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NEWSLETTER ~ Volume 12 ~ Feel Reggae ~ Carl Harvey ~ November 2018

11/30/2018

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Big day for Feel Reggae having this idrin Carl Harvey coming to speak of this time of reggae that he is still living and experiencing

The thing most known of Carl today is that he has been on tour with Toots Hibbert for over forty {40} years now

Toots & The Maytals

40 years

Member of the original funkmiesters, Crack Of Dawn with his brother, Rupert Harvey as well as others, a producer of five {5} of Messenjah's albums, both these bands signed to major record labels, firsts in Canadian music history, deserves props for said feats

I asked Carl why he nor Rupert are never contacted by companies like the CBC based on these outstanding accomplishments and his answer was, "I don't know.  They never have and I don't care much because they don't butter my bread"

One of music's and reggae's top Canadian performers with zero regard to the CBC just like the rest of us

A known guitar impresario of global notoriety and in the past 40 years or so, the CBC and others don't acknowledge him

Interestingly,  Carl is one of very few here in Canada who performed and recorded with the late, great Jackie Mittoo yet the CBC knows nothing of him but does features on Jackie

This is another example of why colonizer, white media in Canada are not our 'experts' on reggae.  They don't know shit

I speak ill of them with no apology yet I move forward creating our own path

Our Feel Reggae conversation touched on many progressive thoughts and the one we kept coming back to is a "Reggae Society"  where there is a place for live, reggae musicians to come and jam / perform weekly

This is the path of Feel Reggae where we do encourage folks in the audience to come jam at the end of the session

That offer still stands

Every week

David Kingston, a wealth of reggae knowledge shared his music and thoughts.  This man is a walking reggae encyclopedia, supremely generous with his knowledge.  As previously mentioned, Kingston was on air, every Friday night on CKLN 88.1FM for over a decade, bringing this music.  His knowledge is vast!

Big love goes out to, five {5} time Juno Award winner, Exco Levi for the strength

I asked him what brought him out this time and said simply "Carl".  They had never met before

Exco brought his experiences as a long time performer in the Canadian reggae scene as well as an international artist who has toured Europe and the Americas

A wealth of knowledge was shared

Reggae in Canada is a path by the people in the genre

The establishment has no interest in ever supporting the genre so reggae will always have a different set of challenges yet we seem to have the soldiers in place to deal with this next phase of growing internationally as well as monetizing the genre better than we have in past years

Thanks for the input Exco has given, who himself is eternally grateful for said establishment in his career to date with the programs that have aided his music as well as his travel for reggae.  Factor and Socan grants have aided Exco fiscally and those programs are for anyone who wishes to seek them

Contradictory

No

Those who live it know it

The thing is, I am fully aware of the talent available here in Canada.  They have proven it time and again and the fact that reggae isn't monetized better is TOTALLY on myself and many others in the genre.  My mantra is to say "fuck you" to these bigoted morons yet they are not all alike.  There are those with a sense of honor and fair play and a large audience in Canada who are more than ready to listen to this music.  I will always focus on the positive.  It is how I know how to win

Feel Reggae December will be Saturday, 22nd
Carl here relaying snippets of his life as a musician in Toronto's music scene 
Here Exco Levi, 5 time Juno award winner, break out into a nostalgic tune made famous by Max Romeo, "Chase The Devil".

Exco is another of those who ovastand the need for unity and came to support the Feel Reggae initiative as well as the meet guitar legend, Carl Harvey.  Jeremy Rempel  of Fugitive Minds, jamming along as well
Undeniable talent and versatility on display as Carl rips into Jimi Hendricks's "Voodoo Child"
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NEWSLETTER ~ Volume 11 ~ November 2018

11/17/2018

0 Comments

 
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https://www.cbc.ca/television/fromthevaults/jackie-mittoo-and-the-golden-age-of-canadian-reggae-1.4903386?fbclid=IwAR3yGxp3IrnmzIW-60jU7Xt-30WJfw0_RLSK0wmHVKSkvvbIy4Xe0dA0WQ8

Canadian Reggae is always Golden
​

CBC did a lovely piece on the genius that is Jackie Mittoo

"Jackie Mitto and the golden age of Canadian reggae"

Really?

