music

Haiti Set for Jazz Festival

St Lucia Festival to Celebrate Derek Walcott

Above: Derek Walcott By the Caribbean Journal staff St Lucia’s Folk Research Centre has partnered with the Alliance Francaise to present its annual Music, Storytelling and Poetry Fiesta, which this year will honour Nobel Laureate and St Lucia native Derek …

Airporter: Punta Cana’s Musical Welcome

We’ve set it before. Here at CJ’s Airporter column, we’re big fans of the musical airport welcome. After a long flight, a local band offers travelers to the Caribbean an immediate reminder that they’ve arrived in paradise. It also says that …

Tarrus Riley Talks Reggae

Above: Tarrus Riley (CJ Photo) By Alexander Britell ST KITTS — Global reggae star Tarrus Riley recently wowed the crowds at the St Kitts Music Festival, where CJ was able to catch up with him to talk about the state of …

For One Night, St Kitts Becomes the Caribbean Reggae Capital

Above: Tarrus Riley at the St Kitts Music Festival (all photos by CJ) By Alexander Britell BASSETERRE — For one night, this was the Caribbean’s capital of reggae. After an evening of all kinds of music on Thursday night, St …

10 Music Stars You Can Watch in the Caribbean This Year

The Caribbean is one of the great music exporters in history. But it also manages to attract some great musical talent to come to its many festivals over the course of the year, and 2014 is no different, with high-profile …

Tito Puente Jr, Barrington Levy to Star at Guadeloupe’s Terre de Blues Festival

Above: the Terre de Blues festival in Marie-Galante, Guadeloupe Islands By the Caribbean Journal staff International music stars Tito Puente, Jr and Barrington Levy will be among those headlining this year’s Terre de Blues festival on Marie-Galante in the Guadeloupe …

A National Music School in Haiti

Above: the new National Institution of Music in Haiti By the Caribbean Journal staff Haiti has officially opened its newest music school, the “National Institute of Music” in the city of Hinche. Haiti Culture Minister Josette Darguste was on hand …

Caribbean Sound: Anguilla’s Amalia Watty

OUR NEW feature, Caribbean Sound, takes you across the world of Caribbean music, from established musicians to young, up-and-coming voices. We start off with a conversation with a new artist from Anguilla, Amalia Watty, one of the island’s hottest new …

Taking Jamaican Dancehall to the World

By Marcia Forbes, PhDCJ Contributor Turning 30 – A Time for Reflection IT’S the end of 2013. Everyone’s busy making plans for 2014. I’m sitting in office on New Year’s Eve feeling more than a tinge of excitement. 2013 was …

The Best Caribbean Nightlife Destinations

The sun has set, dinner’s over and the clock strikes 10 o’clock. In much of the Caribbean, that likely means it’s time for a quiet drink or simply time for bed. In some parts of the Caribbean, though, the night …

In Dominica, the Art of the Festival

Above: Dominica’s World Creole Music Festival By the Caribbean Journal staff The air is cool and fresh, the sun is bright and the music never stops. This is Dominica, which, in a short amount of time, has become of the …

In Dominica, a New Look at Creole

Above: Dominica (CJ Photo) By the Caribbean Journal staff Next month, Dominica will be celebrating its annual World Creole Music Festival — one of the region’s major music festivals. When the festival was first established in 1997, the aim was …

Eddie Murphy Releases Reggae Song With Snoop Lion

Above: Eddie Murphy By the Caribbean Journal staff Reggae may have begun in Jamaica, but it’s now in almost every country in the world, including Zamunda: star actor and comedian Eddie Murphy has gotten into reggae. The star of films …

Five Great Mento Songs to Start Your Tuesday With

Above: The Jolly Boys It’s one of the original forms of Jamaican folk music — and Mento still remains on the music scene today. Usually comprising a small band featuring a guitar, a rhumba box, drums and a banjo, Jamaican …

Haiti’s Belo Releases New Video

Above: Belo (CJ Photo) By the Caribbean Journal staff Haitian singer Belo has released a new music video, “Banm Nouvel Ou.” The video, which was officially launched on Thursday, examines the the “lack of support of female musicians” and their …

Cap Cana’s Bohemian Corner

Above: Juanillo Beach (all photos by CJ) By Alexander Britell PUNTA CANA — The Punta Cana region is the Dominican Republic’s tourism engine — an amalgam of all-inclusive resorts and exclusive accommodations. Toward the south on the Dominican Republic’s coast …

Haiti’s Belo Releases New Single

Above: Belo (CJ Photo) By the Caribbean Journal staff Haitian singer Belo has officially released his new single, Banm Nouvel Ou (“Let me hear from you”). The release marks something of a shift from Belo’s traditionally laid=back style, and edges …

Forbes: Jamaicanisms “Germanized” by VW – How Cool is That?

Above: Volkswagen’s Super Bowl ad (Photo: VW) By Marcia Forbes, PhDCJ Contributor Keeping Abreast via Tweets I NOTICED excited tweets about Jimmy Cliff’s music being featured in a Volkswagen (VW) ad for Super Bowl 2013. Tweeps seemed genuinely impressed …