Canadian Reggae Summit Sets Stage for Success
By Ryan B. Patrick
Pride Entertainment Writer
February 15 2006
Typically the spot for African History Month festivities, two weekends ago saw the Harbourfront Centre host the 2006 Canadian Reggae Summit.
As part of Harbourfront’s Kuumba Festival, the event was a chance for the Who’s Who in the Canadian reggae music industry to network, listen to artist demos, and impart wisdom on how to make it in the often-tough music business.
The objective of the summit, according to co-sponsor Canadian Reggae World, was to bring together artists, producers, concert promoters, musicians, DJs, managers, radio personalities, radio stations, and all reggae-related businesses, into one room, to encourage, promote and achieve liaisons and networking opportunities.
Those in attendance included local artists such as Jah Beng, King Ujah and Sonia Collymore, along with community radio personalities Jahmin (King Turbo) and Patrick Roots of CIUT 89.5 FM; Natty B and Carrie Mullings of CHRY 105.5 FM; Tony Barnes and DJ Chocolate of CKLN 88.1 FM..
The event featured a “demo derby”, where the panel of radio personalities listened to local artist demos and critiqued them, based on presentation, production quality and overall suitability for radio.
One panel of note centered around how emerging artists could improve their “concert readiness” and on how to improve the odds of getting record distribution.
Hosted by local dub poet Michael St. George, the panelists included Denise Jones of concert promotions firm Jones & Jones Productions Ltd.,; Frank Willison, president of record distribution company, Nuff Entertainment; and Alain P. Arthur, executive producer of the popular television show, “Caribbean Vibrations”.
Homegrown Canadian reggae is as good as anything out there right now, Jones offered. The issue is, and has always been about how artists present themselves.
Nowadays, getting record distribution is a relatively easy task, quipped Nuff Entertainment’s Willison. But it’s not about just having a finished a CD and more about the hustle, he noted.
The trick is in not only getting the product inside the store, but around effective marketing to move units.
“To get music in the stores, such as HMV, aren’t as receptive to new product as in the past, particularly when it comes to untested Canadian material. It’s often a hard sell and even harder to compete with American artists, he added.
Once you have a viable product, “the [music] video is the selling tool”, Arthur said, adding that “Caribbean Vibrations” is always looking for new music videos to play on the show.
He suggested that artists seek funding from the usual suspects, such as VideoFact (a funding agency for Canadian artists), and, even if artists get turned down, he reminded them to always remember there are alternatives, even if it means funding the project out of pocket.
“Presentation is important,” Jones said. “It’s called the music business…You’re only as good as your last performance.”
Maintaining a professional business attitude is key to success, Jones added, saying artists must be willing to make short-term sacrifices for long-term gain – eg. performing as many shows as possible, even the ones that don’t pay well – because it’s all about exposure.
“Approach the industry as a career,” Jones offered.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
COBA: Set to Blow People’s Minds
COBA: Set to Blow People’s Minds
By Ryan B. Patrick
Pride Entertainment Writer
Feb. 8, 2006
When co-founder of the Collective of Black Artists (COBA), BaKari E. Lindsey, first arrived in Toronto, eighteen years ago, he soon discovered the general public held steadfast to highly-romanticized notions of what African and Caribbean folk culture is all about.
There was the misconception that African and Caribbean dance had only to involve the traditional costumes, and anything outside of that was modern, or fusion.
“So many people think that the Caribbean is just straw hats and a drink with an umbrella,” says the Trinidadian-born Lindsey. “But they didn’t even get the original, so how would they know it’s fusion…There was this huge confusion about what our culture really is.”
Thus, COBA was born. Originally founded in 1993, by Lindsey, Junia Mason, Charmaine Headley and Mosa Neshama, the Collective was determined to fill a cultural void on Toronto’s arts scene and create a platform for dance creations that reflected Afro-heritage and social realities.
From the beginning, the quartet championed arts education, and developed, with educators in Ontario and New York State, to launch a school touring program with an African History theme.
