vibe to as well as deep cerebral lyrics to creep inside of and crawl through your psyche. This music takes you outside your conventional conceptualization of Jamaican music as most popular Jamaican music is Kingston based, biased and centred. These western Jamaicans give you a different perspective. A true reggae aficionado can no longer ignore the energies being emitted from Western Jamaica.

Although the mainstream often associates contemporary Jamaican music with the harder dancehall of artists like Beenie Man and Vybz Kartel, the Jamaican listenership has an under-reported love for melodic pop and smooth flows. Downtown dances play Celine Dion, Kenny Rogers remains popular and local supergroup L.U.S.T. – Lukie D, Trilla U, Singing Melody and Tony Curtis – scored a hit with a cover of Air Supply's "Just As I Am." Today the airwaves being taken over by local music station Fyah 105, has re-proven that Jamaican ears hunger and are eager to hear global rhythms, and join the procession of new music and musical global consciousness that is flowering all over the planet.

I say to you now, go research these names, these artists... listen to my sampling of videos... witness the blossoming of Mobay Music... the western consciousness revival!

Behind the music on a very popular Montegonian: Jimmy Cliff

Jimmy Cliff was born James Chambers on April's Fool's Day, 1948 in the Somerton District of St. James near Montego Bay, Jamaica. He reputedly chose the stage name Cliff to reflect the heights he intended to scale in the music business. And while he belatedly became a household name in the 1970s - in the UK thanks mainly to his appearance in The Harder They Come both as an actor and a singer - it became clear to those who followed his career that his name actually came to represent artistic, political and personal struggle, rather than easily attained commercial success. 

When he was 14 years old he moved to Kingston...

Read the full article!

My Daughter and I listen to this song every morn... she even sings it to herself... it's off his latest Grammy winning album! Another good hit is "Took the children's bread and give to the dogs!

Montego Bay and Michael Jackson

Here is an excerpt of an article I found that discusses Mobay and MJ with some NOSTALGIA

From MJ’s high to his lows, ‘his heart was always pure’

By Peter Gelzinis
Wednesday, July 8, 2009

It was a red leather jacket festooned with zippers, not exactly made for the tropical heat of Jamaica’s Montego Bay.

But Cleon James remembered it yesterday with an affection undimmed by time. “Every boy in Jamaica wanted one of those jackets,” he said, as Stevie Wonder’s voice rang out from the flat screen bolted to the wall of his Roxbury barber shop.

“We ran around singing ‘Beat It’ and ‘Thriller,’ dressed up in those leather jackets, pretending we were Michael Jackson,” Cleon said, one eye trained on a customer, the other on a memorial service 3,000 miles away.


“It’s hot enough in Montego Bay as it is,” the barber laughed. “But in a red leather jacket with the zipper up, it’s much worse. But we didn’t care. Every kid wanted to moonwalk like Michael Jackson.”

In the other corner of the “Top Notch Barbershop,” Donald Martin spoke of growing up immersed in the soundtrack of the enigmatic genius now sealed inside a golden coffin.

I Will Remember You CONT'D

Well ladies and gentle people I have to admit last week's article seems to have struck a chord with many people and to think I almost discarded it. Hmmm, now what artistes mean when they say they never know which song on the album is going to be the hit single. Yeah but I digress we were speaking on memory weren't we? Yah I think so! So... yeah we as a people, Jamaican's and Montegonians have forgotten who we are, and just it has always been my belief that it is part of the charter and mandate of Rastafari to be the axis of cultural resistance to European ideas that have been proven historically to never benefit our people and in essence is what a “Far-I” friend of mine, a certain I-an Harper was saying to me the other night when he said Rasta is the memory of the people, and with all truth that is what we are, we the cultural residue and remnants of what it was to be truly African and we are the last desperate hope fighting to keep the remnants alive and to harken the mind of the people to a time before European dominance and to the fight to achieve a sustainable future of our independent thinking and devising! So we as a people have forgotten, but I do remember you!

And last week I spoke of Tate Street and it seemed to resonate with people too. And it seems coincidentally that as the fate would have it Tate Street has proven to be some kind of axis and focal point of energy and if I were one for serious astrological contemplation and in the world of spirits and omens then I would think it had a meaning. As it represents in my mind the golden age of Montego Bay, maybe because of its old world appearance and dimming glimmer of yesteryear charm or maybe its because my mother lived there and she had a million and one fond stories of playing cross from Jarret Park or going to park or when she went to Girl's School, is that Barracks or Corinaldi, I can never remember, then there was my old teacher Ms. Nelson who though teaching at Mt. Alvernia Prep, always said “When I was at Corinaldi yuh see...” then there was my old Aunt Ellis who lived at Tate Street and My mother's hair dresser Patsy lived around the corner, and I loved Satdays at Tate Street because my Grand Aunt Ellis had and eternal supply of soda, coincidentally my Aunt Ellis' son, my cousin-uncle died just recently, so a whole host of the Tate Street cast was at my door step in Paradise, I can't escape. And just when I thought the fates couldn't cross more at Tate Street, here comes my brand new co-worker a young Ms. Wiggan who happens to live on Tate Street and then there is the fact that now when your on Tate Street you have to look in the Mirror, literally and it seems I am compelled to do so figuratively and mentally as well. Seems Tate Streets is about Mirrors and reflections and reflecting. So it seems Tate Street, I remember you.

