Jazz Jamaica
Jazz Jamaica is a London based jazz / reggae music group founded and directed by double bass player Gary Crosby . They have been called "one of the UK's leading 'Good Time' bands" by The Independent .
history
Jazz Jamaica was founded in 1991. Crosby gathered a group of musicians from the fields of jazz and reggae. The band was inspired by the rhythms of traditional Jamaican music and Caribbean music and its improvised character is oriented towards jazz. It plays a fusion of mento , ska , reggae and jazz. The repertoire consists of classical and modern jazz standards as well as Jamaican folk songs and ska and reggae standards.
The band grew more and more over the years. Crosby and his musicians have earned worldwide recognition as representatives of this musical fusion, which is also known as skazz .
In March 1999, Crosby expanded the line-up from Jazz Jamaica to a big band by recruiting a number of guest soloists such as Denys Baptiste , Andy Sheppard , Soweto Kinch , Juliet Roberts , Orphy Robinson , Guy Barker , Dennis Rollins , Kevin Robinson , Ashley Slater , Annie Whitehead and Alex Wilson . That led to the Jazz Jamaica All Stars , a 20-piece band with vocals, five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones and a rhythm section made up of piano, guitar, bass and drums.
In 2002 Jazz Jamaica won the BBC Jazz Awards for Best Band .
In 2004, Jazz Jamaica worked with Hugh Masekela , and a young people's choir, for a concert at the Barbican Center as part of the City of London Festival program for the tenth anniversary of South Africa's democracy.
In 2005 they released Motorcity Roots , an album of covered Motown songs, and toured the UK and Europe.
Discographic notes
- Skaravan (1993; Skazz, reissued by Hannibal)
- Double Barrel (2002, Hannibal)
- Massive (2004, Dune)
- Motorcity Roots (2005, Dune)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Phil Johnson: Jazz Jamaica: Lighten Up !, Bristol Zoo Gardens . In: The Independent . Independent News & Media Limited. August 2007. Archived from the original on June 24, 2009. Retrieved July 8, 2010.
- ^ Alyn Shipton: Biography of Jazz Jamaica All Stars . In: The Times . Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ↑ Stars unite for jazz awards . BBC. July 2002. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ↑ CASE STUDIES: Hugh Masekela, Jazz Jamaica All Stars and Serious . In: visitingarts.org.uk . 2007. Archived from the original on March 2, 2008. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ^ John Fordham : Jazz Jamaica - Jazz Cafe, London . In: The Guardian . Guardian News and Media Limited. October 2005. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ↑ Meeting (Allmusic)