With current co-artistic directors Lindsay and Headley, the group’s immediate mandate, Lindsey says, is to preserve the cultural traditions of Africa and the African Diaspora, through education, research and public performance – to let people see what the possibilities are for African and Caribbean folkdance.
COBA has toured Canada, the United States and Trinidad and Tobago, garnering critical acclaim for its genuine presentation of traditional African and Caribbean dance. The group has also commissioned works from world-renowned Africanist choreographers, including Senegalese griot Alassane Sarr; Jeanguy Saintus from Haiti; and internationally-acclaimed soloist Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe.
The group, now in its 13th mainstage season, has developed a highly spirited repertoire of traditional African, Caribbean and contemporary works for mainstage audiences. Every year, the group has presented a new work. This year, the group decided, was a time to reflect.
The latest show, “Deekali: Roots Relived” is a “greatest hits” of sorts, a representation of four signature past performances – Kumina, Domba-Go, Bodika and DjembeFola – that Lindsey says audiences were requesting to see again.
“Deekali” means “to revive” in the Senegalese Wollof dialect. The show’s imagery is based on the Akan symbol of the mythical bird– Sankofa – that flies forward with its head looking backward, reflecting the truism that knowing your past is the key to your future.
The show’s fusion of West African, Jamaican and contemporary dances reveals a certain commonality, a connecting historical thread within the African Diaspora.
“We decided to take some time to rejuvenate, to look at the body of work that we have done, over the years, and figure out where we are going to go from here,” Lindsey says.
The Collective has been an instrumental force in the evolution of the Toronto arts and culture scene, and has created for itself a place in the Toronto dance community, through its annual African History Month school-touring programs and student matinees.
“We’ve been charting our own waters,” Lindsey notes. “We have stuck firmly to our mandate of presenting traditional West African dance, Caribbean traditional folk and contemporary dance, as influenced by either of those two particular aesthetics.”
COBA has also made a significant contribution to Canadian dance ideology, in recent years, through the development and teaching of A-Feeree, the physical language.
Based on Lindsay’s ethnographic research, and taught exclusively at COBA’s performing arts school in Toronto, A-Feeree is a training method that assists dancers in navigating the physical aesthetics of African and African Diasporic dances. The method is gaining international recognition, Lindsey says.
While there is still much work to be done, Lindsey says the Toronto arts scene has changed for the better. It’s good that it’s evolved past the time where a group such as COBA would have been relegated to the fringes, he notes. But Lindsey welcomes more support, particularly from the African Canadian community.
“Now I would say that 90 percent of Toronto is culturally based,” Lindsay says. “People are challenging the stereotypes and notions of what the culture represents.” COBA itself is a prominent organization, with its own studio offering full-time dance instruction. While the company is committed to an African-centric voice, it welcomes all cultures to learn and dance.
“As long as you are willing to speak with that voice, you can dance with us,” Lindsey says, adding, the company exists for a bigger reason than just teaching people how to dance. “We just want to be positive role models for youth.”
It is also about learning the traditions to understand the cultural perspective. “It’s observing the social context in which movement exists and how that relates to dance.”
There’s this notion that culture and folk dance cannot aspire to be a higher art form because it is rooted in the past, Lindsey says.
The artistic director responds, “We can take our tradition and, once you know that tradition well enough, you can manipulate that tradition to create works that are so rooted in the present that it blows people’s minds.”
“Deekali: Roots Relived” takes place February 16 to 19, at the Betty Oliphant Theatre, at 404 Jarvis St. For more information, call (416) 658 3111, or visit www.cobainc.com.
By Ryan B. Patrick
Pride Entertainment Writer
Feb. 8, 2006
When co-founder of the Collective of Black Artists (COBA), BaKari E. Lindsey, first arrived in Toronto, eighteen years ago, he soon discovered the general public held steadfast to highly-romanticized notions of what African and Caribbean folk culture is all about.
There was the misconception that African and Caribbean dance had only to involve the traditional costumes, and anything outside of that was modern, or fusion.
“So many people think that the Caribbean is just straw hats and a drink with an umbrella,” says the Trinidadian-born Lindsey. “But they didn’t even get the original, so how would they know it’s fusion…There was this huge confusion about what our culture really is.”