How inaccurate

Jackie was great and forever will be great... and golden too

CBC could use a conversation with those within the reggae community sometimes

There are and have been many golden occurrences within the reggae scene in Canada

They went through their archives to dig up performances with Jackie and Lord Tanamo, 2 original members of the legendary Skatalites, the foundation band of ska back in the 1960s in Jamaica

That Jackie Mittoo talent was quite unique and of virtuoso quality and deserves even greater accolades for said genius

Yet there is more

Bob Marley may well be considered as "the king of reggae" based on his vast accomplishments, body of work and talent but reggae has many, many, many, other sons and daughters.  It ain't just about Bob

Reggae is a voice

A spiritual frequency that reaches conscious souls globally

It is not only about a single person

It is always a blessing to see the past honored as this doc has done for Jackie yet I wonder when the CBC or any other Canadian program will take the time to tell the world about The Sattalites, Messenjah, Exco Levi, Blessed, Ammoye, Tasha Tee, Kirk Diamond, Lazo, Jones and Jones, concerts at The Opera House, more about Jason Wilson or Carl Harvey who has toured with Toots Hibbert for the last 40 or so years

I managed IBADAN for over a decade and had many golden moments at Lee's Palace, The Bamboo, The El Mocambo, The Opera House and many other spots

CHRY 105.5, CKLN 88.1 with only CIUT 89.5 remaining of community radio through the 80s and the 90s.  These were golden years for reggae as well.  The radio personalities were as significant as many of the artists within the genre

Continue to support CIUT for many things including reggae.  Patrick Roots and DB Hawkes have been at it, on air, probably 30 years each, spinning reggae music from vinyl / cassette to laptop

Point the lights and the cameras towards some of the people above.  One will find lots of gold there

Too often reggae is viewed as nostalgia when we, Canada, have had this vibe, ongoing daily for over 50 years now

Daily

When is it given its value or it's due within its own time?

Where there is an ability to earn as opposed to token documentaries years after the artists are dead and buried?

I am proud to see Joe Issacs, Carol Brown, Jay Douglas, Jason Wilson, Lord Tanamo, Willi Williams and film of the reggae past.  A source of pride for me as well as all who have lived it

Yet if the talent is good enough to be glorified, why is it so difficult to invest in the genre and pay its participants

Sad

Always accolades then excuses then always excluded from the fiscal table

Pride to watch heroes, friends, contemporaries on screen in our living rooms yet there is no fiscal value to this genre inna Canada

Back in the day the excuse was, "reggae is indigenous to Jamaica, so it can't get support here".  You could hear that from grant applications to radio people to music heads, booking agencies, major and minor record labels across the industry

Lots of accolades yet loads of exclusion

That is a truth about reggae Canada

Always grateful for the pat on the head yet being paid for ones talent and work is far more rewarding in my eyes

Before you go with another age old story / myth, "we have no budget", please remember that in 2017, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra was awarded $7.5 MILLION grant for ONE celebration in Canada 150

One celebration

Reggae Canada received... Wait for it...

Zilch

I take this opportunity to speak on those who still do it today, continually at the highest level

Tokenism is one of the strategies of our colonial masters inna Canada

Track the royalty payments of some of those performing today or over the years and I bet you the least amount of royalties paid to Canadian performing reggae artists, come from Canada

The least amount

How come?

We still only talking about the late, great, Jackie Mittoo

There are others

There is much more to reggae music than one person

Yet always proud of Jackie... and Bob

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BUJU

Thoughts on Buju Banton’s release from a decade of incarceration

What is your excitement level, 1 – 10, 10 being the most excited and 1 being the least?

Which artist {s} would like to see him do collaborations with?  Beres?  Damian and Stephen?  Chronixx?  Beenie Man and Bounty?

I hope and prayer is that Buju finds some levels of peace and harmony within and that this harrowing experiences has not darkened his spirit.  I hope is that Buju will shine that light from within as only he has

Buju’s light

Reggae For Life

Single color print on a white tee

$30.00 FREE shipping with code RFLSHIP
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NEWSLETTER ~ Morant Bay Rebellion ~November 2018

11/6/2018

3 Comments

 
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Morant Bay Rebellion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morant_Bay_rebellion