But I want to get back to the point about the golden age of Montego Bay, because I believe many of today's Montegonians don't remember a Mobay when it was a young city booming with potential and mellow balance of country and town, I think the youth of today have been saddled with the burden of carrying memories of a Mobay that is one big disorganized shanty town and urban nightmare, a failure in planning and myriad of haphazard malls and plazas chucked up on stilts and residence that are concreted to each other and roads riddled with potholes and a city infested with cocaine, crime, homosexuals, dialer, scammers, vain and trivial material pursuits and pursuants. How many will know Coral Wall and Gi-gi beach, how terrible it is to know that many will only know Aquasol and never remember again, Walter Fletcher. How many will forget the ampitheatre that gave way to highways, how many won't know that before civilization and rampant malignant urban sprawl, before the Central Business District (CBD) started its march out ward that Jarret, Tate, McCathy, Hart Street were prime real estate and proud residential communities, instead of rotting board houses and make shift garages and ad hoc concrete creations. How many have forgotten, how many will remember, I remember.

Memories are important people, they are the marks and the milestones and the landmarks in our lives, minds and history that make us who we are, that carry us to this inevitable point, it is what must be used to propel us into the future, but I fear if you cannot remember, ifyou do not remember, then you shall be lost, if you have left your future to be governed by someone else, if you don't know where you have been coming from, what is you liked and cherished, who it is you are, what you are, then you can never keep it, you can never maintain it and you can never restore it. You have name reference or frame work upon which to draw to map and chart your future, for if you trust it to outsiders, Europeans, Americans, gods, Barracks, or any other would be Messiahs then my friend, remember at least this, you are lost. But I remember.

And to all my friends, soldiers, comrades who are wondering why Yannick is M.I.A. don't worry, to all my friends I haven't seen in eons, to even the people who glimpse and barely touched or passed by in my life, to childhood friends from wonder years ago, like Ms. Tamora Decqarish ( I think I lost on the spelling there but), mans and mans from College weh mi nuh see inna years, Cherry, Lisa Thorpe, to Ms. T. Campbell, to even those who malice me, and who feel like dem a mi enemy, every single souljah... I and I remember YOU!

Ancient Memories come on into my soul...

Yannick Nesta Pessoa
yannickpessoa@yahoo.com
http://yahnyk.blogspot.com

I Will Remember You

I Will Remember You

“Ancient memories come on into my soul...”
~Sizzla Kalonji

“I've never tried to block out the memories of the past, even though some are painful. I don't understand people who hide from their past. Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now.”
~Sophia Loren

“We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams.”
~Jeremy Irons


Good Evening gentle people one and all, wherever you roam, I wish you the best of Friday evenings or the “mellowest” of Saturday mornings, I assume thats when you will probably be perusing this edition of the Mirror, so I hope you have one of those unhectic Friday evenings, maybe you'll have gotten paid and can find your choice of great escapes, whether it be the bar or the sports lounge, the infamous and ubiquitous “ends” or the more notorious corners or just that particular shop you haunt or hold your palavers and congregations, or maybe its just your baby mother's place or on your verandah, I hope its one of those evening when the informal radio stations we call sound systems are broadcasting Barrington Levy and Jacob Miller and Beres, some “Black Roses” and some “Tired fi...” and some “Putting up resistance” and those other sounds that calm the savage beast and mellow the mind. Hmmm or maybe it's one of those early Saturday mornings when you catch the rooster and walk out to greet a gentle sun peeping on the eastern horizon, and get the opportunity to glimpse and injest the breaking of day the slow stirring of the world around you as it begins to wake, and your getting your tea and seeing about breaking your fast. Yeah one of those easy evenings or morns. Do you remember those? I know it's easy to get caught up in the pace of living and life, but do you remember those, easy at peace and at one with yourself morns or evenings, do you?

So why is it that I am on the issue of memory and remembering this week? Well, actually I don't remember. Joke! Ahm, well it is because I've been remembering a lot of things recently and also I find I tend to be very redolent or in remembering mood at this time of year. I guess in a way this time of year is the evening time of the year or the that end of the day point of the year, when the breadth of 12 months is almost over and that year end new year period is some what like those evenings and early mornings. Well what have I been remembering? Actually I've been thinking about the issue of memory itself, as well as remembering things. Things like Tate Street, Montego Bay the way it was, many Montegonian icons come and gone, people I haven't seen in years, the massive amount of people I knew that died this year (and oh they were many), and of course the endless line of fallen soldiers in the street, long lost loves, school days, Kingston days, days in Sav, days in foreign lands. When do you find those moments to remember? Is it those easy morns or evenings? And who or what do you remember and is it even worth remembering?

Now I want you to churn over this little summation or definition of memory I borrowed from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: ‘Memory’ is a label for a diverse set of cognitive capacities by which humans and perhaps other animals retain information and reconstruct past experiences, usually for present purposes. Our particular abilities to conjure up long-gone episodes of our lives are both familiar and puzzling. We remember experiences and events which are not happening now, so memory seems to differ from perception. We remember events which really happened, so memory is unlike pure imagination. Memory seems to be a source of knowledge, or perhaps just is retained knowledge. Remembering is often suffused with emotion. It is an essential part of much reasoning. It is connected in obscure ways with dreaming. Some memories are shaped by language, others by imagery. Much of our moral life depends on the peculiar ways in which we are embedded in time. Memory goes wrong in mundane and minor, or in dramatic and disastrous ways.

Well it seems this article has begun to run away from the word limit and word count so, it seems it's going to have to be a FEW parter (I tell you I've spot a conspiracy to destroy the english language by genderizing and sexualizing every word, but I digress), and had wanted to talk more about the things I actually remembered like Tate Street and a lot of the people and faces and some more places, but till next week...

Yannick Nesta Pessoa
yahnyk.blogspot.com
yannickpessoa@yahoo.com