Thus, COBA was born. Originally founded in 1993, by Lindsey, Junia Mason, Charmaine Headley and Mosa Neshama, the Collective was determined to fill a cultural void on Toronto’s arts scene and create a platform for dance creations that reflected Afro-heritage and social realities.
From the beginning, the quartet championed arts education, and developed, with educators in Ontario and New York State, to launch a school touring program with an African History theme.
With current co-artistic directors Lindsay and Headley, the group’s immediate mandate, Lindsey says, is to preserve the cultural traditions of Africa and the African Diaspora, through education, research and public performance – to let people see what the possibilities are for African and Caribbean folkdance.
COBA has toured Canada, the United States and Trinidad and Tobago, garnering critical acclaim for its genuine presentation of traditional African and Caribbean dance. The group has also commissioned works from world-renowned Africanist choreographers, including Senegalese griot Alassane Sarr; Jeanguy Saintus from Haiti; and internationally-acclaimed soloist Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe.
The group, now in its 13th mainstage season, has developed a highly spirited repertoire of traditional African, Caribbean and contemporary works for mainstage audiences. Every year, the group has presented a new work. This year, the group decided, was a time to reflect.
The latest show, “Deekali: Roots Relived” is a “greatest hits” of sorts, a representation of four signature past performances – Kumina, Domba-Go, Bodika and DjembeFola – that Lindsey says audiences were requesting to see again.
“Deekali” means “to revive” in the Senegalese Wollof dialect. The show’s imagery is based on the Akan symbol of the mythical bird– Sankofa – that flies forward with its head looking backward, reflecting the truism that knowing your past is the key to your future.
The show’s fusion of West African, Jamaican and contemporary dances reveals a certain commonality, a connecting historical thread within the African Diaspora.
“We decided to take some time to rejuvenate, to look at the body of work that we have done, over the years, and figure out where we are going to go from here,” Lindsey says.
The Collective has been an instrumental force in the evolution of the Toronto arts and culture scene, and has created for itself a place in the Toronto dance community, through its annual African History Month school-touring programs and student matinees.
“We’ve been charting our own waters,” Lindsey notes. “We have stuck firmly to our mandate of presenting traditional West African dance, Caribbean traditional folk and contemporary dance, as influenced by either of those two particular aesthetics.”
COBA has also made a significant contribution to Canadian dance ideology, in recent years, through the development and teaching of A-Feeree, the physical language.
Based on Lindsay’s ethnographic research, and taught exclusively at COBA’s performing arts school in Toronto, A-Feeree is a training method that assists dancers in navigating the physical aesthetics of African and African Diasporic dances. The method is gaining international recognition, Lindsey says.
While there is still much work to be done, Lindsey says the Toronto arts scene has changed for the better. It’s good that it’s evolved past the time where a group such as COBA would have been relegated to the fringes, he notes. But Lindsey welcomes more support, particularly from the African Canadian community.
“Now I would say that 90 percent of Toronto is culturally based,” Lindsay says. “People are challenging the stereotypes and notions of what the culture represents.” COBA itself is a prominent organization, with its own studio offering full-time dance instruction. While the company is committed to an African-centric voice, it welcomes all cultures to learn and dance.
“As long as you are willing to speak with that voice, you can dance with us,” Lindsey says, adding, the company exists for a bigger reason than just teaching people how to dance. “We just want to be positive role models for youth.”
It is also about learning the traditions to understand the cultural perspective. “It’s observing the social context in which movement exists and how that relates to dance.”
There’s this notion that culture and folk dance cannot aspire to be a higher art form because it is rooted in the past, Lindsey says.
The artistic director responds, “We can take our tradition and, once you know that tradition well enough, you can manipulate that tradition to create works that are so rooted in the present that it blows people’s minds.”
“Deekali: Roots Relived” takes place February 16 to 19, at the Betty Oliphant Theatre, at 404 Jarvis St. For more information, call (416) 658 3111, or visit www.cobainc.com.
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