Roots of Music

I had no idea what to expect last night when we headed out to attend the second annual  "American Roots of Jamaican Music" at Pompano Beach, but I should have known it would be excellent, since it was my cousin, the outstanding musician Barry Smith (aka Colin,) leader/founder of the great Tallawah mento band who told me about it.

It delivered beyond my wildest dreams however, not only because of the entertaining musical journey we were taken on by the energetic band, dancers and singers as they delivered memorable pieces from mento, ska, rocksteady and reggae, but also the entire night (almost five wonderful hours) were extremely educational.


Reality is that a number of us Jamaican modern-day chauvinists, often boast how American hip-hop evolved from our own dancehall music and the age-old culture of toasting at parties but have never stopped to appreciate how we too picked up so much from American greats. So when the outstanding Musician/ MC/ Arranger/Producer Eugene Grey led his band through some of the pieces from some of the American musicians from the 40's and 50's like Louis Jordan, Fats Domino etc  while simultaneously explaining how they influenced local musicians experimenting with various genres as they sought a unique sound of their own, it was a real eye-opener. ( This was during the "olden days" when  the only music Jamaicans heard came from radio !)

What I  especially appreciated last night too was how many often invisible Jamaica pioneers were recognized. These included old timers like persons like Lord Flea, Harry Belafonte and Count Lasha, for god knows many of us who revel in Jamaican music have never heard of some of these people except maybe Belafonte, who is internationally acclaimed.

There are also many outstanding musicians behind the scenes in small bands and even well-known early bands like Roland Alphonso's, Kes Chin and the Souvenirs, Carlos Malcolm, the Skatallites etc who deserve special recognition, but few of us even knew their names.  So when the  Music Excellence Awards were presented to persons like Lord Creator, Billy Vernon, Bobby Aitken, Fred Campbell, Trevor Lopez, or their representatives,  it was exposing some of us for the first time about their contributions to our great music genres.

Eugene Grey's band and dancers in action

Yes, for years we in Jamaica and the international community have known and regaled super-stars like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Shaggy etc but unfortunately until now, too little has been done to recognize most of the musical pioneers who paved the way and opened the doors for them.

After that presentation, I have nothing but praise for the organizer Eugene Grey, while admitting that he too was one of the greats I had never heard of before last night. For like so many others, he remained buried in the background of bands that brought us great music. I even learned that he played in and composed music for bands touring the world while backing many of my favorites like Toots and the Maytals, Culture, Joseph Hill, Sabrina Williams and he was even part of Jamaica's best dance band, Fab 5!

The outstanding musician Eugene Grey

I now salute him for his contribution over almost fifty years of bringing Jamaican music to the fore and now, with an equally dedicated team, conceptualizing the Amerian Roots of Jamaican music.

Even more commendable, we learned that the proceedings from that most entertaining night were not for profit but to assist underserved youth.

Big up the Rootz of Music for their vision and performance which so enthralled me that I had to exhort my cousin, Barry, to book me a ticket for next year's event!

Toronto Islands and all that

Beautiful Casa Loma, always a sight for sore eyes

Entrance to the Distillery

Traveling and touring are my passions so whenever I go to a new city, the first thing I do is to check out if they have hop on hop off buses. These I have found, give you a great insight into the city but some tour guides tend to be flippant, so before you report anything they say as a fact, it helps to verify.

I was reminded of this when one tour guide, in an effort to boast about the high tolerance Canadians have to integration, (no doubt in an effort to tactfully criticize their neighbor which seems to be vocally intolerant of immigrants of color these days) declared that Mandarin is the most widely spoken language after English. He even reinforced this by asking passengers beforehand what they thought the answer was and most had correctly shouted French, but he said this was not so. 

One of the man-made lakes on Centre Island

Well, their information is totally incorrect as whereas in some provinces you do see an abundance of Chinese people,  some 20 % of the Canadian population have French as their mother tongue as opposed to only a little over 650,000 persons who have Mandarin. The question he should have posed therefore was  'what is the most widely spoken language after the two official languages, French and English?' 

Until recently too, I have always had 100%  satisfaction from these tours, however, unfortunately, on my recent trip to Toronto, a badly trained guide marred their reputation somewhat.

 I had told her I wished to get off at the Distillery to which she replied, "That's stop 16."

Royal Ontario Museum

Shortly after, I heard an announcement; "We are at stop 17."

