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20 LIVE Performances
Onstage! The best of Caribbean music is celebrated in this annual awards
show celebrating Reggae and Soca Music. The ceremony will award top honors
in 32 categories including vocalists, D.J.'s, producers, albums, songs,
recording labels, Lifetime Achievement, Living Legend and Tribute. (PART
4 - FINAL SEGMENT)
Winston
Barnes got the title for best
local DJ and that award was followed by Beenie
Man taking the Male DJ
of The Year Award. The man later to crowned as Soca
Male Artist of the Year, Kevin Little was out next
to perform Turn Me On which won as Soca Song of the Year. Kevin is a class act
and a dynamic performer – he had the several thousand person crowd filling the
Broward Center of the Performing Arts on their feet and dancing in the aisles.
Winsome “Lady C” Charlton,
CEO and founder of The Reggae Soca Music Awards, was invited to the stage to say
a few words of thanks to all of the artists and staff who contributed to make
The 10th Annual Reggae Soca Music Awards show such a major success. Lady C is a
very high-class lady and her Hi-Class Promotions did a superb job of organizing
and producing this event.
Local radio personality, C-Roy,
was out next to present a Lifetime Achievement
Award to Sonny Bradshaw O.D. Born in Kingston in
1926, Sonny Bradshaw is the former president of the Jamaican Federation of
Musicians, a position he held for 25 years; among other achievements during his
JFM presidential tenure, Bradshaw initiated Jamaica's first music copyright act.
Bradshaw is also a member of the board of the Jamaica School of Music and the
Jamaica Cultural Development Commission and the founder of "The Jamaica
Friends of Jazz," an organization that facilitates radio and television
exposure for Jamaican and international jazz musicians. An accomplished
musician, Bradshaw plays piano, keyboards, trumpet, flugelhorn, clarinet,
trombone and saxophone. He is the founder and leader/musical arranger of The
Jamaica Big Band, which he instituted more than 50 years ago when the music of
dance orchestras modeled after American big bands, playing swing and jazz
(accented with an occasional Cuban rhumba, Trinidadian calypso or Jamaican mento
tune) dominated Kingston nightclubs.
Bradshaw is also a pioneer in popularizing Jamaica's indigenous recorded music
on the island's airwaves. "I did more work on radio for Jamaica popular
music than I did for jazz," Bradshaw explains. "I did a radio program
for five years called Teenage Dance Party that introduced Jamaica's music to
radio, that was in 1958-59 (the genesis of Jamaica's ska era and the island's
recording industry). It was the window for local music at that time. I also
introduced local music charts to radio stations in Jamaica." Bradshaw also
worked as a journalist for many years, his weekly column in the Daily Gleaner
focusing on music news (primarily jazz) and commentary.
Next Lady Saw was
awarded the Female DJ Award and
then we were treated to another musical highlight with a moving performance of “Turn
Your Lights Down Low” by Kymani Marley. Freddie
McGregor followed Kymani on stage to sing a song
from his newest album nominated for Reggae Album of
The Year, “Anything
For You”. Radio personality, John
T next came out to present the award for Reggae
Album of The Year. Other nominees were “Still
Blazing” from Capelton, Virtuous Woman from Warrior King and Kashief Lindo’s
“Love Knows The Way”. And the winner is, Freddie McGregor’s “Anything
For You”.
Two more great performances were up next. First was TLK
performing one of their several current hits and
then out came Beenie Man who
proceeded to tear up the place, pumping the crowd up to an even more feverish
pitch. Beres Hammond was
awarded the Reggae Male Vocalist of the Year which
he followed up with a win for Reggae Song of the
Year, “Rockaway”. Leon from the movie Cool
Runnings (Derice Bannocky) received the awards for Beres. A
tribute to the Blues Busters lead by Mikey
Spice was the next feature, showcasing another
piece of musical history captured wonderfully for this night of musical magic. Sasha
and Sean Paul got the Reggae
Combination Song of the Year with their “Still
In Love”. TLK rounded
this segment out as they returned to the stage to accept the award for Reggae
Group of The Year.
To cap the night off, the crowd was treated to a great musical finale. Richie
Stevens performed a three song set backed by the
ever rockin’ Fab 5 and was followed by Luciano who
performed with just acoustic guitar for a beautiful close to the show before
being joined on stage by most of the assembled artists for a powerful version of
“Redemption Song”.
If you were not there, you missed a truly magical night filled with positive
Vibes and wonderful music. This was a great show by any standard and I hope it
was all captured on video so that maybe some of you that missed it will get a
chance to at least see and listen to some to the highlight of which there were
many. All I can say is, don’t miss it next year!