“The Morant Bay rebellion (11 October 1865) began with a protest march to the courthouse by hundreds of people led by preacher Paul Bogle in Morant Bay, Jamaica. Some were armed with sticks and stones. After seven men were shot and killed by the volunteer militia, the protesters attacked and burned the court house and nearby buildings. A total of 25 people died. Over the next two days, peasants rose up across St. Thomas-in-the-East parish and controlled most of the area.
The Jamaicans were protesting injustice and widespread poverty. Most freedmen were prevented from voting by high poll taxes, and their living conditions had worsened following crop damage by floods, cholera and smallpox epidemics, and a long drought. A few days before, when police tried to arrest a man for disrupting a trial, a fight broke out against them by spectators. Officials had issued a warrant for the arrest of preacher Bogle.
Governor Edward John Eyre declared martial law in the area, ordering in troops to hunt down the rebels. They killed many innocent black individuals, including women and children, with an initial death toll of more than 400. Troops arrested more than 300 persons, including Bogle. Many of these were also innocent but were quickly tried and executed under martial law; both men and women were punished by whipping and long sentences. This was the most severe suppression of unrest in the history of the British West Indies.[1] The governor had George William Gordon, a mixed-race representative of the parish in the Assembly, arrested in Kingston and brought back to Morant Bay, where he tried the politician under martial law. Gordon was quickly convicted and executed.
The violent suppression and numerous executions generated a fierce debate in England, with some protesting about the unconstitutional actions of the governor John Eyre, and others praising him for his response to a crisis. The rebellion and its suppression remain controversial, and it is frequently debated by specialists in black and colonial studies.”
 
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
 
Paul Bogle and William Gordon died for freedom.  Not for themselves, but for others

Bogle was a slave.  He learned to read and write and taught “Christianity” to the slaves on the plantation.  Though his own education he realized the madness of the colonizer / oppressor, who still run Jamaica even today and taught humans to stand up for themselves, knowing that the eventual outcome would be his death

That is a hero

Freedom was worth that to him

They hung Bogle and Gordon and hundreds of slaves in order to bring ORDER back to the enslaved

They felt that they had the right to murder Jamaicans then as they do today

Bogle and Gordon fought and died for Jamaicans as did Nanny and Garvey dedicate their lives to fight for and to uplift their own people

Nanny fought hand to hand combat with the Spaniards as well as the British risking her life for her people

Sam Sharpe fought and died for Jamaicans

The white, british colonizer does not have to degrade Jamaicans anymore, they get the government to do that on their behalf, starting with Bustamante who murdered Jamaicans.  He murdered RasTafari

Bustamante is no hero to I man

Only one person within Heroes Circle murdered Jamaicans

Why is he there?

We have been placed on their hamster wheel for generations now

This is a part of the role of Reggae music to speak of these atrocities back from 1865 and continue to shine light on the same abuses every day, every week, month and year since then till this day in 2018

They will always kill

We will always resist the forked tongue speaking, grimy handshakes and back stabbing treaties that put our children and generations in constant harm’s way

To read Wikipedia, it sounds like the murderers were using a onetime solution of rape and murder of another human

Laughable

Same tactics are available and in use today, globally

This paragraph particularly points to that, “The violent suppression and numerous executions generated a fierce debate in England, with some protesting about the unconstitutional actions of the governor John Eyre, and others praising him for his response to a crisis.  The rebellion and its suppression remain controversial, and it is frequently debated by specialists in black and colonial studies”

Fierce debate???? LMFAOOOOOO!!!

This means that most of them thought murdering people for rising up against enslavement, degradation and abuse was absurd and ungrateful

The colonizers were murdering then as they are doing in 2018

RasTafari heed the wise mind of Emperor Haile Selassie I when he wrote about independence,

“Freedom’s price is the sacrifice of the lives of innumerable heroes and in deep realization of this; it becomes the duty of free men everywhere to be prepared for the defence of their freedom”

This is the deep core of how reggae music feels to I man

This memory forms the core of us Jamaicans today I believe

Morant Bay rebellion is today for I and many like I

This is NOT history

It is today and everyday for I and many African people globally
 
Hear it in the music

There are THOUSANDS of reggae tunes and everyone has their favorites yet these stuck out for me
Don’t trust no politician as they have forever sold out the country since “independence”

Jesse Royal ~ Modern Day Judas 
Defiance to european cultures and a focus on a RasTafari livity that some crazy white people today act like they invented veganism

We called it “ital”

RasTafari educated humanity based on what they learned from East Indian cuisine and culture
​
Pete Tosh educating you here with Mystic Man 
A defiance of the european lies in so called “west indian” history is something reggae never shies away from.  Here is the mighty, Burning Spear informing you of the liar, rapist, pillager, “Christopher Columbus” 
“Slavery Days” speaks volumes
Judgment from the fire man Capleton

Rising the ghetto youths out of the slum

Bob Marley ~ Slave Driver 
This is what many of us wish to hear, away from their colonial, murderous Christian teachings and choose who rules us.  Never a white Jesus or any other european deity

Joseph Hill and Culture
​

RasTafari does not seek colonizer rule.  We choose His Majesty, come look pon Jah Pretty Face
Add your song in the comments if you see and feel what I observe
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