When I went to her, would you believe she never apologized for not stopping where I wished to get off until I raised my voice in disgust?

View from the scenic Scarborough Bluff

 After an eventual reluctant apology, she then indicated that I could return to that particular venue by walking a few blocks north.

Stupidly I took her advice but after walking a few blocks and seeing no sign of a distillery, went back to another hop on hop off stop. When the next bus arrived, I asked for the distillery and was informed it was stop 20!

(For the  benefit of those who are not familiar with the Distillery, this is an interesting 19th-century district close to the famous St. Lawrence Market, which has been beautifully restored and boasts attractively restored buildings, excellent restaurants, galleries, bakeries etc.)

Lots for kids to do on Centre Island

 After that, I did get dropped at the correct place and the reputation of the tour company was minimally restored.

Anyway, after doubling back to the comprehensive tour on the bus and visiting attractions of interest to me, I returned to a place which brought back amusing memories, Centre Island and the harbor downtown on the large Lake Ontario.

I love water so much that I think I was a fish or mermaid in my past life.

Centre Island is one of the cays in the Toronto Island Park. These are around fifteen minutes away by boat from the Harbor Front. The ferries also run approximately every 15 minutes from the pier.

One of the reliable ferries

These luxuriant cays which play an important role in bird life and preserving a healthy environment in general for Canadians, include Centre Island which is joined by a bridge to Ward island and is near to Hanlan island which has residences and an airport.

Pier at Centre Island

I have a special attachment to Centre Island as when I lived in Canada decades ago, I visited that island to view the popular Caribana parade and we rented a canoe there, only to capsize in one of the man-made lakes.

Centre Island remains today a favorite among families as it has numerous rides for kids and remains a peaceful, clean, scenic place to visit.

Despite the modernization of  the Victorian Toronto which I knew, I was still shocked to discover that on Ward island which has the best
beaches, clothes are now optional!


Yup, for me Toronto is now quite an attractive, interesting and fun place to visit, but only in the summer.

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Toronto Swings

With one swinging cousin

Many years ago when I lived in Toronto, Canada, I thought it was the most boring city in the world with terrible weather to boot.

Well, I am here to tell you that whereas the weather has not improved, that city now swings.

And the other

That is a new discovery of mine, for while I have visited my former country of residence many times since leaving for good, I have never really gotten to know the city itself too much.

This time I visited to attend a small family reunion and two of my swinging cousins, went out of their way to ensure that I would never use the word boring in reference to their city ever again and I enjoyed every minute, taking in the transition.

View of downtown Toronto from Lake Ontario

To begin with, while my information is that the development of the now trendy harbor front on the shores of the huge Lake Ontario, began from the 70's, it wasn't until the 90's that it really came into its own. Today, attractive street cars transport numerous visitors to that zone to take in the restaurants, bars, scenery and the wide variety of free weekend concerts.

I attended one exceptionally entertaining event put on during African week. This was a performance by Gambian entertainer Sona Jobarteh.

 While there was no doubt about her exceptional talent as she led the band through a melange of pulsating traditional African music, this performance spurred me to go on online to learn more about her.

According to her webpage, she ; "is the first female Kora virtuoso to come from a prestigious west African Griot family. (traveling musicians) Breaking away from tradition, she is a modern-day pioneer in an ancient, male-dominated hereditary tradition that has been exclusively handed down from father to son for the past seven centuries."

Traditional costumed Greek performers at Danforth

(A kora is a Mandinka harp built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin to make a resonator with a long hardwood neck. The skin is supported by two handles that run under it. It supports a notched double free-standing bridge. It doesn't fit into any one category of musical instruments, but rather several, and must be classified as a "double-bridge-harp-lute". The strings run in two divided ranks, making it a double harp.)

Her performance was absolutely mind-boggling and while we did enjoy other music sessions on the Harbour, hers just had to get special mention.

Another swinging setting was at Taste of Danforth which is in its 25th year and dubbed "Danforth Strong."

 This is because this year was extra-special, as it marked the determination of Canadians to take back the streets of Danforth after two people were killed and 13 others were injured after a crazed man with a handgun opened fire on a bustling avenue in  July.

To support the taking back of the streets, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited the area on the opening night, Friday 10th August, even mingling with the crowd and taking photos with random people. 

We were actually there and although we stopped briefly to listen to the speakers, did not recognize him as we were too far away.

While there too, I saw a long line of people waiting patiently to enter a theater and discovered that they were waiting to get in to see the performance of one of my favorite artists, Toots of Toots and the Maytals fame. What was especially heartening was not only the crowd he was drawing but also the fact that he had recovered sufficiently to put on a performance. For some years ago, maybe 5 years, he had been attacked and injured during a performance in the USA by a drunk fan. I saw him some months later at the my dentists and to my horror, he revealed then that his doctors were not sure he would ever be able to perform again.

I was therefore enthralled that he had and was still drawing mammoth crowds.

Danforth is famous for its street entertainment and Greek food and they did not disappoint, so we even went back on following Sunday to taste even more of Danforth before heading north to the scenic, peaceful Wilcock Lake in Richmond Hill with its creative metal sculptures, to hang out with my young relatives.

Scenic, peaceful Lake Wilcox

Yup, the overall weather in Toronto may not have improved, however happily, during the week I was there, it was great summer weather, and now I am here to say, Toronto now swings.

Family Time

One of the bands at Caribana 2018

For years, I envied my ex husband, as he had such a large family and although I became extremely close to all of them and remained so even after the divorce, somehow not having my own large family still left me feeling a bit isolated. You see, I have only one brother and two cousins who grew up with me but each time we got together, we seemed so few as opposed to his family.

A section of the Caribana parade 2018

Well I am now discovering that it is not that I have a small family, my problem is I just never knew many of them!

The largest unknown segment of my family is from my paternal grandfather's side. I had met him only once and was dead scared of him as he was blind so wore dark glasses. I had never before seen anyone in dark glasses. Besides, he had a large grey beard so to me, a young kid of probably six years old in the days before television was invented thus exposing us to different looking folks, that was a very scary picture! I remember running away from him on that occasion, although his wife, my grandmother was my greatest hero.

 I guess it was because I never knew him why I never knew anything about his family either and never considered asking. It is only recently that I discovered he was one of 14 children and their descendants are spread out throughout the world.

Some of my Cuban kin

I therefore was most excited to meet a cousin from Canada who had a wealth of  information about that side of the family.

First, I learnt that I had cousins in Cuba and having traveled there three times already from my home in Jamaica which is only 90 miles away, had no problem jumping on a plane to find them in 2014.

It was a great pleasure meeting them and learning a bit about their family.

Our relationship stems from their late matriarch who was a sister to that grandfather. 

In the early 1900's, numerous Jamaicans migrated to Cuba in search of employment as then that country then had a thriving economy. That grandaunt of mine was among those who migrated there, she got married, had three daughters and she ended up seeing eleven grandchildren before she died at age one hundred and seven.

I was extremely happy to make a

Some of us bonded immediately

link with those descendants and am now in regular communication with the eldest who is the only one who speaks English. She has always said her greatest dream is to visit Jamaica, the country of her ancestors.

More link-up was to come as the same Canadian cousin who is my source of information, told me she was arranging a small reunion of some relatives who live there plus sisters who live in Seattle, Washington.

She was smart enough to arrange the reunion to coincide with Caribana. We had a lovely get- together at the Event's room at her condo and got to know all about each other and some of our late relatives all over the world.

Get together in Toronto

I bonded immediately with most of my newly met family and some of us toured together, first at Caribana and also on a boat tour of the harbor front of the vast, busy Lake Ontario.

Caribana is a cultural festival of Caribbean people and traditions which has been held each summer since the late sixties, in the city of Toronto. 

This has been billed as North America's largest street festival and it is frequented by over 2 million visitors each year. It was first held on Centre Island, one of the Toronto islands, but quickly outgrew that venue so was transferred to the streets of Exhibition Place and Lakeshore Blvd. downtown. 

The man-made lake on Centre Island in which we overturned 

When l lived in Canada many decades ago, I remember attending the carnival at Centre island and vividly recall renting a canoe and overturning, spilling all our belongings including even a radio which never played again.

I was therefore happy that I could go to the family reunion and take in the carnival at the new venue, along with the Seattle based sisters who spent a few more days in Toronto.

We all had a wonderful time there viewing the costumes and tasting the various foods and in general, just hanging out.

I must admit that each time I meet new members of the family, it certainly brings me a great sense of belonging and I look forward to many such events in the future.

An Inuit sculpture on Lakeshore Blvd.